Musique-Cordiale
Encyclopedia
The Musique-Cordiale Festival Musiques en Liberté is the name for an international festival of music and song and for a series of other musical events in France and Britain. It grew from a dream of making music and encouraging musical appreciation at the highest level in the most conducive surroundings. In a spirit of entente cordiale
, the festivals draw people from all ages and many countries and are designed to encourage inter-cultural friendship and understanding through a shared involvement in music-making. Singers and players range in age from 15 to 75.
A key regular feature of Musique-Cordiale events is a period of rehearsal and performance of major choral works by the Ensemble Cordial
, a European choir & orchestra with instrumental and vocal soloists. It consists mainly of French, British, German and Swiss musicians and singers and included musicians from the USA and South America in 2006. The ensemble includes some internationally renowned instrumentalists and professional musicians, interacting educationally with budding young singing and playing talent from 'conservatoires'. It has provided a springboard for promising singers and musicians who tend to appear at the festival while at or soon after graduating from colleges such as the Royal Academy of Music
and Royal College of Music
in London. It also includes good enthusiastic amateurs, there to build up their skills and contribute to the music-making.
The annual Musique-Cordiale summer music festival takes place in and around Seillans
in the Var
in the south of France. It is a growing international musical experience. Like the autumn music weekend, which has taken place under the umbrella of the Canterbury Festival
, in Kent, England, it features concerts and open rehearsals by the Ensemble Cordial as well as performances and master-classes by other musicians. Concerts take place in churches, public buildings, out-of-doors and in specially-erected stadiums in the towns.
The festival repertoire, from classical to jazz, from sacred to sexy, is designed to suit an eclectic variety of tastes. There has been a particular focus on choral works and opera arias, performed a cappella or with a full or chamber orchestra. Such concerts are interspersed with, for example, violin, piano, trumpet or oboe recitals, musical soirées, lectures and lively youthful gigs by singer-songwriters. Classical training and a passion for music, professionally performed, are common features among most of the musicians, regardless of what kind of music they play or sing. Recent and future performers include Artisan
, Emily Kraemer, Stephen Roberts
, mezzo-soprano Polly May, Piers Adams
& Red Priest
(violin, cello, piano and a variety of recorders), Hans Martin Ulbrich (oboe), Florenz Jenny (bassoon), pianists Marina Nadiradze
, Paul Posnak
& Martin Kasik, oboist Mike O'Donnell, promising young sopranos Rosie Bell, Anna Leese & Elizabeth Drury, counter-tenor James Armitage and the Bolivian Soloists quintet (flute, cello, violin, double bass and piano).
Young conductors such as Tomas Netopil
and Kevin Griffiths provide energetic new approaches to the direction of works which the Ensemble Cordial performs; the Bach Mass in B Minor, the Mozart Mass and the Mass for Double Choir by Frank Martin
have found favour with audiences in the past and the latter reappeared in the 2007 repertoire by popular request - and also because the choir found this an intensely satisfying a cappella piece to sing. In 2007, the choral programme included Pergolesi
's Stabat Mater, The Brandenburg Concerto (J S Bach), Handel
's Dixit Dominus
and Zadok the Priest
with the Duruflé
Requiem
, with its 2 organs played by Andrew Parnell
and vocal solos by Christopher Wray and Rosie Bell, providing the musical centre-piece of three final choral concerts performed in three beautiful old churches under the baton of conductor Errol Girdlestone
.
Each year, a specially-constituted Quartet, consisting of well-known chamber music players, plays as a quartet under the guise of Quatuor Cordial 2005, 2007 etc. Other pieces performed in concerts during the 2007 festival included: familiar opera arias sung by Anna Leese
following her recent Covent Garden debut, including J C Bach
's Cara la dolce fiamma and, with Andrew Staples, the Mi ciamano Mimi, O soave fanciulla duet by Puccini and ; Trumpet concerti and sonatas by Albinoni, Handel
and Vivaldi, JS Bach's Concerto for 2 violins and the Marcello
concerto for oboe and strings. The Quatuor Arpeggione
string quartet performed a concert and its violinists, Nicolas Risler and Isabelle Flory
also played in the Ensemble Cordial again in 2007, with Nicolas leading the orchestra, conducted by Errol Girdlestone
. Musical direction in 2008 is by Kevin Griffiths & Tom Seligman, himself conducting at the festival for the first time. The artistic director of the festival is violinist and viola-player Pippa Pawlik.
Concerts in 2007 & 2008 took place from in the towns (and lovely Provencal "villes perchées") of Bargemon
, Seillans
and Mons. The 2008 International Musique-Cordiale Festival ran from 3 - 17 August 2008, the 2009 the festival dates were 6 - 14 August 2009.
In 2010, the festival dates are 3 - 14 August, 2010. This year's festival again features directors, conductors, singers and instrumentalists, among whom are several of Europe's future musical stars. It includes an outdoor staging of Cosi fan tutte
, directed by Andrew Staples (music director: Graham Ross, starring Mary Bevan, Rhona McKail, Martha Jones, Sam Evans, Tyler Clarke & Richard Latham), the Fauré
Requiem and Haydn's Nelson Mass, conducted by Tom Seligman. Other works, performed as part of the festival in the Provence towns of Aups, Bagnols-en-foret, Mons and Seillans, include music by Massenet, Bizet, Vivaldi, Mozart, Verdi, Ravel, Saint-Saens, Rossini, Donizetti, Gluck, Lalo, Wagner, Walter, Grieg, Corelli, Poulenc, Tippett & Bach as well as a jazz evening with singer Krestine Havemann, drummer Tristan Fry
and pianist Jean-Marie Reboul. Other soloists include Melinda Stocker, Ciaran McCabe, Christopher Hoyle, Michel Tirabosco, Suzy Ruffles, Rosie Bel and Kate Howden.
Entente Cordiale
The Entente Cordiale was a series of agreements signed on 8 April 1904 between the United Kingdom and the French Republic. Beyond the immediate concerns of colonial expansion addressed by the agreement, the signing of the Entente Cordiale marked the end of almost a millennium of intermittent...
, the festivals draw people from all ages and many countries and are designed to encourage inter-cultural friendship and understanding through a shared involvement in music-making. Singers and players range in age from 15 to 75.
Ensemble Cordial
A choir and orchestra consisting of musicians and singers from many countries who come together for music-making and performances of major choral works, mainly during the annual Musique-Cordiale festival and events in France and Britain, including the Canterbury Festival...
, a European choir & orchestra with instrumental and vocal soloists. It consists mainly of French, British, German and Swiss musicians and singers and included musicians from the USA and South America in 2006. The ensemble includes some internationally renowned instrumentalists and professional musicians, interacting educationally with budding young singing and playing talent from 'conservatoires'. It has provided a springboard for promising singers and musicians who tend to appear at the festival while at or soon after graduating from colleges such as the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
and Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
in London. It also includes good enthusiastic amateurs, there to build up their skills and contribute to the music-making.
Seillans
Seillans is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It is a ville perché overlooking the plain between the southern Alps and the Esterel, which borders the sea between Cannes and Saint-Raphaël...
in the Var
Var (département)
The Var is a French department in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in Provence, in southeast France. It takes its name from the river Var, which used to flow along its eastern boundary, but the boundary was moved in 1860...
in the south of France. It is a growing international musical experience. Like the autumn music weekend, which has taken place under the umbrella of the Canterbury Festival
Canterbury Festival
The Canterbury Festival is Kent's international festival of the arts. It takes place in Canterbury and surrounding towns and villages each October and includes performances of a variety of types of music, ranging from Opera and Oratorio to art, comedy and theatre...
, in Kent, England, it features concerts and open rehearsals by the Ensemble Cordial as well as performances and master-classes by other musicians. Concerts take place in churches, public buildings, out-of-doors and in specially-erected stadiums in the towns.
Artisan
An artisan is a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative, including furniture, clothing, jewellery, household items, and tools...
, Emily Kraemer, Stephen Roberts
Stephen Roberts
Stephen Roberts is a former football player who most recently played for Walsall. He has also represented Wales at under-21 level....
, mezzo-soprano Polly May, Piers Adams
Piers Adams
Piers Adams is a British recorder player and member of baroque group Red Priest.After attending Reading Blue Coat School Adams trained as an astrophysicist, but turned professionally to the recorder at age 21...
& Red Priest
Red Priest
Red Priest is a British Baroque instrumental group that was formed in 1997, originally with eleven members. Currently it is composed of four performers: Piers Adams - recorder, Julia Bishop - violin, Angela East - cello and Howard Beach - harpsichord. On 18 January 2011 it was announced that Howard...
(violin, cello, piano and a variety of recorders), Hans Martin Ulbrich (oboe), Florenz Jenny (bassoon), pianists Marina Nadiradze
Marina Nadiradze
Marina Nadiradze is a Georgian pianist.She studied at the State Conservatoire in Tbilisi. As a precocious nine year old she won the first of her international awards in Vilnius, Lithuania and since then has gone on to amass an impressive list of competition successes, including 2nd Prize in the...
, Paul Posnak
Paul Posnak
Paul Posnak is an American pianist and music academic. He is noted for playing repertoires mixing twentieth century American music with European romantic classics, ranging from George Gershwin to Frédéric Chopin, from classical to jazz...
& Martin Kasik, oboist Mike O'Donnell, promising young sopranos Rosie Bell, Anna Leese & Elizabeth Drury, counter-tenor James Armitage and the Bolivian Soloists quintet (flute, cello, violin, double bass and piano).
Young conductors such as Tomas Netopil
Tomáš Netopil
Tomáš Netopil is a Czech conductor emerging on the international classical music circuit. He conducted the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005 and made his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in May 2006...
and Kevin Griffiths provide energetic new approaches to the direction of works which the Ensemble Cordial performs; the Bach Mass in B Minor, the Mozart Mass and the Mass for Double Choir by Frank Martin
Frank Martin (composer)
Frank Martin was a Swiss composer, who lived a large part of his life in the Netherlands.-Childhood and youth:...
have found favour with audiences in the past and the latter reappeared in the 2007 repertoire by popular request - and also because the choir found this an intensely satisfying a cappella piece to sing. In 2007, the choral programme included Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.-Biography:Born at Iesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others...
's Stabat Mater, The Brandenburg Concerto (J S Bach), Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's Dixit Dominus
Dixit Dominus (Handel)
Dixit Dominus is a psalm setting by George Friederic Handel . It uses the Latin text of Psalm 110 , which begins with the words Dixit Dominus ....
and Zadok the Priest
Zadok the Priest
Zadok the Priest is a coronation anthem composed by George Frideric Handel using texts from the King James Bible. It is one of the four Coronation Anthems that Handel composed for the coronation of George II of Great Britain in 1727,The other Coronation Anthems Handel composed are: The King Shall...
with the Duruflé
Maurice Duruflé
Maurice Duruflé was a French composer, organist, and pedagogue.Duruflé was born in Louviers, Eure. In 1912, he became chorister at the Rouen Cathedral Choir School, where he studied piano and organ with Jules Haelling...
Requiem
Requiem (Duruflé)
The Requiem, op. 9, by Maurice Duruflé was commissioned in 1947 by the French music publisher Durand and is written in memory of the composer's father. The work is for SATB choir with mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists...
, with its 2 organs played by Andrew Parnell
Andrew Parnell
Andrew Parnell is an organist and harpsichordist.As a boy Parnell was a choral scholar at Southwell Minster, where he began organ studies under Kenneth Beard. He won the Organ Scholarship at Christ's College, Cambridge aged 19 and studied under Nicolas Kynaston...
and vocal solos by Christopher Wray and Rosie Bell, providing the musical centre-piece of three final choral concerts performed in three beautiful old churches under the baton of conductor Errol Girdlestone
Errol Girdlestone
Errol Girdlestone is a British music conductor.He lives in the south of France, and works from there as a freelance conductor. His local base is as Music Director of Syrinx Concerts in Vence, an organisation with a professional orchestra and two choirs - one amateur, one professional.He read Music...
.
Anna Leese
Anna Leese is a New Zealand born soprano opera singer. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 2006, as understudy for the part of Musetta in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème...
following her recent Covent Garden debut, including J C Bach
Johann Christian Bach
Johann Christian Bach was a composer of the Classical era, the eleventh and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He is sometimes referred to as 'the London Bach' or 'the English Bach', due to his time spent living in the British capital...
's Cara la dolce fiamma and, with Andrew Staples, the Mi ciamano Mimi, O soave fanciulla duet by Puccini and ; Trumpet concerti and sonatas by Albinoni, Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
and Vivaldi, JS Bach's Concerto for 2 violins and the Marcello
Marcello
Marcello is an Italian surname and given name, the Italian equivalent of Marcel.- Etymology :The name originally means like a hammer.It is originally the adjectival form of marcus which means hammer; the -el suffix was in times of archaic Latin the adjectival form.-People with this given name:*...
concerto for oboe and strings. The Quatuor Arpeggione
Quatuor Arpeggione
The Quatuor Arpeggione is a French string quartet, led by Isabelle Flory , with Nicholas Risler , Patrick Dussart , and Marie-Thérèse Grisenti ....
string quartet performed a concert and its violinists, Nicolas Risler and Isabelle Flory
Isabelle Flory
Isabelle Flory is a French violinist.She was a student of Yehudi Menuhin, Joseph Gingold, and Henryk Szeryng...
also played in the Ensemble Cordial again in 2007, with Nicolas leading the orchestra, conducted by Errol Girdlestone
Errol Girdlestone
Errol Girdlestone is a British music conductor.He lives in the south of France, and works from there as a freelance conductor. His local base is as Music Director of Syrinx Concerts in Vence, an organisation with a professional orchestra and two choirs - one amateur, one professional.He read Music...
. Musical direction in 2008 is by Kevin Griffiths & Tom Seligman, himself conducting at the festival for the first time. The artistic director of the festival is violinist and viola-player Pippa Pawlik.
Concerts in 2007 & 2008 took place from in the towns (and lovely Provencal "villes perchées") of Bargemon
Bargemon
Bargemon is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France....
, Seillans
Seillans
Seillans is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It is a ville perché overlooking the plain between the southern Alps and the Esterel, which borders the sea between Cannes and Saint-Raphaël...
and Mons. The 2008 International Musique-Cordiale Festival ran from 3 - 17 August 2008, the 2009 the festival dates were 6 - 14 August 2009.
In 2010, the festival dates are 3 - 14 August, 2010. This year's festival again features directors, conductors, singers and instrumentalists, among whom are several of Europe's future musical stars. It includes an outdoor staging of Cosi fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
, directed by Andrew Staples (music director: Graham Ross, starring Mary Bevan, Rhona McKail, Martha Jones, Sam Evans, Tyler Clarke & Richard Latham), the Fauré
Faure
Faure or Fauré is a French family name and may refer to:People:* Edgar Faure, French politician* Élie Faure, French art historian and essayist* Émile Alphonse Faure, lead battery pioneer* Cédric Fauré, French football striker...
Requiem and Haydn's Nelson Mass, conducted by Tom Seligman. Other works, performed as part of the festival in the Provence towns of Aups, Bagnols-en-foret, Mons and Seillans, include music by Massenet, Bizet, Vivaldi, Mozart, Verdi, Ravel, Saint-Saens, Rossini, Donizetti, Gluck, Lalo, Wagner, Walter, Grieg, Corelli, Poulenc, Tippett & Bach as well as a jazz evening with singer Krestine Havemann, drummer Tristan Fry
Tristan Fry
Tristan Fry is a British drummer and percussionist. Fry began his career by joining the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 17. He was a founder member of a number of ensembles, such as the Nash, Fires of London and the London Sinfonietta...
and pianist Jean-Marie Reboul. Other soloists include Melinda Stocker, Ciaran McCabe, Christopher Hoyle, Michel Tirabosco, Suzy Ruffles, Rosie Bel and Kate Howden.
External links
- Musique-Cordiale & L'Ensemble Cordial
- Images of Musique-Cordiale Festivals 2004-2010 on Flickr
- Michael White review on Telegraph.co.uk blog, 17 August 2010
- http://johnamismusic.blogspot.com/ John AmisJohn AmisJohn Preston Amis , is a British broadcaster, classical music critic, music administrator, and writer. He has been a frequent contributor for The Guardian and to BBC radio and television music programming....
Blogspot: Review, dated 26 August 2010] - ResMusica review (in French) by Christian Lorandin, published 7 September 2010