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24 July – 30 August

One of Herbert von Karajan’s great aspirations was to promote young talents. Artists like Anne-Sophie Mutter, Agnes Baltsa, Mariss Jansons, Seiji Ozawa and Riccardo Muti owed much to him for the great boost he gave their careers.

1976 saw the first encounter of Anne-Sophie Mutter and Herbert von Karajan, who was excited by her playing. He did not delay in engaging the young musician a year later for the Whitsun Concert season he had started in Salzburg in 1973, with Mozart’s Violin Concerto in G major, K. 216. The violinist was just 14 years old when she eventually made her début at the Salzburg Festival in summer 1977 in a Mozart matinee conducted by Gerhard Wimberger with the Mozarteum Orchestra, playing the Violin Concerto No. 2, K. 211.

Another artist became an overnight world star in summer 1977: Hildegard Behrens took over the title role in the first Festival performance of Richard Strauss’s Salome. Karajan conducted and directed, the set was by Schneider-Siemssen.