Cue the Nightingale

The Grafenegg Festival, situated 45 minutes north of Vienna, is big on atmosphere. Its main stage, known as the Wolkenturm, is left open to the elements, particularly kind this summer. Last night was my first experience of the 'hall', as I listened to the Philharmonia, Janine Jansen and Esa-Pekka Salonen performing Brett Dean's Testament – a susurrating work responding to the landscape and the Beethovenian history of Niederösterreich – Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto and the 'Eroica'.

Perhaps less planned was the appearance of a vocal nightingale during the concert. Perched high in Marie-Therese Harnoncourt and Ernst J. Fuchs's 2007 acoustic tower above the arena, the bird provided its own antiphonal contribution to the programme, more or often than not in dialogue with the woodwind section. As the sun threw shadows across the lawn, gilding the surrounding Schloss and trees, you felt that this silver-throated, nocturnal songsmith had as much right to perform as any orchestra. This evening, the Münchner Philharmoniker, Katia and Marielle Labèque and Semyon Bychkov will be the bird's collaborators.

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