Wolfram Berger & Karen Asatrian

Wolfram Berger brings back a former regular guest of the Semmering: Stefan Zweig!

In Zweig's "Sternstunden der Menschheit" (Starry Hours of Humanity), his profound fascination for the great master of Baroque music, Georg Friedrich Handel, becomes evident, whose extensive work has profoundly shaped European music history.

With his incomparably sensitive linguistic expression and great empathy for the essence of the composer, the author describes and experiences in this novella the creative euphoria as well as the most painful personal abysses of Handel, which become palpable in monumental compositions such as "The Messiah," the Concerti grossi, or his "Water Music," with all their majesty and intricate orchestration.

This is a hymn to Handel's unique creative power, which makes him immortal, as well as to Zweig's great capacity for empathy and his reverence for another artist.