Founded by Gidon Kremer in 1981 the festival quickly developed to an internationally acclaimed oasis of chamber music. The impressive Knight’s Castle with its Knight’s Hall, said to had served as secret assembling place by the Templars, and the wonderful baroque church of Lockenhaus are offering magical performance spaces in the middle of the woods of Mittelburgenland: a place of refuge for discovery, experimentation, presentation of young or unknown artists, building artistic partnerships and live long friendships by music making on the highest standards.

Join us this spring for six remarkable free concerts live-streamed straight to you. On the magnificent Bösendorfer 280 Vienna Concert piano in the beautiful concert hall Casa Delle Culture e Della Musica in Velletri, pianist Carlo Grante will perform Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, and more. Prior to each recital, special guest Bruce Adolphe will join Grante for a short discussion and Piano Puzzler based on each concert’s repertoire and composer. You won’t want to miss it!

Canadian Rapper Drake, had the designer and architect Ferris Rafauli build an exclusive mansion in his hometown of Toronto. Ferris Rafauli and the Japanese designer Takashi Murakami together designed an extravagant Bösendorfer Concert Grand 280VC. Drake’s new music video “Drake - Toosie Slide” was filmed on his luxury property and reached over 12 million viewers within 3 days.

For more than 60 years, Paul Badura Skoda has been one of the great international pianists. His interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert are legendary. A guardian of the Viennese sound, a collector of old instruments and an enthusiastic teacher for his students.

Extraordinary, everyday, personal - stories, not only from our rich history, but also from our present with a pinch of future. In search of two exceptional master craftsmen who conquered Europe and later the whole world with the Viennese sound.

All in all, her playing is dynamically varied and of great richness with its many colors. On a good-sounding Bösendorfer, the power of the left hand and the contrasts thus achieved are also particularly striking, so that the listener’s interest is kept alive by truly exciting interpretations.

Stephen Hough - pianist, composer, author and artist plays the Nocturne in F sharp major, op. 15, No. 2 by Frédéric Chopin, recorded by Gramophone at the Bristol Hotel in Vienna.

Nareh, acclaimed for her "sensual" narrative tone", "precise stylistic approach" and "dazzling technique", juxtaposes two vignettes of the Romantic piano repertoire: Brahms Opus 117 and Tschaikowsky's Opus 37.

One thing I immediately liked about Grante’s playing was that he makes a differentiation in approach to Brahms’ original works and the variations he wrote based on the music of Handel, Paganini, Schumann and a Hungarian song, all of which require an entirely different approach to the rhythm. (Lynn René Bayley, Art Music Lounge)

I try to write music that expresses what I am thinking, feeling ... and am. Or the opposite".