TEL AVIV.- The Felicja Blumental International Music Festival, Tel Aviv’s longest-running classical music festival, celebrates 15 successful years in 2013 with a rich and varied programme of 15 concerts and four films over six days. Joining the worldwide celebrations marking Gustav Klimt’s 150th anniversary, the portrait of Friederike Maria Beer (1916) will be on display at the museum for the duration of the festival and the film “Klimt” will also be shown.

The Austrian painter Klimt is best known for his sensual paintings and sketches of the female form, often adorned with gold leaf and inspired by the inlays and detail of jewellery. The oil on canvas portrait of Friederike Maria Beer has a fascinating history. Beer was a young Viennese society lady and one of Klimt’s keenest supporters. She was offered a necklace of natural pearls from her suitor Hans Böhler, but turned them down in favour of a commissioned portrait by Klimt instead. Beer came to the portrait sittings over several months in a red silk coat designed by the Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshops). Klimt requested that Beer wear the jacket inside out and painted motifs from a battle scene in the background borrowed from a Korean vase in his possession, which also recur in the artist’s late works.

Marking 15 remarkable years, the festival will also host Eilat Chamber Music Festival for the first time as they present the musical drama “The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer” featuring critically-acclaimed actor and Oscar nominee John Malkovich and the Austrian Vienner Akademie Orchestra conducted by Martin Haselbock. John Malkovich will also portray Gustav Klimt in the film “Klimt”, about the life of the Symbolist painter, which will be presented in Kaufmann Hall to further celebrate the painter’s anniversary at the festival.

The festival was founded in 1999 to honour the memory of Felicja Blumental, one of the 20th century’s outstanding pianists, by her daughter, soprano Annette Celine, who serves as the festival’s artistic director. Over the last 15 year, the festival has built a reputation of artistic wealth and excellence and is considered a major event in Israel’s vibrant cultural calendar, drawing established ensembles and talented young musicians from all over the world.

The Festival will exhibit Klimt’s portrait of Friederike Maria Beer in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the painter’s birth from 29 April – 4 May at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.