Early in Lockenhaus’s history, producer Manfred Eicher began working with Gidon Kremer, who initiated the festival in 1981. They soon began to regularly record the festival, thereby launching the “Edition Lockenhaus” in 1985 under the larger umbrella of ECM’s New Series.
These recordings are fascinating for many reasons and not least for giving us the opportunity to hear some of the finest chamber musicians of our era, alongside Gidon Kremer, early in their respective careers. The long list includes musicians now strongly associated with ECM: Kim Kashkashian, Thomas Zehetmair, Thomas Demenga, Robert Levin, Heinz Holliger and more.
A five-CD limited-edition box set was issued in 2011 for the 30th anniversary of the Austrian chamber-music festival. The repertory includes Richard Strauss, Olivier Messiaen, César Franck, André Caplet, Francis Poulenc, Leos Janácek, Igor Stravinsky, Dimitri Shostakovich and Erwin Schulhoff with Sir Simon Rattle and Roman Kofman conducting the Kremerata Baltica. Original liner notes, an interview with Kremer, and new texts complete a very special edition. Gidon Kremer: “The artistic atmosphere in Lockenhaus soon has everybody speaking on the same wavelength.”