The cross : What is your state of mind a few days before the opening of the 42nd La Roque-d’Anthéron festival?
René Martin: Happy and relieved! Ticketing is already at a higher level than in 2019, the last before Covid. This is a very encouraging sign of people’s desire for culture and going out, despite a context that remains complex. We are going to offer them 103 concerts in the park of Florans, the heart of the festival, but also again in the surrounding villages, in Aix-en-Provence, in the magnificent cloister of the abbey of Silvacane, at the church of Cucuron , which has a superb organ… The alliance between music and sites attracts the public and creates animation in very small towns.
We are lucky, while health concerns are still hovering, to play mainly outdoors and to be able to organize public circulation in a serene and harmonious way. This is what, in 2020 and 2021, allowed us to maintain the festival, even with a reduced program. From an artistic point of view, the constraints that the Covid has imposed on us have not all been negative: we will continue to offer our concerts without intermission. A coherent format (seventy minutes) that allows you to taste the music in a continuous flow, without breaking the emotion shared between the artist and the listener.
Among your 103 concerts, can you draw any lines of force?
R. M. : We tried to offer small festivals within the festival. Baroque music is thus honored for a whole week at the Abbey of Silvacane, which will make it possible to hear young harpsichordists and confirmed masters. Another set of concerts will be dedicated to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, including a tribute to Olivier Messiaen and another to György Ligeti (whose African influences we will undoubtedly explore unexpectedly…). There will also be focus on Michael Jarrell or Gérard Pesson, these two composers being present at La Roque. In addition, we give pride of place to jazz, notably with the presence of an immense pianist, Abdullah Ibrahim.
And then, how not to devote evenings to Nelson Freire and Nicholas Angelich, two great pianists who died this year and who came so often to La Roque. The first played 24 times at the festival, and the second appeared there for the first time when he was 15 years old. Both were extraordinary personalities, and we wanted these tributes to be neither stuffy nor sad, but familiar, intimate, echoing their personal history. That’s why we invited those who were their close friends, their students or, for Nicholas, their teachers.
Your festival includes the word “international” in its title. Is this again a reflection of reality?
R. M. : I really believe it. After the traffic restrictions due to the health crisis, this summer we have representatives from almost all the piano schools in the world. From Japan to Canada, from Russia to Latin America via England. At La Roque, the whole landscape of the international piano unfolds.