International Music Festival ‘Grimma Flood of Songs’
The pretty little town of Grimma, not far from Leipzig, is presenting its Flood of Songs for the fourth time to commemorate the devastating floods of 2002. The historical town center itself is the impressive backdrop for the festival. Visitors have the choice between open-air stages at the castle and on the market-place with its town hall, one of the most beautiful Renaissance buildings in Saxony, or stages in the two town-center churches, the Church of Our Lady, which dates back to the Romanesque period, and the church of the former Augustine monastery. The festival has no big names in the usual sense: attention is focused on the songs themselves, which are sung by musicians from all over the world. There is a colorful fringe program with appetizing food.
MDR in Leipzig is the public broadcaster for three federal states in Germany: Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. This area corresponds roughly to the former (but larger) Electorate of Saxony. The many concerts of the 2009 MDR Summer Music Festival again use many of the most beautiful places in its broadcasting area as a stage, including churches, castles, abbeys, open-air stages and gardens. The festival features German and international artists as well as the MDR’s own ensembles, and the program ranges from medieval love songs and music of the Baroque period to the romantic and Viennese classics.
The region between the cities of Leipzig, Chemnitz und Dresden is called Central Saxony, and from mid-June to mid-September, it’s festival time there. The charm of the Summer Cultural Festival of Central Saxony is enhanced by the choice of unusually beautiful venues for its concerts. It is rare in Germany to find so many castles and stately homes so close to each other as in the heart of Saxony. Along with churches and abbeys, gardens and parks, historical towns and a quarry, they provide the backdrop for over 2200 instrumentalists and singers. The music ranges from choral works to wind music, from Philharmonic Rock to big church concerts.