Festival Musical de l’Abbaye de La Lucerne

Marie-Josée MATAR and Armelle CARDOT, sopranos – Maëlle JAVELOT and Amalia LAMBEL, altos –  Benjamin WOH and Richard GOLIAN, ténors –  Noé CHAPOLARD, Thierry CARTIER and Xavier MARGUERITAT, basses Sacred music, à through the centuries, has been able to express the great étapes of human existence : wonder, doubt, trust and adoration. This programme, conceived as an inner journey, weaves a dialogue between poques and styles and brings these individual emotions to life through works from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. From the very first notes, and with the very first works, we are plunged into the wonder of a beginning. But the light flickers; doubt and pain are expressed. The music then traces a path of reconciliation before culminating in a pure, mystical elation. This programme is an invitation to an intimate and universal experience, in which the beauty of choral singing becomes a reflection of our emotions and questions.

Eugénie Lefebvre, soprano – Josèphe Cottet and Alix Boivet, violin – Jérôme van Waerbeke, viola – Antoine Touche, cello – Marie-Amélie Clément, double bass – Clément Geoffroy, harpsichord The baroque ensemble L’Escadron volant de la Reine explores the sacred music of Antonio Vivaldi and takes us on a tour of the well-known story of the young girls of La Pietà. This concert is a tribute to the orphans of Venice, the young women without surnames who lived in the ospedali, the Venetian hospices where the greatest composers of the time came to teach music. Considered virtuosos throughout Italy, these anonymous performers were accompanied by the most innovative composers of the 17th and 18th centuries, the most famous of whom was Antonio Vivaldi. Acclaimed during moments of greatness and mystery when they played hidden behind grilles or hangings, this concert is an invitation to rediscover their bewitching repertoire.

Marieke Bouche and Sandrine Dupé, violin – Diane Chmela, viola – Emily Robinson, cello – Séverine Isoir, flute – Daniel Isoir, pianoforte and direction To conduct and perform this programme, Daniel Isoir has chosen to use a reduced number of musicians;To conduct and perform this programme, Daniel Isoir has opted for a limited number of players who preserve the intimate atmosphere and spirit of chamber music so characteristic of this repertoire, with an ideal balance between the different instruments. The musicians of La Petite Symphonie join forces in a spirit of complicity to offer us three masterpieces full of intensity, grace and motion: Boccherini’s Quintet for String Quartet and Pianoforte G.418 by Boccherini, and Mozart’s Concerto in E flat major for fortepiano KV. 449, a concerto he greatly cherished, dating from the period when he was rediscovering the art of Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons. Sounding extraordinarily convincing in this version for flute, La Surprise, one of Haydn’s most formidable London symphonies, closes this programme.

Gülay Hacer Toruk, vocals – Aliocha Regnard, nyckelharpa & fidula – Bayan Rida, oud & vocals – Artyom MInasyan, duduk, pakou, zurna & blul – Ismaïl Mesbahi, percussion – Emmanuel Bardon, vocals and musical direction A key trading point at the end of one of the Silk Roads, the city of Aleppo is one of the most important in Europe; One of the oldest cities in the world, Aleppo has developed a strong multicultural tradition over the course of conquests and dominations. It has been nurtured by its Byzantine, Arab, Turkish, Kurdish and Saracen communities, including a variety of Christian communities;tienté d’Orient made up of Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Syriac, Nestorian and Coptic Christians. This programme captures the richness and complexity of the poetic, literary and linguistic registers that have blossomed in this fertile melting pot of religions and cultures, which we see were never impermeable, fixed blocks of identity, but bridges between people, their need for creativity and their spiritual aspirations.

Alice Fagard, mezzo-soprano – Emmanuelle Moriat, piano It was in Düsseldorf, on 30 September 1853, that life brought Johannes Brahms and the Schumann couple together for the first time. Brahms was only twenty years old, and he proudly presented his compositions to them. An intense relationship then developed between these three geniuses, made up of love affairs, friendships, despairs, letters and notes. These tender and passionate ties, which had such a profound effect on Romanticism, are reflected in their compositions. The programme Frauenliebe und Leben, featuring a selection of works for piano and voice by their three composers, brings their trio back to life for one evening.

Éric Lebrun and Marie-Ange Leurent This programme allows us to explore the most beautiful colours of the La Lucerne organ thanks to veritable sound architectures, representative of their époques. A magnificent flowering: Bach’s spiritual works, so well crafted that their complexity is all but forgotten, will be followed by classical works by Mozart and Beethoven, Romanticism tinged with neo-classicism by Merkel and Baroque works by Lully. Last but not least, this Heritage Day will also be an opportunity to pay tribute to Georges Bizet, whose death we are celebrating this year as part of the European Heritage Days.