25 Jul Verbier – a festival that scales the musical heights
< by Oltea Șerban-Pârâu >
We have been talking about the “Magic Summer” International Festival in Bucharest, the International Festival “Enescu and the World Music” in Sinaia, the “Young Euro Classic“Festival in Berlin, which interests us in the first place with a view to the Romanians who attend them, if they are organized abroad or their possibility to participate, if located in Romania.
Given the chance to attend for one evening at the Verbier Festival, I have tried to understand how this industry of summer festivals works in Europe and will continue to do so throughout the season. Perhaps that, by meditating on what’s happening around, we will discover the miraculous solution for the culture in Romania not to be so dependent on public money any more. The 26th edition of the Verbier Festival (a mountain ski resort located at an altitude of 1500 meters in the Swiss Alps) takes place from July 18 through August 3. Its synthesis in figures meaning 17 days of events, 56 concerts on the main stage, over 75 international artists, 200 events with affordable prices for the public or free entrance and 220 young musicians. The program is fabulous, the landscape is fascinating, and the current edition of the festival continues to be based, in terms of essential values, on the idea of boldness, exchange and artistic excitement. After the 25th anniversary edition last year, thanks to the festival, the Verbier mountain resort became world-renowned (65,954 spectators, + 39% compared to 2017). Shouldn’t we ask if the local authorities have thought of measuring whether, and how much Sinaia’s notoriety has grown after 20 editions of the “Enescu and the World Music” Festival celebrated this very summer of 2019?
The Verbier Festival is sponsored by the Neva Fondation Timtchenko and Julius Bar as institutions of the Les Amis du Verbier Festival, the Romande Lottery, Commune de Bagnes, Verbier – Val de Bagnes – La Tzoumaz, Televerbier, Valais, and co-sponsored by Lonza , media partner Le Temps, community partner JTI. I listed them all precisely because this is not relevant to Romania, although it should be, and if this could happen at some point also in our country, none of the Romanian festivals we were talking about at first, or even the “Enescu ” Festival would have to fear that they will lack continuity because of the budgetary disturbances related to public funding. Swiss festivals can work this way, because there is a culture of generosity directed towards culture and art, which occurs in our country only in the form of chance or providential persons, and often goes to the social area, health or sports. Much rarer to art and culture.
For the second consecutive year, the Verbier Festival and the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation have organized the “Philanthropy Forum”, a two-day event of debates on reflection, sharing knowledge between generations and encouraging initiatives. This forum was focused on the notions of culture and generosity as seen in association at the level of 2019. How can we make all of them known and applied at the level of contemporary Romania so that culture is not suffering in times like the one we are crossing? At Verbier, this 2019 edition of the Festival is designed for every audience and taste. By keeping the proportions of the classical education of the Western public, superior to that of Eastern Europe, of course. This festival has been a platform for artistic experiences for more than two decades. In 2019, it continues to give a chance to young artists, however, bringing on stage first-class musicians, soloists with remarkable careers, and graduates of the Verbier academy, some of them performing for the first time on the stages arranged in the heart of the Swiss Alps.
The opening concert was centered on the exceptional violinist Kristóf Bárati, who played under the baton of Valery Gergiev. As a matter of fact, the music director of the festival also conducted an iconic work of the 20th century repertoire, Die Frau one Schatten by Richard Strauss, with a distribution consisting of Brandon Jovanovich, Camilla Nylund, Matthias Goerne, or Nina Stemme. From the repertoire perspective, the Verbier Festival ranges from baroque parts to contemporary works, sculpting an ample stylistic fan along the 17 days. Apart from classical music, two extraordinary evenings offer the audience at Salle de Combins the chance to listen to a different kind of music: electro tango nuevo with the Plaza Francia Orchestra (Müller and Makaroff from Gotan Project) or Brazilian music with the legendary Gilberto Gil. I have attended the concert of Christoph H. Müller and Eduardo Makaroff, founders of the Gotan Project, who continue to explore the tango nuevo genre together with Plaza Francia Orchestra, proposing a blend of tango and pop played by the best new generation musicians of this genre. We have noticed the superb ascending line of the accumulated emotion, play after play, supported by the refinement of enlightenment, and no less by the tact by which the musicians at Plaza Francia Orchestra have managed to place themselves in the context of a classical music festival without discord, supporting both verbally and musically the idea that classical music, and what is called “popular music” in the West are not rejecting each other, and the insertion of such music in the context of a classical music festival is precisely in favor of increasing its popularity.
We can not conclude this foray into the world of an event that has been going on constantly for 26 years in the Swiss Alps, the Verbier Festival, without pointing to a component that has developed in our country as well in its own way, through the project of the National Junior Orchestras. As their predecessors did, 220 Verbier Festival Academy musicians, the Verbier Festival Orchestra and the Junior Orchestra are also exploring also in 2019 the classical music spectrum, taught by exceptional musicians along not less than 150 Masterclasses, rehearsals and workshops, whereas the closing day will be the culmination of almost three weeks of interaction with great artists of the world of music. On the other hand, this year’s Verbier Festival has a program that consists not only of the 56 main concerts, but also includes the “Unlimited programme”, with over 100 low-cost or free entry events promoting the idea of discovering classical music. Even though this month we are celebrating 50 years from man’s first step on the moon, we do not have to look at what’s happening at the Verbier Festival as a story about something that can only happen in countries with a generosity culture directed towards art like Switzerland. And although what JTI does in Romania in support of art and culture is perhaps just a drop in a sea, this is a common element between us and them at this time. There are still a few enthusiasts in Romania of the same nature and with the same courage. But time has no patience, and it seems that if something spectacular is to occur in Romania to support the culture here, it will. But who has the secret mission to put these ideas together? Here’s an unanswered question for now, which has invited me, however, to spend an evening at the Verbier Festival in the summer of 2019.