The Regentenbau, inaugurated in 1913, is the establishment’s most sumptuous edifice, and its five concert halls are a perfect venue for the music festival that has been held there from mid-June to mid-July for the past 23 years.

All sorts of music, from baroque to the most contemporary, can be heard in Bad Kissingen. Of the 52 events planned for 2008, a dozen fall more or less into the early music category. The programme includes an evening of Viennese classical music with Alfred Brendel (works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert). The Bamberger Symphoniker and the Bavarian Philharmonic, led by Jonhatan Nott, will present Beethoven’s “Pastoral” and “Eroica” symphonies in the Bamberg Beethoven Gala.

Conductor Peter Ruzicka, pianist Rudolph Buchbinder and soprano Majca Erdmann will join forces with the Hamburger Symphoniker on 2 July for a classical gala to include Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto and Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate. Italian love songs by Handel are on the programme with soprano Simone Kermes, counter-tenor Matthias Rexroth and the Musiche Nuove Ensemble. And finally, the Berliner Barock Solisten, led by violinist Rainer Kussmaul and featuring soprano Christine Schäfer, will perform music by Vivaldi, Pergolesi, Handel, Johnson and Purcell. Full details on www.kissingersommer.de