The Menuhinfestival Gstaad

Think of Gstaad, and Lord Yehudi Menuhin will come to your mind without fail. Honorary citizen of Gstaad, with visionary dedication he founded the music festival which carries his name, and which has since become an outstanding highlight of the Alpine music scene. The first two concerts took place in the church of Saanen in 1957. Today the programme of the Menuhin Festival Gstaad features 40 events in picturesque churches in the Saanenland and in the festival tent.

The success story started in the summer of 1957 when Yehudi Menuhin, the violin virtuoso of the 20th century, visited the region of Gstaad with his family. Together with Paul Valentin, he developed the idea of an alpine festival for classical music and immediately organised two concerts in the church of Saanen. On the 4th and 6th August 1957 the Menuhin Festival Gstaad was born. From then on, the summer concerts in the Saanenland came to be called «Yehudi-Menuhin-Musiksommer».
The two events become nine, mainly chamber music concerts and concerts with chamber orchestras, and from 1958 on, the famous Zurich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Edmond de Stoutz, took part.

Right from the beginning, the festival was strongly inspired by Menuhin's intense relationship and interaction with the alpine splendour of the Bernese Oberland. In 1963 Menuhin also founded a Menuhin school in London and from then on young artists were encouraged to perform in Gstaad. The festival was also extended to 15 concerts. The involvement of Menuhin's students thus became a regular and important part of the festival. At the same time Menuhin broke through the boundaries of other artistic styles and cultures with experimental works (for example, he integrated sitar concerts by the Indian virtuoso Ravi Shankar or performances by Dimitri, the famous clown, in the programme). The premiere of the «Polyptique» for violin and two string orchestras by the contemporary composer Frank Martin, also took place during this period.

New organisation from 1976
The structure of the festival became more and more complex, and in 1976 a new organisation committee was set up to deal with its administration. 1977 set a milestone in the support of young elite musicians, with the foundation of the International Menuhin Music Academy (IMMA). The first director was Alberto Lysy – a position he holds to this day. The orchestra of the academy, the Camerata Lysy Gstaad, became a mainstay of the festival. Meanwhile the event now featured 18 concerts. Menuhin emphasized the symbiosis of art and landscape even more intensively in his artistic work. Musical highlights, for example, were a concert for the 100th birthday of Ernest Bloch, a homage to Benjamin Britten (his third string quartet was performed) and a celebration concert for the fortieth visit of Bela Bartók to Gstaad.

Fusion of the Menuhin Festival and the Alpine Gala
After the future of the festival was seriously questioned in 1982, an important step was taken in 1989 to establish it more firmly.
Through the fusion of the Menuhin Festival and the Alpine Gala (launched in 1985 in Wengen) the Public Limited Company, Musiksommer Gstaad Saanenland AG, was formed offering 25 concerts. Menuhin now attempted to create a balance between old and modern. Numerous concerts, particularly in the new festival tent from 1987, were dedicated to institutions of fundamental importance to him (for example the Mozart Fund, the nature foundation "Alp Action" of Prince Saddrudin Aga Khan, Amnesty International and others). In 1996, after 40 years of successful leadership, Lord Menuhin handed over the management to Gidon Kremer. This gifted violinist was to run the festival for only two years however.

The turbulent era after Menuhin
After Gidon Kremer resigned, first Peter Keller and later the musicologist, Eleanor Hope who worked with Yehudi Menuhin, become artistic directors of the festival. After Menuhin's death in 1999, Hope attempted to maintain his heritage through a varied programme which has a permanent interaction with the mountainous landscape of the Saanenland holiday region. The concerts in Gstaad and the neighbourhood, performed by internationally famous artists, focus mainly on classical and contemporary chamber music (chiefly in the churches of the region), and symphonic works (in the festival tent). In recent years, more concertante operas and other experimental events also form part of the programme. From 2002 the young solo cellist Christoph Müller, also leader of the Basel Chamber Orchestra, becomes artistic director of the Menuhin Festival Gstaad.