If you have just endured the virtual hell of being trapped for six hours in
the August heat of the Channel Tunnel because of power failure, then the
eventual sight of the Abbaye de Valloires must be the next best thing to
heaven.
A frantic forty five minute drive down from Calais, a quick freshen up at our
hotel then a final sprint across glorious rolling countryside bathed in
golden evening light, and we made the Festival’s opening concert with just
ten minutes to spare.
You don’t have to be religious (I’m not) for this majestic example of high
French Baroque, and the prospect of great music there, to make your frazzled
spirits soar.
I had first been attracted to the idea of Valloires, in Argoules, northern
France, when I caught sight of the stunning line up in a leaflet distributed
by the Wigmore Hall.
It was world class and I had never even heard of it. If a festival only in
it’s second year can attract musicians of the calibre of Angela Hewitt,
Nicholas Angelich, Imogen Cooper, Maciej Pikulski, Daniel Muller-Schott,
Alina Ibragimova; the Takacs, Jerusalem and Ebene Quartets; and singers Dame
Felicity Lott, Ailish Tynan and Mark Padmore, then it must be seriously
good.
The Festival takes the work of a core composer, in this case Beethoven, and
places it alongside one from the 20th century, here Shostakovitch (this year
it will be Schubert with Britten.)
Add plenty more to the mix (Bach, Bartok, Ravel, Schumann etc. etc.) and this
is Michelin-starred stuff, a menu degustation of thirteen concerts in
six days. That several top flight performers from the inaugural season
wished to come back to serve up second helpings in 2007 could only be a good
sign.
Something else intrigued me. Here was an international chamber music festival
directed in France by an Englishman. Adam Gatehouse is BBC Radio 3’s Editor
of Live Music, having worked there first as a producer and later executive
producer working with the leading orchestral and opera performers and
conductors of the day.
He instigated the celebrated BBC Wigmore Hall Lunchtime Concerts, as well as
founding and continuing to run Radio 3’s New Generation Artists Scheme.
Connected or what?
He has a home in La France Profonde and had harboured the dream of a chamber
music festival for 15 years before stumbling upon the perfect place for it
in northern France, rather than the sun soaked south where he expected to
find an eventual berth.
Perfect it certainly is. Valloires is the only complete 18th century
Cistercian abbey in France. It’s church is ideal for concerts, with a warm
acoustic, and plenty to hold your gaze: the gilded papier-mache angels
hanging from the ceiling from which the eucharist is suspended in a dove,
the massive carved baroque organ chest, the elaborate filigree wrought iron
screens. But do take advantage of the cushions available at the door.
Churches don’t do comfort.
The abbey itself, which functions as a home for children and the elderly for
the rest of the year, conveniently houses the performers on-site. It is an
article of faith with Adam Gatehouse that the artistes should be comfortable
and well fed and watered, with good rehearsal facilities as well as space
for masterclasses (which you can attend).
