Music in the monastery - chamber music and song in Picardy, France
(Four/five nights between Friday 8 - Wednesday 13 August 2008)
The Festival de Valloires is an international chamber music festival set in the atmospheric 18th century Cistercian Abbaye de Valloires in Picardy and its magnificent gardens. The 2008 focus is the music of Schubert and Britten and whilst the programme is not yet finalised, artistic highlights include appearances by Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore, Imogen Cooper, Paul Lewis, Cédric Tiberghien, Alina Ibragimova, Christiane Stotjin, the Belcea Quartet and Quatuor Ysaÿe.
The festival was inaugurated in the summer of 2006 under the artistic direction of multi-talented Adam Gatehouse, conductor and BBC Radio 3's Live Music Editor. Adam is also executive producer of the prestigious BBC Wigmore Hall Lunchtime Concerts. He founded and continues to run Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme.
The abbey in which the festival takes place is one of France's most beautiful religious buildings. The original abbey was built in the 12th century by Cistercian monks from Burgundy who planted hundreds of fruit trees, especially pear trees, and the pear brandy they produced became popular in England. Most of the concerts are in the abbey's imposing church or église abbatiale, with its sumptuous wrought iron gates. The gardens cover 20 acres with over 5,000 species and varieties of shrubs and are kept in immaculate condition.
Picardy is one of France's oldest provinces and this corner of it features picturesque villages, gently meandering valleys and fields, some romantic castles and the spectacular Gothic cathedral of Amiens. The region is steeped in history: William the Conqueror set sail from Saint-Valery-sur-Somme; the Battle of Crécy was fought in Picardy and Henry VIII met François I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Some of the grimmest battles of World War I took place on the Somme and the Armistice was signed in the forest of Compiègnes in 1918. It was at this same spot that Hitler forced France to surrender in 1940.
Our Sharonarts tour will be finalised as soon as the artistic programme is confirmed. As well as concerts by top artists, it will include a guided tour of the abbey and a visit to the magnificent gardens. There will also be an excursion to see the cathedral of Amiens, the tallest complete cathedral in France which the Victorian art and social critic Ruskin described as "Gothic pure, authoritative, unsurpassable..." At least one meal will be taken in the abbey's dining room, where artists and public alike dine after the evening performance.
The magnificent gardens (John Reddihough)
The cloister (John Reddihough)
