Programme will be released in February 2025. Read about the 2024 festival here:

With its breathtaking backdrop of sea and mountains in West Norway, the 17^th century manor house of Rosendal has lured guests on a remote journey across the Hardanger Fjord for more than 300 years. Today it is the setting for the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, founded by pianist and Artistic Director Leif Ove Andsnes in 2016, who this year presents his most ambitious programme to date and welcomes more than 60 guest artists to the “small but big festival in the wilds of Norway” (El Pais).

The scene and title for the 2024 Festival is set by Bela Bartók’s Contrasts, which launches a five day exploration into the world of Hungarian music, including works by Liszt, Kodaly and Kúrtag. In direct contrast, and also central to the festival, is the music of J.S. Bach with two performances of the St John Passion featuring the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir and an orchestra of internationally renowned baroque players led by Grete Pedersen, as well as further programmes exploring Bach’s secular and chamber music works.

Photo: Liv Øvland

Programme will be released in February 2025. Read about the 2024 festival here:

Additional guest artists this summer include Zlata Chochieva and Nikita Khnykin (piano), Masato Suzuki (harpsichord), Vilde Frang and Florian Donderer (violin), Antoine Tamestit (viola), Tanja Teztlaff (cello), Christian Henriksen (doublebass), Quatour Agate, Aleksander Aga Røynstrand (hardanger fiddle), Wenzel Fuchs (clarinet), Ragnhild Lothe (horn), Benedikt Kristjánsson (tenor), Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer (vocal artist and composer) and Ragnhild Gudbrandsen (actress).

Foto: Liv Øvland

Introducing the 2024 festival Leif Ove Andsnes says: “The idea for CONTRASTS, evolved out of last year’s festival where we celebrated the 100^th anniversary of Ligeti’s birth and the life of Brahms, whose music includes so many Hungarian traits. It therefore felt natural to continue that line of exploration, especially as Hungarian music history is particularly potent. Few other countries have given birth to such a wide range of musical personalities, all of whom have integrated the narrative of their homeland into their works in such spectacular ways, especially when one thinks of the challenges many of these composers endured as a result of politics past and present. Their lives and times are reflected in their music – both in the virtuosity and demands of extreme expression.”

“In complete contrast, we will pay tribute to Johan Sebastian Bach. It has long been my wish to invite the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir to Rosendal and this year provides us with the perfect opportunity to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the first performance of the St John Passion. This masterpiece is as powerfully dramatic and moving today as it was in 1724 and bringing it to Rosendal – a place far removed from the world’s political stage, built around the time that Bach was born – offers us a calm space to listen and think, in sympathy with those suffering in times of conflict around the world.”

Thank you

The Rosendal Chamber Music Festival extends deep thanks to the Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Foundation, whose meaningful financial support has made the festival’s ambitious artistic goals attainable.

Read more: Thank you to the team who has made the festival possible