Le concept « Interalp Music Festivals »
Le concept « Interalp Music Festivals » a été créé par l'APMC pour la promotion de la musique entre les pays ayant en commun la chaîne des Alpes. Un voyage musical au travers de l'Italie, la France, la Suisse, l'Allemagne, l'Autriche et la Slovénie avec pour fil conducteur, la chaîne des Alpes.
2005- Festival « Ski et Music » in Veyzonnaz (Suisse)
2006- Festival « Ski et Music » in Veyzonnaz (Suisse)
2006- Gstaad Music Promenade Festival (Suisse)
2007- Music Promenade Festival Gstaad-Lauenen-Rougemont (Suisse)
2008- New Year Music Festival in Gstaad (Suisse)
2009- Evènement à Innsbruck (Autriche)
2009- New Year Music Festival in Gstaad (Suisse)
2010- New Year Music Festival in Gstaad (Suisse)
2011- New Year Music Festival in Gstaad (Suisse)
2012- New Year Music Festival in Gstaad (Suisse)
The Interalp Music Festivals draw on the musical heritage of the Alps - from the Mediterranean sea all the way up to Vienna.
"Today the Alps are associated with winter sports and the high life" Artistic Director, Princess Caroline Murat said. "Many of the people who support our projects during the year spend their Christmas and New Year holidays up in the resorts. So that is why we decided to take our music up to them."
History
In Roman times the Alps were a difficult part of the route from Rome to the northern parts of the empire; Caesar's crossing of the St Bernard Pass is a matter of legend. In my ancestor's time the Emperor's engineers built a road fit for cannon up and over the Simplon Pass into Italy."
The churches, hospices and monasteries in the Alps were home to religious orders. In medieval times the Alpine valleys were walkways for pilgrims and permeated with spirituality linking people and places. Anselmo of Aosta - part of the Diocese of Torino, for example, became Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093.
The church played a key role in the production and development of music. From Gregorian chants to organs, churches were one of the few places where people would hear music and musicians could train and develop their own careers - Johann Sebastian Bach being the most evident example.
Alongside, the ruling families and empires entertained themselves with music in their castles - the Hapsburgs in Innsbruck for example. Innsbruck, high in the Alps, was the site for the first opera house outside the region's imperial court in the mid 17th century.
Musical development
By the 18th century Austria alone - with Salzburg, Innsbruck and Vienna - played a pivotal role for the greatest music composers; Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven changed music for ever. The piano replaced the harpsichord, string ensembles and vocal music spread and grew a broader, more middle class audience.
The music itself became more complicated and was produced on a larger symphonic scale and so the focus moved to the great opera and concert halls of cities such as Vienna, Milan, Paris and London. In 1842 the foundations of what became the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra came out of the Imperial Opera House.
A division of music thus appeared - on the one hand there were popular melodies for entertainment and dancing and on the other, more challenging and musically difficult compositions. Some composers - including Schubert and Johann Strauss - wrote for both. Others, including Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Mahler, used folk dance themes in their work.
Festival ideas and progress
The "Interalp Music Festivals" take great music and musicians back to perform in the mountain churches and villages. Tracking the range of the Alps and their foothills from Beausoleil near Monaco on the Mediterranean in 1999 all the way north towards Austria.
Caroline Murat was founder and artistic director of the Sommets Musicaux in Gstaad in 2000 (see review left) and has returned there with New Year Music Festivals in 2006/7, 2007/8, 2008/9, 2009/10 and for this year 2010/11. Great musicians including Maxim Vengerov and Leontina Vaduva as well as young performers including David Kadouch from France, Lorenzo Gatto from Belgium, Vladmir Sverdlov from Russia and Liu Ji from China have taken part in the Gstaad programmes.
In other Alpine festivals in St Moritz and in Veysonnaz - Nendaz in 2005 and 2006 Caroline broadened the appeal to include readings of Mozart's letters by Marthe Keller and workshops with young, training musicians from the Geneva Conservatoire of Music in an innovative musical mix of classical, baroque, jazz an world music. In 2005 Caroline organized the first public performance of a Cimarosa oratorio for the United Nations Celebrations in the Cathedral in Geneva.
"We want to draw on the past but also celebrate the present" Caroline added. "That is why we include the best of jazz musicians - such as Didier Lockwood. We also work with other organisations such as the Glenn Gould Foundation who continue the ideas of this great musician who foresaw and embraced the revolutionary effects of technology on art, culture and society. Similarly, just as the Alps were a conduit for people and ideas throughout Europe we allow our programmes to promenade where they will."
APMC association work to date :
- "Gala des Coeurs"
Celebrating the release of the recording of "Pierre et le Loup / Peter and the Wolf"
narrated by Mikhail Gorbachev, Sophia Loren & Bill Clinton
with the Russian National Orchestra
Victoria Hall, Genève, 2003 / 2004
- Concert à l'occasion du soixantième anniversaire des Nations Unies
Cimarosa "La Morte d'Abele"
la première représentation publique à l'époque moderne
Geneva Cathedral 2005
- "Le Piano fait son Cinéma"
La Baule, France 2005 / 2006
with David Kadouch & Denis Kojoukhin
- Ski & Music
An interactive production with Alessandro Valoriani, Michèle Larivière & "Choeur Novantique de Sion"
The letters of Mozart read by Marthe Keller,
The music of Mozart sung by Measha Brueggergosman, 2006 (Measha sang at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, February 2010).
- APMC Boursiers - "Parrain" Jean-Yves Thibaudet:
Alexandra Soumm, Andrei Rosendent, Denis Kojoukhin
Nendaz - Veysonnaz, 2005 / 2006
- New Year Music Festival in Gstaad
Château d'Oex - Lauenen - Rougemont
Classical, baroque, world and jazz programmes with artists including Maxim Vengerov, Grace Bumbry (final performance in Switzerland), Leontina Vaduva, Tatjana Vissiljeva,
Enrique Perez de Guzman, Julien Jalal Eddin Weiss, Aiman Mussakhadjaeva,
Didier Lockwood, traditional musicians of Kazakhstan
and the New Year Music Festival Ensemble
2006 / 2007 / 2008/ 2009 / 2010 / 2011/ 2012
