A personal concert ritual for you

"Chamber Music Plus 2025" means musical festivities, wedding tributes, funeral music, ecstatic dances, harmonious prayers, special composing rituals, hymns and homages, sorcery and alchemy - all packed into less than two weeks. The rituals that Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson has packed into this year's programmes are almost dizzying. And not only that. The highly passionate chamber musician and creative programme designer has also succeeded in creating a cabinet piece of a special kind, but more on that later.

Musikdorf chamber music family
Over the course of two weeks, there will be six extremely varied chamber music concerts, one jazz concert and two orchestral concerts. To make this possible, Alasdair Beatson brings together a carefully selected group of musicians in Ernen. Many of them have been coming for years and experience a familiarity and euphoria here that they can't find anywhere else. You can hear it whispered through the streets of Ernen that the Musikdorf really is the very best festival around. The loving atmosphere combined with the very highest level of music is unique.

This is hardly surprising, as a glance at the participating musicians shows the quality we are talking about here: Polish violinist Maria Włoszczowska, for example. She was recently appointed concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe - truly an elite ensemble. Or the violinists Daniel Bard and Bogdan Božović, who (like Włoszczowska) are travelling throughout Europe to lead their chamber orchestras from the concertmaster's podium without a conductor, from Norway to Hamburg, Basel, Winterthur and Budapest.

It's the mixture that matters!
In the orchestral concerts, some perform as soloists - for example in two piano concertos in the key of A major (Bach and Mozart) or in Max Bruch's touching cello piece "Kol Nidrei". In the chamber concerts, it is a particular pleasure to hear almost all 16 musicians in at least one piece each. Coherence is ensured by the programme concepts, which - creatively and stringently - combine Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven with Romantic gems and contemporary reflections: In the "Hidden Magic" concert, for example, Paul Dukas' “Sorcerer's Apprentice” with Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major (version for string sextet) and the clarinet quintet “Alchymia” by Thomas Adès, which was only composed in 2021. This mixture really turns to gold!

Likewise in the concert "Pilgrimage", in which Schubert's piano variations are combined with James MacMillan's "Kiss on Wood" (1993), a meditation on a liturgical Good Friday chant, framed by Franz Liszt's music from the Sistine Chapel and his vision of the "Vallée d'Obermann". The concert title will be taken literally on Sunday, 10 August, when two pilgrimage concerts will take place during the day in the Ernerwald and Mühlebach chapels.

One is everywhere
The opening concert celebrates four weddings, although not all of them are as visible as that of Figaro and Susanna in Mozart's opera "Le Nozze di Figaro", whose overture opens the concert. Therefore, it is always worth reading the introductory texts to find out how the composer pairs Dvořak / Suk and Franck / Ysaÿe are connected in a hidden way through marriages.

Speaking of hidden: If you look closely at the "Chamber Music Plus" programmes, you will notice that one composer is represented in every concert. Alasdair Beatson has thus created for you an own ritual for the two weeks. Who is it? Well, this much can be revealed: The composer was as much a Catholic as a Freemason and was highly fascinated by their rituals. Today, he is described as a classical rock star, eccentric genius, childlike mystery or art rebel and, as a genuine cult object, is compared with Mick Jagger, Elvis Presley or Britney Spears. In ‘Chamber Music Plus’ he will also wave to you from Rome or Estonia - let us surprise you!

Chamber Music Plus | 3– 15 August 2025 | Chamber music at its finest
6 Chamber Concerts, 2 Orchestra Concerts, 1 Jazz Concert (+ 3 Extra Concerts!)

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Listen to the music: Playlist ‘Chamber Music Plus 2025’ on Spotify

Written in December 2024, by Jonathan Inniger