How can an entire region be inspired by classical music? With top-class musicians at very special venues, that was the idea of the three founders of the Rheingau Music Festival. They tried out their idea in the summer of 1987 with two concerts in the historic Eberbach Monastery near Eltville in the Rheingau. To this day, the monastery, as the nucleus of the festival, is a permanent fixture in the program - which now comprises well over 100 concerts at 25 to 40 venues and has become the largest privately financed music festival in the whole of Europe. The opening and closing concerts traditionally take place here, in the monastery's historic basilica.

Alongside Kloster Eberbach, Schloss Johannisberg and Schloss Vollrads in the Rheingau, the Wiesbaden Kurhaus has also become one of the four main venues of the Rheingau Music Festival. The magnificent Friedrich-von-Thiersch-Saal, the heart of the building, has been the venue for major world stars for decades, acclaimed and sometimes even supported by the audience. The famous pianist Martha Argerich once misplaced her sheet music here before a concert as part of the Rheingau Music Festival. And was only able to play after two audience members had rushed home and fetched the appropriate scores from there.

The Wilhelminian pomp of the Friedrich-von-Thiersch-Saal (opens in a new tab) or the idyllic concert shell in the Kurpark just outside the Kurhaus show that the basic idea of the Rheingau Music Festival still works today: special music in special places now delights more than 100,000 visitors a year. Incidentally, the festival also takes place at various other venues in Wiesbaden - find out about current concerts in the Rheingau Music Festival program.