The festival was founded in 1986 by German concert pianist and conductor
Justus Frantz. Within a short space of time, prominent supporters such as
Leonard Bernstein were won over to the idea. He played a key role in ensuring that renowned musicians such as
Yehudi Menuhin,
Anne-Sophie Mutter,
Svjatoslav Richter and
Mstislav Rostropovich performed at the first edition of the festival in 1986. In 2006, the 21st festival was from 15 July through 3 September with the
Low German festival motto
Dat klinkt lekker (That sounds nice). The 22nd festival in 2007 focused on Hungary, 2008 on Russia, 2009 on Germany, when the motto was
Heimspiel (
home game). In 2010 the motto was
Poland in Pulse featuring music from Poland. The regional focus was in 2011 Turkey, in 2012 China, and in 2013 Baltic states. Beginning in 2014, the concept changed by highlighting a specific composer for each year. The composer retrospectives were devoted in 2014 to
Felix Mendelssohn, in 2015 to
Peter Tchaikovsky, in 2016 to
Joseph Haydn, in 2017 to
Maurice Ravel, in 2018 to
Robert Schumann, in 2019
Johann Sebastian Bach, in 2020
Carl Nielsen, in 2021
Franz Schubert, and in 2022
Johannes Brahms. ==Awards==