Spa concert
The spa concert is a musical event in spa towns and was of central importance in popular music in the 19th century, when bathing culture as a recreational activity for up-and-coming citizens was at its height .
A spa concert can take place in the Kursaal or be performed as an open-air concert . In addition, in the parks of many health resorts there is a concert shell to improve the acoustics . The spa card also served the spa guests as an entrance ticket to the spa concert. The repertoire of the spa orchestras once consisted mainly of instrumental versions of well-known opera arias and dances and roughly corresponded to the orchestral salon music . Numerous conductors and composers such as Joseph Labitzky specialized in spa concerts. Even Johann Strauss led Kurkonzerte.
Health resorts like Bad Kissingen (see Bad Kissingen health resort orchestra ), Wiesbaden (one of the oldest health spas in Europe), Baden-Baden , Bad Ischl , Borkum , Helgoland , Karlsbad , Norderney , Meran or Marienbad had their own health resort orchestras, some of which still exist today. Many spa orchestras are made up of theater musicians who find employment here in the summer months when there are no games. There has been a steady decline in the importance of spa concerts since the 1950s. Spa music conductors like Ernst Fischer switched to radio at this time, Karl-Ernst Sasse went to film. Today in Bad Kissingen there is the nationwide largest spa orchestra with 13 permanently employed, academically trained musicians. The composition of these orchestras corresponds roughly to the salon orchestra .
The spa bands also encouraged people to dance or sing along. They played an ideological role in German nationalism and also in bathing anti-Semitism ("Borkumlied") after 1900.
literature
- The forgotten. Kurorchester in Deutschland , special issue of the orchestra , 1: 2010.