The Schleswig-Holstein Festival is one of Europe’s largest, spanning two months and presenting a wide variety of artists and repertoire – as many as four on a given day in a multitude of venues. Our base of operations for seven nights will be a 5-star hotel overlooking the harbor in the beautiful seaside town of Lübeck and just across the street from the principal concert hall. Many of the most important classical concerts take place there, including the festival’s gala opening, which will feature Christoph Eschenbach conducting the NDR Symphony in a major work “by one of his favorite composers” with a “major guest soloist.” That’s all the details we could get this far in advance . . . thanks to an inside link with Maestro Eschenbach’s personal assistant.
Our other festival will provide a very different experience: four nights lodged in a castle hotel on a private island where the performers we’ll be hearing are staying as well. There will be multiple chamber music performances each day and open conversations with the artists.
Of course, we will offer a variety of guided tours scattered throughout our 11 days together.
Following the Festivals Tour, you will have the option of continuing with us for five additional nights in Berlin where you may choose from three operas (a Strauss rarity, a new work by Rebecca Saunders, plus a Verdi favorite) and ballets by Jiří Kylián, at the Staatsoper unter der Linden and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. A variety of daytime sightseeing programs will be available as well. Our 4-star hotel is in the historic city center, just a short walk from the major museums and Staatsoper and a no-transfer ride on the UBahn from the Deutsche Oper.
Take a look at the itinerary below; if you would like to tentatively reserve space on the tour, please click on the “Reservation” button. We will then follow up in the fall, when we have programming details from the festivals and exact prices.
AND PRICES
Approximate prices,
per person
-for the basic 12-day tour-
less than $5,000
sharing a double/twin
less than $6,000
single occupancy
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-for the Berlin Extension-
less than $1,200
sharing a double/twin
less than $1,500
single occupancy
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Prices are stated in
U.S. Dollars
calculated on an exchange rate of $1.10 to the Euro
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Exact prices will be announced in the fall and include:
Accommodation in these
4- and 5-star hotels
Radisson Blu Senator
2 + 5 nights
Hindsgavl Castle
4 nights
Arcotel John F Berlin
5 nights (for extension)
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Breakfast each day
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8 lunches or dinners
(drinks included)
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Airport transfers
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Ground transport by
private coach
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Tours with expert guides as described to the right
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Admission to as many as 13 festival performances
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Additional festival
performances,
as available, at additional cost
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Details and pricing for the optional day tours will be provided later
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Prices for the Berlin Extension include only transportation to Berlin, Schwerin visit and lunch, five-night
Berlin accommodation,
Farewell Luncheon,
and airport transfer.
All performances and sightseeing programs are optional, at additional cost
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Thursday July 3: Depart for Hamburg - United/Lufthansa, /Delta/KLM/Air France, and British Air/American all offer one-change schedules from Houston or most other major hubs, both ways, whether returning from Hamburg on the 15th or Berlin on the 20th. (You will find a list of flight options, all with only a single change of planes, below this tour description.)
Friday July 4: Choose a flight scheduled to arrive in Hamburg by 3:00 PM. Once we have everyone, we will depart by coach to Lübeck for checkin and a welcome dinner: no fireworks, but an opportunity to celebrate Independence Day among your traveling friends!
Saturday July 5: Old Town Lübeck tour and opening night of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, featuring the NDR Symphony under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach. We have back-channel information that there will be a “major international” guest artist and that the major work will be by one of the Maestro’s “favorite composers,” meaning probably Mahler or Bruckner.
Sunday July 6: Travel to Hindsgavl Castle, stopping along the way for a visit of Gottorf Castle, including a guided tour of the “Globe of Gottorf,” the first ever planetarium. We’ll arrive at Hindsgavl, the site of a congenial festival of chamber music on Denmark’s picturesque ‘Garden Island,’ as Funen is known, in time for dinner and this evening’s concert(s).
July 7 – 10: Three additional days at Hindsgavl, one of Europe’s finest chamber music festivals, will feature conversations with the artists and at least two, sometimes three concerts each day. Admission is included for them all, as is dinner each evening. The castle’s beautiful grounds include pavilions, streams, and ponds as well as orchards and gardens that supply ingredients for the castle chefs (breakfast and a preconcert dinner are included each day on site). You might even spot wild deer in the forest and around the palace! The castle also provides expansive views of the ‘Little Belt,’ a strait separating the island of Funen from Jutland.
The principal concerts during our stay at Hindsgavl include an all-Brahms chamber music program and a n afternoon solo recital, both featuring an original 1859 Blüthner piano; an evening of duets by Handel for soprano and countertenor; and the Chiaroscuro Quartet playing works by Beethoven and Brahms. Additional performances are yet to be announced.
Two day trips are planned in Denmark: one to Odense, the charming town where both author Hans Christian Andersen and composer Carl Nielsen were born; the other (optional) takes us to Århus, one of the most beautiful cities in Denmark, where ancient and modern keep very comfortable company. Hans Christian Andersen was a frequent visitor to Hindsgavl, and even wrote poems about its Tea pavilion.
July 10 – 15: We return to Lübeck for an additional five days of music and sightseeing. We are hoping to get an advance look at the festival schedule; otherwise, we won’t know just what is offered or where till February. We plan is include two Festival concerts in venues nearby. Everything else will be available as extra cost options.
We expect to include two more day-tours: On our way to Lübeck from Hindsgavl we visit the famous “rum” town of Flensburg, boasting Scandinavian flair, quaint alleys, and a small idyllic harbor. Another day we’ll drive from Lübeck to Plön where we’ll have lunch and a tour of its charming Old Town before attending a concert in nearby Rendsburg by the Festival Symphony Orchestra (program TBA). Another of our included concerts takes place in Lüneburg, so we will also tour that lovely old town, one of the few in North Germany whose historic center was not destroyed during WW II. If there is sufficient interest, we will offer Rostock as an optional excursion.
Tuesday July 15: Return to the States from Hamburg airport
– or –
The Berlin Extension
July 15 – 20: Continue with us to Berlin for an additional five days. We’ll make a stop in Schwerin for lunch and to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Residence Ensemble and palace museum. Included are one walking tour - “Bach to Bowie – Music made in Berlin” - and a farewell meal prior to the evening performance on the 19th.
Everything else, tours and performances, is optional.
Sunday July 20: Return home or set off on additional travels.
The Berlin Performances (optional):
- Verdi – La Traviata starring Jeanine de Bique and conducted by Jeremie Rhorer at the Staatsoper
- Rebecca Saunders – Lash at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where it will have been premiered in June
- Jiří Kylián–two ballets: Gods and Dogs and Angels’ Atlas, at the Staatsoper
- Strauss – Die schweigsame Frau, conducted by Christian Thielemann at the Staatsoper
The Berlin Tours (optional):
- Potsdam with Sanssouci palace and gardens, Cecilienhof Mansion, and Museum Barberini, plus one of the most beautiful old market squares in all of Germany. Lunch included.
- Introduction to Berlin walk
- “1920s Berlin – the gloom and the glamor of an era”
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Flight Options, all involving a single change of planes, each way.
UA/LH via FRA/MUC/LHR (additional options via EWR)
15:20 – 11:35 07:30 – 13:15 07:20 – 16:30
15:35 – 13:05 09:45 – 16:30 07:45 – 13:35
15:35 – 14:05 11:00 – 17:15 08:45 – 17:45
16:20 – 11:20 08:50 – 16:30
16:30 – 12:30 09:45 – 17:45
16:30 – 14:30
15:20 – 11:35 06:10 – 13:25 06:00 – 13:25
15:50 – 11:20 06:00 – 13:35 06:15 – 13:35
BA/AA via LHR
15:35 – 13:35 10:50 – 19:05 11:20 – 19:05
