Guitares en Cormatinois – Trio Alta

With yesterday’s concert in the church of Malay the festival “Guitares en Cormatinois” came to an end. And though there was no program available for the volunteers (the program was sold out in no time!), a quick search on the Internet provided the required information. The trio consists of Eric Sobszyk – guitar, Igor Kiritchenko - cello and Marc Vieillefon – violin and their program bore the title "Romantique", although the emphasis was on composers of the classical period. Having said that, also non-romantic music was performed in a rather romantic way. Their repertoirte consisted of work by composers such as Paganini, Gragnani, Guiliani, Bürgmüller and Haydn.
The Malay church has very good acoustics for this sort of ensemble. The concert was, in my view, an excellent conclusion of the series, despite, or even thanks to the light-footedness of the music. The music reminded me of light music, which I remember from the revival it had in the Netherlands in the fifties.

Time to make up the balance of the festival.
The highlight was no doubt the concert of Poulet and Saraglou in Chazelle, joint with the concert of Baty and Goudin in Cormatin. The quality of the latter concert was seriously hampered by the acoustics of the church. The piano sounded at times like a submarine, whilst the trumpet sounded absolutely brilliant.
A very good second was the Trio Alta in Malay.
About Bracco and Moncheny in Bonnay I cannot say much more than that I found them boring, and Rossfelder and the Ensemble Toscanini in Saint-Hippolyte I consider to be a missed opportunity.
As far as the venues are concerned:
Chazelle as well as Malay both offer good acoustics. Bonnay was really bad, unless one had a seat at the front, and Saint-Hippolyte’s acoustics were good, while its ambiance is stunning. Big disadvantage of this place is that it requires the back-up of Bonnay church in case of rain. The church of Cormatin has been mentioned earlier.
After each concert there is a buffet for the organisers and volunteers with the musicians in Cormatin. We went on foot to the concert in Chazelle, hoping to get a lift to Cormatin and back from some one. Fortunately the mayor of Cormatin lives in Chazelle, so he took us for a ride.

On the way the subject of venues came up in conversation, and the mayor worded what we had thought for a long time: why not concentrate the whole festival in one place, e.g. in Chazelle? It improves the logistics tremendously, it increases the recognisability of the festival, and the acoustics are known to be good. What else can one wish?
However, knowing how stubborn the artistic director of the festival is, it still will take a lot of lobbying before we can rename the festival into “Guitares en Chazellois”!

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