The Salzburg Easter Festival closed April 6 after an 11-day run that sold out every performance [1]. The festival's centrepiece was the opening of a new Ring cycle -- Wagner's Das Rheingold, premiered March 27 under chief conductor Kirill Petrenko with the Berliner Philharmoniker [2].

The orchestra's return to Salzburg carries historical weight. Herbert von Karajan founded the Easter Festival in 1967 as a vehicle for the Berliner Philharmoniker. The orchestra decamped to Baden-Baden in 2013, leaving Salzburg to fill the void with rotating ensembles. None matched the founding relationship. Petrenko's Ring, staged by Kirill Serebrennikov, restores it [2].

Critical reception has been split on the production but united on the playing. The Financial Times found Serebrennikov's post-apocalyptic staging "so visually loud it almost drowns out the music" [3]. Seen and Heard International was less reserved about the orchestra, writing that Petrenko's Mahler Eighth "swept all before it" [4]. The Berliner Philharmoniker's own blog called the return "a new chapter in a great tradition" [2].

The festival also ran chamber concerts and the Be Phil project, which brought amateur musicians from nine countries to play alongside the orchestra [2]. Die Walkure follows in 2027, with the full Ring cycle completing in 2030 -- interrupted in 2028 by Schoenberg's Moses und Arnon [5].

-- CHARLES ASHFORD, London