Festival de La Roque-d'Anthéron

The Festival de La Roque-d'Anthéron is an international piano festival, founded on 10 August 1981 by Paul Onoratini (1920–2010^[1]), then mayor of La Roque-d'Anthéron and René Martin [fr], then an intern at the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs, seeking to create a piano festival.

Held in the open air every summer in the park of the Château de Florans, it is now recognised as one of the major musical events in Europe. Some newspapers call it the "Mecca of the piano".^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

Interprets

It is the meeting place for all pianistic talents, bringing together both new young talents and those whose reputation is well established.

The invited artists include Martha Argerich, Nelson Freire, Boris Berezovsky, Youri Egorov, Evgeny Kissin, Zhu Xiao-Mei, François-Frédéric Guy, Claire Désert, Nikolai Lugansky, Eliso Virsaladze, Valentina Igoshina, Brigitte Engerer,^[6] Arcadi Volodos, Anne Queffélec, Alexandre Tharaud, Marie-Josèphe Jude, Hélène Grimaud, Mauricio Vallina, come regularly to perform at this festival.

Hélène Grimaud rehearsing in 2004
Carte blanche to Nikolai Lugansky in 2008

Although the festival is centered on the piano, other instrumentalists sometimes join the stage, in orchestra formations such as the Concerto Köln and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, or in chamber formation (Gautier and Renaud Capuçon, Trio Wanderer...), as well as various baroques ensembles, jazz and electronic music composers...

The piano is sometimes also replaced by a harpsichord, an organ, a pianoforte, a clavicord or even a toy piano...

The "ensembles in residence" are small chamber music ensembles made up of young musicians who came to La Roque-d'Anthéron to study during the masterclasses of the great masters of the piano. They also perform in various surrounding villages, La route de la Durance aux Alpilles, during free concerts to discover these artists of tomorrow.

Concerts take place at various locations on the site, not always in the village itself:

Concert locations

Parc du Château de Florans: Clairière converted into an outdoor auditorium, it is the key site of the festival.
Théâtre Forbin: Another outdoor auditorium, located in parc Florans, is designed for a smaller audience and its concerts, only during the day, give way to the new generation of pianists.
Silvacane Abbey: In the cloister of the nave of the abbey, are mainly held concerts of Baroque music.
Temple protestant de Lourmarin [fr]
Église de La Roque-d'Anthéron
Étang des Aulnes: This site is located in Saint-Martin-de-Crau, 60 km from La Roque d'Anthéron. This is another open-air auditorium with a remarkable setting and acoustics
Carrières (quarries) of Rognes: In this natural stone setting, 9 km from La Roque-d'Anthéron, concerts of jazz, 20th century piano music and electronic music are held.^[7]
Théâtre des terrasses of Gordes
Église Notre-Dame de Beaulieu of Cucuron, especially for the pipe organ of the church.

References

^ La Roque-d'Anthéron endeuillée Archived 2012-04-13 at the Wayback Machine, La Provence, 10 January 2010.
^ La Mecque du piano, L'Express, Erikson Franck, 12 August 1999
^ Ils se pressent à La Mecque du piano, Le Parisien, 19 August 2004
^ Libération, La Mecque du piano mondial^{[permanent dead link]}, 27 July 2001
^ Le piano roi à La Roque-d'Anthéron, Le Figaro, Jean-Louis Validire, 21 July 2008
^ Aurore Busser: "The tribute of Orcpaca and Bender to Brigitte Engerer - having played many times with the Orchestre régional de Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur [fr], this tribute was paid to her shortly after her death in June 2012, during the festival, on July 31, in a concert given by the Orchestra, conducted by Philippe Bender, and two guest pianists: Anne Queffélec, playing Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Boris Berezovsky performing one of Tchaikovsky's , Nice-Matin, 7 August 2012
^ Carrières de Rognes

External links

[1] La Roque-d'Anthéron endeuillée Archived 2012-04-13 at the Wayback Machine, La Provence, 10 January 2010.

[2] La Mecque du piano, L'Express, Erikson Franck, 12 August 1999

[3] Ils se pressent à La Mecque du piano, Le Parisien, 19 August 2004

[4] Libération, La Mecque du piano mondial^{[permanent dead link]}, 27 July 2001

[5] Le piano roi à La Roque-d'Anthéron, Le Figaro, Jean-Louis Validire, 21 July 2008

[6] Aurore Busser: "The tribute of Orcpaca and Bender to Brigitte Engerer - having played many times with the Orchestre régional de Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur [fr], this tribute was paid to her shortly after her death in June 2012, during the festival, on July 31, in a concert given by the Orchestra, conducted by Philippe Bender, and two guest pianists: Anne Queffélec, playing Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Boris Berezovsky performing one of Tchaikovsky's , Nice-Matin, 7 August 2012

[7] Carrières de Rognes

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