Editorial by the Artistic Director 2026
Dear audience,
‘The spirit of this music may well help shape the music of the future,’
Prof. Otto Ulf is quoted in the 2013 brochure of the Ambraser Schlosskonzerte.
Back in 1976, when the first ‘Woche der Alten Musik’ was held under his aegis, followed the next year by the "1. Festwoche der Alten Musik", who could have imagined how groundbreaking and enduring this exact spirit would be over the following decades?
One ‘Woche’ turned into ‘Wochen’, a concert series became a festival with everything the heart could desire, and an idea became
a success story that accompanied the development of the Early music scene and played a pioneering role in shaping it.
So when we ask ourselves the question ‘What are we celebrating?’, the answer is obvious and at the same time so broad that it requires a few words:
We celebrate the thousands of artists who have formed, enlivened and influenced the Festwochen over these five decades – the big names, the up-and-coming artists, the regular and rare guests, the great voices and fine instrumentalists, the powerful ensembles and the quiet (sometimes secret) stars. We celebrate with them – in memory and in person. We are delighted to welcome back the two former Artistic Directors – Alessandro De Marchi and René Jacobs – and pay tribute to the great master Alan Curtis.
We celebrate the place where all this can flourish: Innsbruck.
With its unrivalled scenic beauty, its significance in music history often overlooked in the public perception of Austrian cultural history, and a wealth of venues where Early Music can take root in its original sound and blossom into something that makes the Festwochen unique worldwide: a festival dedicated to Early Music in all its diversity and forms of expression.
We celebrate our audience. An audience that has never lost its curiosity over the years, that has grown up with the Festwochen and become well-read in Early music. An audience that is perceived by the artists with gratitude and sometimes almost disbelief for its knowledgeable and open attention. An audience to which, fortunately, new faces are constantly being added, unable to resist the appeal of Early music. To all of them – new and familiar guests alike – we present a festivity in the Hofgarten, an entire Festwochen summer afternoon filled to the brim with music.
We celebrate music, Early music in particular. This peculiar construct, whose archaic terminology deters many people from engaging with it; whose temporal scope is a vague “from – to”, leaving room for interpretation and encompassing some five centuries of music history; whose historical performance practice at the beginning has been a rebellion against the established form of interpretation, and which, almost exactly in time line with the existence of the Festwochen, has moved out of its niche and into the programme consciousness of a broader public.
We celebrate its rhythm, its joy of improvisation, its complexity in execution and accessibility in listening, its emotions, its basso continuo, its da capo arias and its diverse instrumentation.
We celebrate the Innsbrucker Festwochen. Only here at the 50th anniversary Cesti's ‘unperformable’ opera “Il pomo d'oro” can be presented; only here music history, a pinch of musical utopia rooted in the origins of the Festwochen and an unconditional desire for Early music for its own sake come together to create a unique event in the here and now that is not to be missed.
We celebrate! All this and much more – with the programme of the 50th Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik – and hopefully with all of you in Innsbruck in the summer of 2026.
