Under the title of “Marseille-Provence” 2013, the famous French violinist. Renaud Capuçon, has taken on the challenge of creating his first Easter Festival, in the town of Aix-en-Provence which runs from March 26 to April 7.
“With a love for the repertoire and an eye on creation, we intend to invite the biggest established names and welcome young talent” wrote Capucon of his festival debut. And that is exactly what he has done with a line up of 20 concerts featuring acclaimed artists such Matthias Goerne, Gidon Kremer, Radu Lupu, Angelika Kirschlager and Valery Gerviev with the Mariinsky Orchestra … to name but a few.
Joining Capuçon on stage for the final concert on 7 April is Aix’s very own Hélène Grimaud for a recital of Pärt, Debussy, Schumann and Ravel. The flags will definitely be flying on Aix that evening.
The program 2013 – Festival de Pâques – Aix-en-ProvenceWe already saw them together at festivals in Verbier and Gstaad a few years ago. And we also saw Hélène Grimaud at the Rencontres de musique de chambre de Bel-Air, a festival created by Renaud Capuçon in Chambéry. So the two old friends will be back together to play pieces they enjoy playing, such as sonatas for violin and piano by Debussy and Ravel, composed around 1910 (for the former) and in the twenties (for the latter), or Schumann's First Sonata, of which they will propose a reading free from all artifice. They will also do a piece by Arvo Pärt, Fratres, composed in 1977 for a chamber orchestra and then transposed for a number of different formations by the composer himself (including the piano and violin duo in 1980). Renaud Capuçon performed it at the Bel-Air festival in 2009 in its version for violin, strings and percussions that dates from 1992; as for Hélène Grimaud, she is very much at home with Arvo Pärt's music. The recording of Credo, in 2004, gave her the chance to work with the Estonian composer whose final concerto for piano, LamenTate (not unlike the Credo from 1968), she performed the previous year in London.
