MESSAGE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Resonances 2024  – L’intime & l’extase

Gabriel Fauré is the inspiration for the 2024 edition of Festival Resonances.
It is 100 years since Fauré’s death, and I could not miss this opportunity of celebrating the wonderful jewels of his chamber music repertoire.

Fauré is a special favourite amongst Resonances musicians and it will be a treat to have the chance to focus on his unique language, and to travel more often than usual to the particularly intimate world that he creates in his music..
Fauré’s music is passionate and deeply profound, otherworldly and seemingly infinite, exuberant and daringly declamatory, but never losing sight of a strong sense of the inner.
He can bring us to a world where time stands still, and lets us hover seemingly forever in a heightened realm of bliss. He seems to describe ecstasy like no other composer!

The concerts overal will include masterpieces from Fauré’s youth, such as his 1st violin sonata and celebrated 1st piano quartet, as well as the extraordinary late works including his 2nd cello sonata and his magnificent 2nd piano quintet.
We will hear music by his students such as Georges Enescu, Nadia Boulanger and Maurice Ravel as well as his teacher and life-long friend, Camille Saint-Saëns.

Fauré was beloved by many and in the ‘Hommage à Fauré’ concert, we will hear pieces dedicated to him by his students and culminating in Ravel’s famous string quartet.

The festival will also feature music aside from the festival theme, such as Mozart’s exuberant and playful string quintet, the life-enhancing D major string quartet from Beethoven’s opus 18 cycle as well as Bruckner’s rarely performed string quintet.
Saint-Saens’s flamboyant 1st piano trio will stand alongside the gorgeous 2nd piano trio by Schumann, whose music Fauré adored.
In the Saturday morning concert the string players will be joined by some winds for an octet by Jean Françaix, which evokes a world reminiscent of the films of Jaques Tati.
Jean-Luc Fafchamps’s daring transcription of French popular songs will precede the sublime piano trio of Ravel.
The final concert of the festival will feature 2 absolute masterpieces: Fauré’s second piano quartet followed by the youthful and brilliant Octet of his student, Enescu.

Although most of the concerts will be in our trusted Halloy barn, I am thrilled that we will be bringing Resonances, exceptionally this year, to Namur for the very first time! The opening concert will be held in the stunning hall of Le Grand Manège and will consist of a varied programme performed by no less than 17 festival musicians. A moment not to be missed!

In this sometimes disturbing and worrying world, I hope that the magic of Fauré and all the other composers’ music performed in the intimacy of the Halloy barn, will transport us to a world where time stands still for just a little while and where we can experience shared and quiet moments of joy !

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