SOUNDS OF THE UNIVERSE
40 YEARS OF PENTECOST CONCERTS AT MELK ABBEY

TV DOCUMENTARY

40 years after its founding, the Baroque Festival is one of the most internationally renowned early music festivals. The documentary focuses on the unique connection between the festival and Melk Abbey. Here, a modern music and cultural business meets the centuries-old religious life and sound space of the monastery, which is characterized by an atmosphere of spiritual serenity and the spirit of human and intellectual openness. The early years bear the signature of Helmut Pilss, who initiated the Pentecost concerts to support the urgent restoration of the monastery. The second phase is marked by the focus of the International Baroque Festival Stift Melk on early music and the establishment of the festival in the international festival landscape under the managing director Alexander Hauer. The current artistic director of the festival, KS Michael Schade, will primarily contribute his experience as a world-class baroque, opera and song interpreter to the festival's programmatic orientation. With the participation of these three personalities, the documentary takes us back from the present to the beginnings of the Pentecost concerts, taking many an unexpected look behind the scenes.

WITH

Michael Schade, artistic director of the Int. Baroque Festival Melk Abbey
Helmut Pilss, founder and artistic director of the Pentecost Concerts
Abbot Burkhard Ellegast, OSB, former abbot of Melk Abbey
Abbot Georg Wilfinger, OSB, Abbot of Melk Monastery
P. Martin Rotheneder, OSB, Head of the Culture and Tourism Department of Melk Monastery
Alexander Hauer, artistic coordination of the Int. Baroque Festival Melk Abbey
Rubén Dubrovsky, conductor
Stefan Gottfried, conductor
Erich Höbarth, Concertmaster of the Concentus Musicus Wien
Günther Groissböck, singer (bass)
Remé Clemencic, composer, conductor and cembalist
Eduardo Lopez Banzo, harpsichordist and conductor

SPECS

Running Time: 40:00
Directed by: Volker Werner
Script: Martin Pichl and Veronika Zimmermann
Format: Full HD, 16:9 | Color
Sound: Stereo
Production: SCARLATTI Arts international s.l.
Year: 2018
Distributed by: UNITEL