Assuming an important position will be commemoration of the 375th anniversary of Swedish King Gustav Adolf II’s death – the monarch who went down in history for assisting the hard-pressed Protestant communities and those fighting for freedom of faith. An excursion to Lützen (28 September) will take in a guided tour of the exhibition to mark this anniversary, “Gustav Adolf, King of Sweden.

The Power of Remembrance, 1632-2007”. The same day, under the title “The Lion has Fallen”, the Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble plays works written by Schütz, Staden, Weisbeck and Widmann under the influence of the Thirty Years War in the St. Marienkirche in Weißenfels (the concert will be repeated on 7 October in the church of Bad Köstritz). Also in Bad Köstritz, an exhibition entitled “Gustav II, Adolf of Sweden – the Lion of the North” will recall the Swedish king.

The opening festivities on 5 October will be rounded off by the Ensemble Cordarte. The following day will witness the ensemble William Byrd performing in Bad Köstritz a programme entitled “Music in Scandinavia”, including works by Düben, Buxtehude, Geist, Ritter and Schütz. Another jubilee brings celebrations to mark 350 years of the principality of Weißenfels. On 27 September, La Gioia Armonica presents music for pantaleon, voice, strings and continuo, whilst on 29 September a number of ensembles from Weißenfels will be staging a “Jubilee Concert of Change”.

The Weißenfels concert series will be brought to a close on 29 and 30 September by the Lautten Compagney Berlin & Capella Angelica, playing music for Vespers by Claudio Monteverdi from his Selva morale e spirituale and Schütz’s Musicalische Exequien, in the Schlosskirche St. Trinitatis. The Heinrich-Schütz-Tage will be enriched by musicological discourse in a two-day symposium (29/30 September) at the Fürstenhaus Weißenfels, in which illustrious scholars will discuss “Composing in ‘troubled times of martial conflict’. Heinrich Schütz and the Thirty Years War”. Further information on www.schuetztage.de