The 69th edition of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy marks the third and final year of the "Wandel" cycle and is artistically dedicated to the relationship between music, migration and belonging. The topic of migration is one of the greatest global challenges facing our society, alongside climate change, global warfare and the associated consequences. The 2025 program illuminates the topic from four perspectives, because hardly any other art form reflects the tensions of migration between suffering, longing and hope as impressively as music: "Origin": music that is deeply anchored in the homeland and its roots. "Escape to Exile": works that tell of flight and exile. "Inner Emigration": Compositions from times of totalitarian oppression or of people who - forced or voluntarily - flee into their innermost selves and find a path to self-liberation there. "Nostalgia": The expression of a longing for a lost or abandoned homeland, whether voluntary or forced, and the musical processing of a deeply felt sense of homesickness.

Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy 2025, that means ...
Two extraordinary concerts under the title "Music for the Planet", designed by violinist and composer Patricia Kopatchinskaja. With impressive music, texts and images, the concerts focus on the complex aspects of migration and the profound changes in our world. For the first of the two concerts, the music of the "silent rebel" Dmitri Shostakovich meets the pithy, poetic words of the Swiss writer Franz Hohler in an inspiring interplay. In the second program, Patricia Kopatchinskaja undertakes a colourful journey to her "roots in exile": music by Polish composer Andrzej Panufnik is combined with expressive photographs by Marco Borggreve to create a moving homage to life in a foreign country.

Khatia Buniatishvili © Frank Schwichtenberg (GFDL)

The biggest stars of our time: Elīna Garanča and Jonathan Tetelman perform the spectacular Verdi Requiem under Gianandrea Noseda and with an ensemble from the Zurich Opera House. Another vocal highlight: Marina Viotti in an all-Bizet evening, accompanied by Marc Minkowski and his Musiciens du Louvre. Cecilia Bartoli will shine in a joint recital with David Fray. We welcome outstanding pianists, including Daniil Trifonov, Víkingur Ólafsson with Beethoven's last three sonatas, Sir András Schiff - both in a recital and as director of the Gstaad Piano Academy, Gabriela Montero with her own "Latin Concerto" and Khatia Buniatishvili in a solo concert in the Gstaad Festival Tent. Violinist and international star Daniel Hope will perform the festive closing concert of Festival 2025 - a symbolic "handover of the baton".

An opera highlight in concert format: after I puritani in 2021, Norma is another of Bellini's masterpieces on the program. Sonya Yoncheva takes on the title role and is accompanied by the Gstaad Festival Orchestra under the direction of Domingo Hindoyan.

Fazil Say © Fehti Karaduman

Fazıl Say in the spotlight: the Artist in Residence 2025 presents himself in a variety of ways - with a solo recital, in a duo with flautist Aslıhan And against the spectacular backdrop of the Eggli summit and in a quintet. He will play Schubert's "Trout Quintet" as well as his "Immigrant Trio", composed especially for the festival, which will celebrate its world premiere in Saanen.

A festive start with a great choral concert: the 69th edition of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy opens with Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt - performed twice by the Parisian ensemble Les Arts Florissants under the direction of its legendary founder William Christie, who celebrates his 80th birthday on December 19, 2024!

The colorful concerts of the "Menuhin's Heritage Artists", which are becoming more and more established on an international level every year. Nemanja Radulović and his ensemble Double Sens present "classics" such as Vivaldi's "Seasons" and Bach's violin concertos on the summit of the Eggli, before the evening continues with a DJ set and electro beats immediately afterwards. The celebrated violinist Bomsori Kim returns: first for a sonata evening with Kit Armstrong, then in a chamber music collaboration with Fazıl Say. Trumpeter Lucienne Renaudin Vary adds a jazzy touch to her concert in Rougemont.

First-class recitals and chamber concerts in the magnificent churches of the region: soprano Regula Mühlemann presents her new program dedicated to "Songs of the Homeland". The pianists Alexandra Dovgan (with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 accompanied by the Basel Chamber Orchestra) and Yulianna Avdeeva (with expressive preludes by Chopin and Shostakovich) provide musical highlights, as do the celebrated clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer and the Hagen Quartet, which performs Brahms' Piano Quintet together with Mao Fujita at the piano.

Olivier Berggruen Prize 2025 winners' concert: pianist Yunchan Lim will receive the prestigious award following his concert on July 29 in the Rougemont church. In the concert, Yunchan Lim will perform together with his teacher Minsoo Sohn.

Great symphony evenings in the Gstaad Festival Tent: Dvořák's Symphony "From the New World" with the Gstaad Festival Orchestra under Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, the brilliant Concerto for 2 Pianos in E major by Mendelssohn, played by the brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen under the direction of Jaap van Zweden, Shostakovich's profound Cello Concerto no. 2 with Sol Gabetta and Rachmaninov's powerful Symphony No. 2, performed by Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich.

A magical evening at the movies with a live orchestra: The Children of Monsieur Mathieu by Christophe Barratier. The score by Bruno Coulais provides the soundtrack to this unforgettable movie night - performed live by the City Light Orchestra with support from the Lucerne Boys' Choir.

The Gstaad Festival Orchestra will continue its collaboration with Jaap van Zweden, Music Director Designate of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, in 2025. This means that van Zweden will be performing in Gstaad during the Festival, touring Europe with the Festival Orchestra and working as a professor at the Gstaad Conducting Academy. The conducting master class is jointly led by Jaap van Zweden, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and Johannes Schlaefli.
July 18 to September 6, 2025
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