Early & Baroque Music Festivals

[Discobole]

I thought it might be interesting to have a unique topic to discuss the programming early and/or baroque music festivals. For this very special repertoire, festivals remain vital places where this music is played and shared, as the yearly seasons are certainly not as rich as for all repertoires on modern instruments.

Let me start with the programs recently announced by several festivals :

- Utrecht OudeMuziek Festival : http://www.oudemuziek.nl/
The Oude Muziek Festival is probably the most prestigious and interesting festival these days, happening in late summer. The 2012 edition (August 24 - September 2) will really be great with its focus on german music from Sweelinck to Bach. Of particular interest (I think) : Rosenmüller by Concerto Palatino ; from Biber to Buxtehude by Manfredo Kraemer & Rare Fruits Council ; Tunder & Buxtehude by Stylus Phantasticus ; Sweelinck by Berben at the organ ; Benjamin Alard ; Skip Sempé and his ensemble ; several concerts by La Petite Bande. I'm less confident with the COllegium Bach Japan & Maasaki Suzuki (in Bach but also Kuhnau, Zelenka).

- Festival de musique ancienne d'Arques-la-Bataille : http://www.academie-bach.fr/
This festival seems less and less confidential as years pass, as it launched many artists and ensembles (Le Poème Harmonique, Café Zimmermann, L'Arpeggiata and others). The 2012 edition (August 21-25) will offer interesting programs, for instance 4 free concerts (!) with Alard and vocal ensembles on the theme of the "Vater unser im Himmelreich" choral, and various programs by Les Lunaisiens, Daedalus, Les voix humaines, Le poème harmonique... Haydn, Boccherini and Schubert quartets on period instruments too, with Hélène Schmitt and her companions.

- Festival Paris Baroque : http://www.parisbaroque.fr/
This will be the first edition of a new festival which obviously aims to "fill a void" in Paris, during the early christmas time : November 23-December 9, 2012. I felt quite impressed when I saw their program, each concert is really great, maybe a little obvious but it's fine for a first time : Bach by Cantus Cölln & Benjamin Alard, Charpentier-Lully-Delalande-Bouzignac by Hugo Reyne and his musicians, Vivaldi choral works by the AAM, Jan van Elsacker & La Fenice in 17th century german music for the Nativity, Skip Sempé in french harpsichord music, Elizabeth Wallfisch in french and italian violin sonatas, Stéphanie d'Oustrac in italian vocal music. The admirable Béatrice Martin will play the Goldberg Variations, Elisabeth Joyé and her trio will play the Sonnerie de Sainte-Geneviève-du-Mont and La Gamme by Marin Marais in the exact place where the Sainte-Geneviève abbey was. And the ensemble Les Ombres will play a discovery of sorts : Colin de Blamont's Te Deum.
Oh and they'll have the dear Hopkinson Smith play there too !

[Discobole]

There are two small but excellent festivals currently happening in France :
- Festival de musique à Maguelone : http://www.musiqueancienneamaguelone.com/ "Only" 6 concerts but nice programs related to Caravaggio. June 5-27
- Printemps des Arts de Nantes : http://www.printempsdesarts.fr/ 10 concerts, the highlight is Jaroussky & Lemieux, but Chantal Santon & Amarillis and Kuijken & Alard should be nice too !

[Discobole]

I don't know if you heard about it but Venice now has its baroque music festival, dedicated to Monteverdi and Vivaldi. Nothing of the sort existed until now ! It was actually created by the French Olivier Lexa, with the support of the American novelist Donna Leon...

http://www.vcbm.it/fr/page/festival

Their program for this first edition, which just started and will last the whole summer, is really nice : you can download the brochure here http://www.vcbm.it/pdf/2012/Brochure_2012_def.pdf
It is just a little awkward to have 19 concerts happening in 3 months, you can't really go there for the festival as you'd see one or two concerts at best.

That will be all for now

[Coopmv]

If I am not mistaken, the Oregon Bach Festival is probably the most famous of all the annual Early & Baroque Music Festivals held in the US in terms of artists who perform there ...

[scheep]

Excellent idea. I've just begun to compile a similar list on my own; it's surprising how many of these festivals exist around the world. And unfortunately, so far from where I am!

These two are from Poland, and judging from the type of performers they attract, they do seem of high quality:

1. Wratislavia Cantans, 1 - 9 September this year, features plenty of English groups, including Rachel Podger's Brecon Baroque, Paul McCreesh, and Trevor Pinnock: http://www.wratislaviacantans.pl/

2. Misteria Paschalia, already over in April, had an interesting programme that included Jordi Savall and Europa Galante. 'Nuff said.

And I'm looking forward to Cité de la Musique's programme next year, which on one day in April (I can't remember which exactly), will be devoted to Bach all day long. Off the top of my head, there'll be Midori Seiler with solo Bach, and John Gardiner and his usual group.