The Cellist Jan Vogler is one of the most dynamic figure of Classical music. He has been Artistic Director of the Moritzburg Festival near Dresden since 2001, and Intendant of the Dresden Music Festival since October 2008. In 2006, he received the European Award for Culture and in 2011 the Erich-Kästner Award for tolerance, humanity and international understanding.

“We rebuilt East Germany to perfection, every little village has fantastic roads, all the infrastructure, buildings and bridges are new. But we forgot to invest in the people and their minds!”

The theme of the Festival 2016 is “the time”. Why? Can you tell us some words about this choice?

As a cellist I am fascinated with the way time passes during a concert. Sometimes I feel that the audience and I as a performer on stage join each other in a feeling of a slowing down time, that is a magical experiences(?) and I do think that music can give us a feeling of ‘stepping out’ of the regular time.  The second important inspiration is the connection between a composer and his time, his era. Great composers always tell the story of their time and keep the history alive and vital. We can feel the spirit of the French Revolution when we hear Beethoven’s music or we feel the chill of the Cold War when hearing late Shostakovich.

As usual, many world class orchestras will perform during the festival (Boston, Amsterdam, Israel). But you have invited the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Is it important for you to open your festival to Asian orchestras?

For decades we- the musicians from Europe and North America- have been playing concerts of western music in Asia. Today we see a deep love for Classical music all over Asia, with almost every child in countries like Singapore, Korea, Taiwan and China being exposed to classical western music. And now a top Asian orchestra, like the SSO, comes to Europe and plays the great pieces by R.Strauss, Schumann and Ravel beautifully and fresh in our concert halls. It is like an creative echo from Asia and so interesting to hear many new ways of playing the music we know so well.

During 3 days, the festival will be devoted to young artists from the Curtis Institute Philadelphia and to the winners of the Tchaikovsky Competition Moscow. How did you decide to devote concerts to very young artists?

It is time to give the young musicians a role in changing our classical music scene. I was in the jury of the last Tchaikovsky competition and felt that all 3 cellists who on the top prizes were very strong. I wanted to give an equal chance to them, unlike always just looking at the first prize. The Curtis institute is another institution that helps a great number of very talented musicians to progress. 

You are also director of Morizburg festival? How do you manage to combine the two positions? 

Both festivals are inspired by my concert activities. When I travel I meet and hear many excellent musicians, or I hear about new players who just started playing concerts internationally. Often I feel that it would be best to meet them in Moritzburg first and play some chamber music with them. Chamber music is the most true and honest form of music. Unlike a virtuoso concerto, that can sometimes be studied for years and can hide a lack of real musicianship, in chamber music you can see right away who the performer is, what distinguishes him from others and if he is a true musician.

Can you tell us about the edition 2016 of the Moritzburg Festival ?

We are celebrating 10 years of ‘Moritzburg Academy’, our young musicians program. The 45 participants of the academy play in a chamber orchestra together and form chamber music groups that are coached by the festival musicians. We bring the two worlds together, the very fortunate few who made a name for themselves and travel the world playing concerts and the young musicians who are just starting out, it is less about teaching and more about helping the students to set their priorities.

You are very close with the city of Dresden. However, Dresden is currently associated with the Pediga movement. How do you react, as an artist, about the rise of this extremist movement?

When this movement began I was very depressed about this setback and damage it did to the cultural city of Dresden. But now I understand much better that (more than ever!) music, and culture and education in general are the only ways to fight intolerance and extremism. I think we made a big mistake in Germany after the reunification. We rebuilt East Germany to perfection, every little village has fantastic roads, all the infrastructure, buildings and bridges are new. But we forgot to invest in the people and their minds! We didn’t understand that reunification also means understanding democracy and the bases of a free society. I program differently now and and strengthen the message that the music conveys, we also added projects that reach out further to people who don’t go to Classical concerts, projects that hopefully help towards a positive change.I feel that my two projects in Dresden became much more important now and are really relevant for our society.

CR Pictures : Felix Broede-Jim Rakete

Dresde Music Festival : http://www.musikfestspiele.com

Moritzburg Music Festival : http://www.moritzburgfestival.de