Culture – Liszt Festival 2024: “Raiding is the Champions League”

“It's the Champions League. Anyone who appears here in Raiding is among the best in the world,” says director Johannes Kotterwatz, excited about the 2024 programme. For example, two of the world's best pianists, Kateryna Titova and Claire Huangci, will find their way to Raiding, as do Divinerins and Emsemble Minui with Opera Torches and Radio String Quartet, whose repertoire extends into the electronic range.

“The scope of the program is almost endless,” Kotrwatz says. . The director describes the April Brass Festival as “fireworks of excellence” from The Philharmonic Brass to Wieder and Gansch & Paul to Joseph Hadyn Brass and the original Woodstock musicians.

When you deal with Liszt, you are always dealing with supremacy and the Champions League. We can't and don't want to afford anything cheaper. Johannes Kotterwatz, Director of the Liszt Festival

What will be offered to guests for Liszt's October birthday will not be offered until the spring, because as a result of an audience survey, the decision was made not only to move the start times of the concerts to 6.30pm, but also one programme. Calendar to move to planning the school year. In the future, the actual Liszt Festival will only be held in October on Liszt's birthday. In December, already created family concerts will be held, in March Baroque Jazz Days, in April the Brass Festival and in June the Summer Concerts – as an invitation to the festival site in Burgenland.

Six million euros will flow into the expansion of the Liszt Center and Liszt's birthplace

The concert operation is currently separated from the construction site area by a construction fence, which has been converted into a small art gallery with drawings made by Raiding Primary School children about Franz Liszt. The structural development of the Liszt site is also scheduled to be completed by the start of the 2025 concert season.

According to Managing Director Gerald Juger of Landesimmobilien Burgenland, investments totaling six million euros will create significant added value for the buildings and events over the next fifteen months. This will create an extension with a total area of ​​720 square metres, which will provide additional exhibition space on two levels in relation to Liszt's birthplace, as well as space for lectures or workshops accompanying the program and storage rooms. There will also be a catering area, a spacious orchestra dressing room, a back office area and more sanitary facilities.

“The entire region will benefit from the expansion of the Liszt center both economically and touristically,” says Heinrich Dorner, Chancellor of the Central State of Burgenland.

Meanwhile, Liszt's birthplace itself is being renovated and the exterior areas are being redesigned. “The original paintings were found in the Liszthaus, which are being uncovered and reconstructed,” says state governor and cultural official Hans-Peter Doskozil, stressing: “With the current renovation and structural expansion, the future of the Liszt Center and a new era for the Liszt Festival begins now.”

The new museum concept was created

Due to the more spacious exhibition space, this will also be launched with a new museum concept designed by Theresia Gabriele. The concept is already ready and tender for the design is underway. The decision will be made on 6/7. February by an international advisory board, which will be chaired by Franz Liszt's granddaughter.

A total of thirty events await visitors in 2024, including some special events such as the 40th anniversary of the Kotterwatz piano duo as part of a concert on 8 June. “The number of concerts has tripled between 2006 and the number of visitors has doubled. In 2023 there were 9,523 guests. We have reached the 10,000 mark,” says commercial director Thomas Mersich, who speaks of a usage rate of about 70 percent.