Chronicle

Gerd Nachbauer founds the »Mozartgemeinde Vorarlberg« with the aim of establishing an annual concert series focussing on Mozart’s works and taking place in Hohenems Palace’s unheated Rittersaal and courtyard, as well as in the Parish Church of St. Charles. Due to financial considerations, the first concert has to be postponed for a year. Hermann Prey is one of the artists invited to participate in the series.

While preparing a lieder recital to be given in Hohenems in 1975, Prey’s secretary Christian Lange writes to Nachbauer that this concert could be seen as a test for a large-scale project closely linked with the names of both Prey and Schubert. Visiting Hohenems, Lange works out a programme proposal with Nachbauer for the 1st Schubertiade. Prey accedes to the plans, which provide for 1976 and 1977 as introductory years, and aim at 1978 as the starting point of a long-term concert cycle, in the course of which Schubert’s complete oeuvre should be performed in chronological order.

The Rittersaal is renovated and equipped with a heating   On the day before the first Schubertiade concert, a Lieder recital on May 8 accompanied by Leonard Hokanson, Prey unveils a memorial tablet at Salomon Sulzer’s birthplace.

The British journalist Bernard Levin for the first time writes about the Schubertiade in the London Times.

Prey appears at the Schubertiade for the last time.

On May 8, the New York Times publishes a preview of all important 1983 festivals, in the course of which Bernard Levin describes the Schubertiade as the purest and possibly most ideal of all music festivals   Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Nikolaus Harnoncourt make their debut appearances at the Schubertiade.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau gives four lieder recitals at the Montforthaus in Feldkirch, which subsequently becomes a regular Schubertiade venue.

Lord Lichfield’s »Courvoisier’s Book of the Best«, published in London, ranks the Schubertiade fifth among the 10 leading music festivals in the world (behind Bayreuth, Salzburg, Glyndebourne and Spoleto).

The Schubertiade being faced with the prospect of having to scale down its programme dramatically due to the renovation of Hohenems Palace on the occasion of a regional exhibition, the decision is made to entirely move the festival to Feldkirch. Since the town of Hohenems is unable to guarantee the Palace’s availability in the following years, the relocation becomes permanent.

The Schubertiade programme includes all works based on texts by Goethe.

By means of different improvements, the Angelika-Kauffmann-Hall is turned into an excellent chamber music venue.

Complementing the »Schubert 200« exhibition, concerts are held at the Lindau Theatre, which remains a Schubertiade venue until 1999.

With orchestra concerts taking place in the Hotel Post’s spacious hall, Schwarzenberg becomes the exclusive Schubertiade location, the extended and thoroughly refurbished Angelika Kauffmann Hall providing a chamber music venue leaving nothing to be desired.

A severe flood destroys all concert equipment at the Hotel Post in Bezau   On October 6, the refurbished Markus Sittikus Hall is opened by the Mittleres Rheintal Youth Orchestra   On December 8, Peter Schreier ends his career as one of the world’s most famous Lieder singers with his 75th Schubertiade appearance. On the following day, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s 90th birthday is celebrated at the Markus Sittikus Hall with a recital given by Matthias Goerne in the presence of the legendary soprano.

The Schubertiade opens the Franz Schubert Museum in Hohenems in a former vicarage which dates back to the days of Schubert’s birth. Later the same year, the range of Hohenems’s museums was further expanded by the Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Museum, which is located on the ground floor at Villa Rosenthal and displays valuable photographs, letters and documents from the estate of the great soprano and her husband, the British record producer Walter Legge.

The »Referenzen« series enables young musicians from the region and pupils of renowned Schubertiade artists to make their debut at Hohenems' Markus Sittikus Hall   The Cuarteto Casals plays all of Schubert's string quartets in Schwarzenberg.

Sir András Schiff and his Cappella Andrea Barca perform all Schubert symphonies at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg. At the Legge Museum, a room is dedicated to the subject »Stefan Zweig and the Music Life of his time«. (The famous author's maternal grandfather used to co-own and live in the building at Marktstraße 5.)

The Schubertiade Museum, newly opened in a house at Marktstraße 15 which was built in 1659, sheds light on the different ways in which Schubert and his oeuvre were received and cared for after his death, referring to the Schubertiade’s history on various occasions. The small Nibelungen Museum, located in the building where Vorarlberg’s first book was printed 400 years ago, reminds visitors of the far-reaching rediscovery of the »Nibelungenlied« in Hohenems.

Due to Covid-19 and the resulting restrictions ordered by the Austrian government, all Schubertiade concerts in Hohenems (April 29-May 3, June 4-7, and October 1-6) and in Schwarzenberg (June 20-28 and August 22-30) have to be cancelled. Only in July, seven concerts at the Markus Sittikus Hall in Hohenems can take place: two chamber concerts and the five lieder recitals forming the series »New Voices«.

For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, all concerts of the season can take place as announced and without restrictions. In Hohenems and Schwarzenberg, all the song opus numbers compiled by Schubert himself are performed in the original order. The Quatuor Modigliani plays Schubert's complete string quartets.