The focus of this festival was the dialogue between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Arvo Pärt. The weekend opened on Friday evening with a chamber music concert in which we shared the stage in the spirit of musical friendship and performed works by these two composers in a wide variety of settings.

Saturday morning was a highlight especially for a group of young musicians: in the course of a public master class, three selected chamber music ensembles from the Winterthur Conservatory and the Basel Music Academy were given lessons by the Vienna Morphing Soloists. Together, they honed their interpretation and ensemble playing, and under the pedagogical guidance of Yuuki Wong, Tomasz Wabnic and Zoltan Onczay, the young talents were spurred on to top performances.

After intense choir and orchestra rehearsals, the festival finally culminated in the grand closing concert on Sunday. Mozart’s Piano Concerto KV 414, interpreted by Hans-Jürg Strub, was heard together with works for string orchestra by Arvo Pärt. After the intermission, Pärt’s impressive Stabat Mater was performed in the version for orchestra and women’s choir. With Mozart’s Ave verum corpus as an encore, we sent the packed hall off into Sunday evening.

Our thanks go to the Morphing Chamber Orchestra and all the other musicians involved, to Liebestrasse Winterthur and of course to our loyal audience. With SPOTLIGHTS a new chapter begins for the Zurich Chamber Singers in Winterthur – we are already looking forward to everything that is to come!