The Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2021, conducted by Daniel Harding with Igor Levit as soloist, was recorded again this year by Sony Classical. The Summer Night Concert, which took place on June 18, 2021, is an outdoor concert held annually since 2008, following the "Concert for Europe" held from 2004 to 2007. The baroque park of Schönbrunn Palace provides an enchanting backdrop for the concert. Among the illustrious conductors who have conducted the Vienna Philharmonic's Summer Night Concert in past years are Georges Prêtre, Daniel Barenboim, Franz Welser-Möst, Valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel, Christoph Eschenbach, Zubin Mehta, Semyon Bychkov and Gustavo Dudamel. The baroque park grounds of Schönbrunn Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, provide an impressive backdrop for the Summer Night Concert, complementing the high musical quality with its great visual charm. At this open-air concert, classical music is shown at its best and becomes accessible to a wide audience. Millions of viewers and listeners in more than 80 countries can follow the event on the Internet, radio and television. Despite the ongoing Corona pandemic, the traditional Summer Night Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra could also take place in 2021, this time in front of 3,000 spectators. The seats went to people who were on the front lines of medical or elementary education during the pandemic, as well as to the orchestra partners who made this year's Summer Night Concert possible. In this very special concert, themed "Wanderlust," the Vienna Philharmonic performed works by Bernstein, Verdi, Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, Elgar, Debussy and Holst. This year's soloist was Igor Levit, who not only participated in the series of Summer Night Concerts for the first time, but at the same time recorded his first CD with orchestra for Sony Classical here. The star pianist had already toured Europe and the U.S. with the Vienna Philharmonic in 2019. The New York Times describes Igor Levit as "one of the most important artists of his generation." Musical America awarded Igor Levit as "Recording Artist of the Year 2020", in 2018 he received the Gilmore Artist Award, and in November 2020 he was nominated for a Grammy in the category "Best Classical Instrumental Solo". Igor Levit is a regular guest at the world's most prestigious concert halls and festivals. As a soloist, he regularly performs with the world's leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and, of course, the Vienna Philharmonic. Daniel Harding has conducted the Vienna Philharmonic since 2004 and this year is his first time on the podium of a Summer Night Concert. Since 2007, he has been Music and Artistic Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as Honorary Conductor of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has worked for more than 20 years. The renowned opera conductor has also been on the podium for highly acclaimed productions at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Theater an der Wien, the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, as well as the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Salzburg Festival. Harding makes regular guest appearances with the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Filarmonica della Scala, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2018, he was appointed Artistic Director of the Anima Mundi Festival.