Festival Mozart - Mozart/Michael Haydn & Franz Joseph Haydn - 07/19/24

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/Michael Haydn: Symphony No. 37 in G Major 

Franz Joseph Haydn: Cello Concerto No.1 in C Major, Hob.VIIb:1 

Franz Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 6 in D Major (Morning) 

Orchestre des Pays de Savoie 

Pieter-Jelle de Boer: Conductor 

Astrig Siranossian: Cello 

Back when they were writing the concerts’ programs, the Association Saoû Chante Mozart (Saoû Chante Mozart) may have lacked a vivid imagination—or a broad vocabulary—when, after qualifying Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-Flat Major of “sublime”, they used the exact same superlative to describe Franz Joseph Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1, which was also part of the Festival Mozart. But then again, anybody even remotely familiar with those two works would be hard-pressed to disagree. 

So my mom and I did what any right-minded music lover would have done and got tickets to the Friday evening concert in the 12th-century Collégiale Sainte-Croix de Montélimar, the local urban hub closest to us. And since we made it to our destination way too early (Anybody who thinks of me as obsessively punctual has obviously not met my mom), we took a very pleasant walk around the small pedestrian historic center while waiting to take shelter from the heat inside the rather austere but incontestably beautiful collegiate church. 

After the de rigueur opening speeches, it seemed appropriate to have a work by Mozart kick things off, the festival bearing his name and all, but his Symphony No. 37 in G Major came with an interesting twist as it turned out it had in fact been originally composed by Michael Haydn, the younger brother of Franz Joseph Haydn, as Symphony No. 25 in G Major, Mozart contributing no more than a brief introduction and a slightly altered instrumentation (Hey, the guy was on a tight deadline and occasionally came through for his buddy Michael as well). And apparently nobody was the wiser until over a century later. 

Thing is, in the ultra-capable hands of the vivacious Orchestre des Pays de Savoie led by their Dutch music director, as well as pianist, organist and conductor, Pieter-Jelle de Boer, the music appeared solidly planted in Viennese tradition, and while it did sound at times a bit simplistic for having come out of one of the most sophisticated musical minds of all times, it was also kind of easy to pinpoint the barely noticeable difference when one knew the piece’s background. In the end, regardless of its genesis, the symphony was a lovely treat. 

But let’s face it. We were all there for Haydn’s Cello Concerto No.1, especially since it would be performed by Astrig Siranossian, a local rising star whose appearance in a free-flowing canary yellow gown and sparkly shoes, not to mention a cheerful disposition, felt like the sudden arrival of pure sunshine into the grand church. That said, visuals are not everything, but as soon as she began to play, we all realized that she also had impressive musical chops. 

Haydn’s joyful Cello Concerto No.1 is awfully easy to love, with its old-fashioned charm punctuated by graceful melodies and understated witticisms. It definitely sounded like Siranossian and the orchestra were having a lot of fun with it, and consequently so did we. Our only quibble was that the acoustics of the space did not always allow the cello to stand out much, but I may have my mom and her insistence to sit as near the front as possible to blame for that. Oh, and the random bursts of applause during the performance were kind of distracting too, but it is hard to fault people for appreciating good music when they hear it. 

Our musical experience was markedly improved when the whole orchestra enthusiastically launched into Haydn’s Symphony No. 6, another finely crafted and all-around lively composition that he wrote for his new employer, the all-powerful Hungarian prince Esterhazy, who provided Haydn with ample support, even his own orchestra. And since the work’s first movement began with a slow and mesmerizing description of sunrise, it was quickly nicknamed “Morning”. 

Besides its natural attractiveness, the symphony is also popular with musicians and listeners because it allows quite a few instruments to shine on their own thanks to ingeniously conceived and adroitly incorporated solos, the lucky few including the elegant first violin, the assertive horns, the agile flute and the sharp bassoon. And shine they all did on Friday evening, and so did the entire orchestra. We had a very bright “Morning” last Friday evening, and we enjoyed it to the fullest. 

Once the official program over, in an unusual move, Pieter-Jelle de Boer took centre stage and made an emotional plea for help on behalf of the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie, the valuable ensemble having recently heard that the Savoie region had decided to withdraw its financial contribution starting 2025, effectively killing one of its main lifelines. A petition and fund-raising effort are underway, and one can only hope that the orchestra will still be around for many more mornings. 

But then, we simply could not part on this doom and gloom note. 

The overly demonstrative audience members who had been shushed into contrition during the cello concerto apparently had not been willing to take another chance, and the legitimate applause from the rest of us at the end of the performance had not been quite extended enough to earn us an encore. But we thankfully still got it in the end, when Siranossian came back and proved that she was not only a superb musician, but an accomplished singer as well, with the quietly moving traditional Armenian song “Sareri Hovin Mernem”. And then we headed off into the cooler Montélimar evening to go back to even cooler Dieulefit.

Journées Musicales de Dieulefit - All-Schubert - 07/18/24

Franz Schubert: String Trio D. 471 

Franz Schubert: String Quintet in C Major (D. 956) 

Lara Dormeau: Violin 

Rachel Koblyakov: Violin 

David Louwerse: Cello 

Jennifer Rio: Viola 

Manfred Stilz: Cello 

Another summer evening in Dieulefit, another chamber music concert in the lovely Église Saint-Pierre as part of the Journées Musicales de Dieulefit (Musical Days of Dieulefit), and not just any concert either, as last Thursday’s performance concluded the concert series itself with a bona fide masterpiece. For the occasion, François Daudet was taking the evening off as a pianist, but not as artistic director, in which capacity he was welcoming a bunch of carefully selected friends and colleagues to make sure that the music would go on. 

Fact is, the list was as impressive as eclectic, with cellist David Louwerse, who needs no introduction to Journées Musicales de Dieulefit’s regulars, globe-trotting German cellist, flutist and teacher Manfred Stilz, French violinist, violist and long-time teacher Jennifer Rio, American-born and French-residing violinist Rachel Koblyakov, and Dieulefit-born and raised, and by far the most junior member of the ensemble, violinist Lara Dormeau. 

Therefore, it was with extremely high confidence that my mom and I went back to downtown Dieulefit after a thankfully much less hectic afternoon than the day before and took our seats, in the surprise company of our neighbours Setha and Philippe behind us, and the probably less surprise company of Dieulefit’s mayor in a nearby section, for one of chamber music’s most towering achievements in Franz Schubert’s awe-inspiring String Quintet in C Major (Yes, the one with the two cellos). 

Before we got to indulge in the program’s big draw though, our appetites were pleasantly whetted with another work by Schubert that, for all its less ambitious scope and unusual combination of violin, viola, and cello, was a totally appropriate opener to the bigger and better thing to come. In fact, as performed by Koblyakov, Rio and Stilz, the one movement constituting the String Trio D. 471 was so refined and light on its feet that it immediately recalled Mozart himself at his very best, which was very good indeed. 

And then, after our delightful appetizer, we all eagerly moved on to the almost one-hour main course that is Schubert’s “Cello Quintet,” the stunning study in sunny euphoria and dark torment that he completed only two months before his untimely death at 31, and which astonishingly enough was not published until 25 years later. Since then, it has quickly made up for lost time, and is now rightfully one of the most admired and popular pieces of the repertoire. 

Thursday night was no exception, as the capacity crowd got to enjoy a deeply heart-felt performance of the epic quintet thanks to the combined talents and palpable camaraderie happening on the stage, where all five musicians remained remarkably focused and collaborative. As predicted, the undisputed highlight was the transcendental, exquisitely contrasted Adagio, a not so common occurrence in Schubert’s œuvre to begin with, which gorgeously blossomed in all its romantic glory, stunning everybody into respectful and grateful silent. 

Sooooooooooo, what do you play after Schubert’s Cello Quintet? Well, you play it again, of course. Not the whole thing maybe, although I can’t imagine anybody in the audience objecting. In the end, another round of the first section of the refreshingly earthy Scherzo ended up being the perfect choice for audience and ensemble, concluding this last concert of the year with a resoundingly thrilling bang.

Journées Musicales de Dieulefit - All-Schubert - 07/17/24

Franz Schubert: Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A Minor, D. 821 

Franz Schubert: Trio No. 1 in B-Flat Major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, D. 898 (Opus 99) 

François Daudet: Piano 

David Louwerse: Cello 

Virginie Robilliard: Violin 

After having gone to relatively great geographical lengths to attend totally worthy live music experiences lately, this week we’ve stayed for the most part put in Dieulefit itself, where the 20th anniversary of the Journées musicales de Dieulefit (Musical Days of Dieulefit) as well as the closing performance of the Saoû Chante Mozart (Saoû Sings Mozart) festival will keep classical music lovers busy. So much music, so little time (sigh). 

Therefore, on Wednesday evening, after a five-hour round-trip to Lyon in the afternoon to bring our friend Vittorio to the Saint-Exupery Airport, and a quick stop at home for a quick bite and a quick rest, we went to the attractive Église Saint-Pierre in downtown Dieulefit, where the Association Chemins de Pierre was kicking off the first leg of a two-day Schubert marathon courtesy of the highly popular usual suspects. That was actually one of those few occasions where I am actually grateful for the otherwise ungodly starting time of 9:00 PM. 

The performance started with Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata, a rather unique effort as it has remained the only substantial work originally composed for the arpeggione (essentially a guitar with a curved bridge similar to the bass viola da gamba), one year after its invention. The new instrument having never gained much traction among musicians, it is now routinely replaced by the cello, and occasionally the viola or the guitar. 

On Wednesday evening, we were all particularly grateful that the cello took over the arpeggione as it gave us the opportunity to hear cellist extraordinaire David Louwerse brilliantly nail the sonata-provided star turn, with a little help from his long-time buddy, outstanding pianist in his own right and the Journées musicales’ intrepid music director François Daudet. In the end, it felt just like overhearing an intimate conversation filled with poignant stories and a few moments of passionate eloquence between two close friends, and not being able to step away. 

They say that no woman should ever come between two male friends, and that may very well be true in general, but in the context of the Journées musicales de Dieulefit, a program featuring Daudet and Louwerse is not really complete without the presence of prodigious violinist Virginie Robilliard, who clearly proved this point again on Wednesday evening by fitting in effortlessly between the two guys for Schubert’s superb Trio Opus 99, which incidentally seemed kind of a logical step back after their memorable performance of the Opus 100 last year. 

The Allegro moderato was lively and engaging, instantly confirming that their long-standing chemistry was still operating seamlessly, while the Andante un poco mosso readily stood out with its soaring lyricism from violin and cello, and bright piano accompaniment. The Scherzo exuded happy-go-lucky cheerfulness galore, before the Finale wrapped up the virtuosic tour de force with a dynamite bouquet of fireworks. So good to see (and hear) them again. 

As for the encore, we moved away from the present and back to last year with the slow movement of Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 1, which Daudet dedicated not only to Menahem Pressler, his late beloved teacher, but also to two huge local forces when it came to the Journées musicales de Dieulefit, namely Sonia Morin, their founder, and her husband Jean Morin, their honorary president, who both left us recently, and who must have been smiling from wherever they are now.

Le petit palais de Chaillot - Rebecca Chaillot - Bach, Chopin, Ravel & Prokofiev - 07/12/24

Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 (Variations 1-10 and Aria da capo) 

Frédéric Chopin: Waltz in D-Flat Major, Op. 64, No. 1 (Valse minute, or valse du petit chien [Minute Waltz, or Waltz of the Little Dog]) 

Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne No. 20 in C-Sharp Minor 

Maurice Ravel: Ondine from Gaspard de la nuit : Trois poèmes pour piano d’après Aloysius Bertrand 

Sergei Prokofiev: Dance of the Knights (Montagues and Capulets) from Romeo and Juliet 

Frédéric Chopin: Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52 

Rebecca Chaillot: Pianist 

After a promising kick-off of my summer 2025 musical season with the Saoû Chante Mozart festival and Schumann a little while ago, and some fun times going back to beloved familiar places and discovering new ones in the Dieulefit area, I turned my attention to a fairly recent and extremely exciting local source of high-quality live music, which my mom discovered last year and has been looking forward to sharing with me ever since. 

About six years ago, eminent pianist, among many other hats, Rebecca Chaillot decided to put down some roots in the tiny village of Colonzelle, where she restored a decrepit but spacious stone house for herself and her four pianos, and the “petit palais de Chaillot” was born. Even better, it soon became home to intimate pay-what-you-can concerts in the upstairs concert room or the courtyard, depending on the weather, for the lucky few in the know. 

While perusing the message Chaillot had sent to her email distribution list earlier last week, I spotted the Thursday’s and Friday’s program, which was a piano recital including works by Bach, Chopin and Ravel performed by the woman herself, so on Friday, my mom and I grabbed our still visiting friend Vittorio and headed to Colonzelle for the 7:00 PM starting time, just as some strong winds were serendipitously chasing away some threatening clouds. 

Lo and behold, at some point we faced the same hurdle as we did during our trip to our last concert, which was a closed street and no clear alternative, due to an overturned truck this time. Undeterred, we quickly found our way around, catching a glimpse of the historic tower of Chamaret in the process, and finally settled in the cool in so many ways courtyard, where our goings-on were carefully supervised by the friendly tabby and white house cat. 

Eventually, Rebecca Caillot, the lady of the house and our entertainer for the evening, welcomed us and introduced the first piece, Bach’s legendary Goldberg Variations, specifying that the entire set lasting about one and a half hour, she would play the first ten variations, and then the final Aria da capo. She also warned us that the bells of the church next door would temporarily be joining her at 7:10 PM, just as they unceremoniously informed us that it was 7:00 PM. 

And so it went. Right as we were happily getting in the mood of Bach’s prodigiously exacting intricacies, the faithful were called loudly and extensively for the Vespers while Chaillot kept cool and carried on. And then we were fully back to Bach again, except for the very few cars zooming by outside the distant entrance gates, a slight frustration that could easily be ignored once the magic of the music operated at full power. 

Then we left German Baroque to go bask in French Romanticism with two popular hits by Chopin, starting with the “Valse minute” (Minute Waltz), also known as “Valse du petit chien” (Waltz of the Little Dog), which was reputedly inspired by Chopin’s famous paramour George Sand’s dog Marquis, whom he apparently loved at least as much as his owner. Short and sweet, this delightful little vignette further lifted everybody’s spirits. 

The second Chopin classic was his beloved Nocturne No. 20 in C-Sharp Minor, which he composed at the astonishingly young age of 18 as he was quickly and hopelessly falling in love with a fellow student at the music academy that is now called the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. And in fact, there was no denying the depth and intensity of his feelings as we were listening to their exquisite description with abated breath. 

We stayed in France but moved on in time with Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, and more particularly “Ondine”, a not so well-known work inspired by Aloysius Bertrand’s poem dedicated to a half-angel half-demon water nymph who is trying to seduce the listener and take him to her kingdom at the bottom of a lake. An exceptionally captivating composition in its enchanting evocation of shimmering water and subtle seduction, it is also a notoriously challenging obstacle course even for the most accomplished pianists. Luckily, we just had the right virtuoso for the job on Friday evening, and our underwater journey went, well, swimmingly. 

Unannounced on the published program, the following piece was for me the instant highlight of the concert, not only because I’ve always had a soft spot for the iconic “Dance of the Knights” from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, a relentlessly dynamite ballet score composed by a Russian about an Italian story written by an Englishman, but also because hearing the drastically stripped down but still tremendously eloquent version for piano we were served on Friday evening (Isn’t that deliciously ominous pulsating brass theme the most badass earworm ever?) was a total blast. 

We lastly went back to Chopin with his Ballade No. 4, his longest and, arguably, his most technically difficult and most emotionally rewarding. Unless the other three, which unfold in an essentially straightforward fashion, the fourth has a more complex structure, which he deftly infused with just the right amount of poetry and lyricism. Chaillot clearly understood all that and took us through Chopin’s brilliant take on life with much proficiency, dedication and gusto, wrapping our wonderful music-filled hour with a truly memorable party favor.

Festival Mozart - Quatuor Psophos & Ismaël Margain - Schubert, Mozart & Schumann - 07/07/24

Franz Schubert: Quartettsatz D. 703 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Sonata No. 27 in G Major (K. 379/373a) 

Robert Schumann: The Piano Quintet in E-Flat Major, Op. 44 

Quatuor Psophos 

Ismaël Margain: Piano 

After a relatively short but eventful trip that included an extra-long train ride, a couple of enjoyable days in Turin, a long but eventless bus ride, and an art- and gastronomy-filled stay in Aix-en-Provence, my temporarily ailing friend Vittorio, my mom and I finally arrived in Dieulefit, where summer invariably brings a lot of exciting activities. And I am not talking about helping her drastically downsize from her big and unbelievably cluttered house to the well-located, cool little apartment she had finally landed. 

One of those most beloved traditions is no doubt the Festival Mozart (formerly known as Saoû Chante Mozart) festival, which has been filling up the miniature village of Saoû as well as its surrounding communities with classical music concerts performed by very promising as well as well-established musicians for the past 34 years and counting. Undaunted by its ever-increasing success, it has only been getting bigger and better while resolutely keeping its local spirit. 

And that’s how last Sunday evening, after a busy morning spent catching up with a couple of friends at Dieulefit’s election poll site and checking out a nearby café under new management, the three of us found ourselves in the beautiful cloister of nearby Bonlieu-sur-Roubion’s Basilique Sainte-Anne, a brand new festival location, for a chamber music concert featuring Schubert, Mozart and Schumann performed by young but already highly praised Quatuor Psophos, whose ambitious Greek name evokes no less than the essence of sound, and pianist Ismaël Margain. 

After facing the big surprise of a closed street and no alternative in sight while on the road, and the even bigger surprise of the elections results while waiting for the concert to start in the truly enchanting venue, we readily focused our attention on enjoying the perfect summer evening, starting with Schubert’s 10-minute Quartettsatz. Nobody knows why the composer left that planned string quartet unfinished, but the impeccably self-contained, Beethoven-flavored Allegro assai can easily stand on its own, as it was categorically proven to us on Sunday evening, never mind the strident alarm of a smartphone followed by a dreadful coughing fit behind me just as the party was getting going. 

Although it has diversified its offerings over the years, the Festival Mozart festival thankfully still includes plenty of works from Mozart’s extraordinary œuvre. Our piece du jour was the lovely Violin Sonata No. 27, which was expertly handled by the Quatuor Psophos’ violinist Mathilde Borsarello Herrmann and pianist Ismaël Margain, as well as an unseen but definitely heard unidentified bird. The two musicians had a wonderful chemistry, but the uninvited feathered guest did not manage to fit in and quickly gave up. Nice try though. 

The ads for the program highlighted Schumann’s “sublime” Piano Quintet in E-Flat Major, and one could hardly object to the description, especially as we were happily basking in it. One of Schumann’s boldest and finest large-scale chamber works, it was dedicated to his brilliant pianist wife, Clara Schumann,who handled the first public performance, the first private performance having been handled a month earlier by Mendelssohn, who had stepped in when she had fallen ill. With friends like that… Predictably, it quickly turned into the landmark of the genre that it still is today. 

Even though at 9:00 PM the church bells decided to let us know in no uncertain terms that it was, well, 9:00 PM during the second and, according to me at least, most sublime movement (Who knew that a church bell tolling nine times would take that long?), the five musicians soldiered on undeterred, graciously acknowledging the predictable applause at the end of the third movement, before triumphantly making it through the fourth and final one. 

In fact, the Schumann quintet was such a resounding success that they obligingly played two excerpts of it as encores. Because one can never have too much of a good thing.