The San Sebastian Musical Fortnight begins its 83rd edition next 2 of August, with a concert starring Sir John Eliot Gardiner, accompanied by the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists.
The British director thus ends a tour full of successes and good reviews in our country with different programs, this being one of the few where you can enjoy not only the aforementioned Gardiner, but also from two of the most important early music ensembles on the international scene: the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists.
The Italian and German Baroque take over the Kursaal in San Sebastián to offer a recital that covers some of the best-kept jewels of the Seicento and Settecento. Sir John Eliot Gardiner, possibly the world's most sought after baroque conductor, offers us a concert in which Giacomo Carissimi's Jephte will be performed (1605-1674), a typical sacred story of the
XVII century and that tells us the story of Jephte, Israeli judge who leads his people in battle against the Ammonites and, as a result of a leap of faith, he ends up sacrificing his daughter. The presence of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) he could not miss the program either with his Stabat Mater, heartfelt and visceral work that narrates the mourning of the virgin when observing, at the foot of the cross, the body of her inert son. By last, the concert will end with the Musical Funerals SWV 279–281 by Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672), intimate and profound choral pieces that demonstrate the mastery
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, this time, will be accompanied by the Monteverdi Choir, the most prolific baroque vocal group of recent years, more than 150 recordings on the market, in addition to facing musical challenges such as the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, in the year 2000 led them to interpret the 198 sacred cantatas of J. S. Bach, see 63 european churches. Along with Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists could not be missing either, formation created in 1978 by the British director and who always accompany him in the largest projects.
After his success in the last tour that Gardiner made in our country, his appointment with San Sebastián not only means the return of the British director to the city of San Sebastián, but also the best way that the Musical Fortnight had to start its 83rd edition, which on this occasion will celebrate more than 70 concerts —in addition to all the complementary activities that the festival will carry out— throughout the month of August.
Photographia © Liliya Olkhovaya