Festival Ravel 2024 | Bertrand Chamayou’s editorial

It will soon be five years ago, in December 2019, that Jean-François Heisser invited me to join him in the Festival Ravel adventure. The idea was to work together on a major new project bringing together the Academy and the Festival, and subsequently to entrust me with the helm after several seasons of joint programming. I immediately glimpsed the prospect of realising an old dream.
My passion for Maurice Ravel, just like my love for the Basque country, dates back to my childhood and is inseparable from it. As a young teenager, in 1996, I came to study with Jean-François at the Académie Ravel. Those successive summers in Saint-Jean-de-Luz were key moments in my development, intense moments of learning but also, and above all, of encounters.
I have often caught myself pondering what a great event might be like, one that would summon the spirits of all the musicians who, around Ravel, so enjoyed living or spending time in the Basque country: Stravinsky, Albéniz, Chaliapine, Debussy, Thibault, Prokofiev, Poulenc… A sort of grand Ravelian carnival with a rich, open and creative programme.

Jean-François offered me the chance to make this dream come true, and for that I am infinitely grateful. After three magnificent seasons as a duo, from 2021 to 2023, it is with considerable emotion that I am presenting this 2024 edition, this time on my own.

In keeping with our initial approach, the architecture of this programme is underpinned by a number of symphonic pillars: this year will see the return of Les Siècles as the opening act, evoking Ravel’s Spain. Le Concert spirituel and Hervé Niquet will also return for a sacred programme built around Fauré’s Requiem. The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, one of France’s most prestigious orchestras, will be here for the first time, with Mikko Frank, its musical director, and Sol Gabetta, a great friend of the festival. Other regulars on the programme include the Belcea Quartet, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger and, of course, Jean-François Heisser.
We shall also be lucky enough to welcome Barbara Hannigan, Alena Baeva, Vadim Kholodenko, Jonathan Biss and Véronique Gens for the first time.

Several centuries of musical history will be placed in perspective during this edition: Jordi Savall will honour us with a programme entirely devised for the festival, featuring early music, traditional songs and arrangements of works by Ravel. The musicians of Hegiak will be performing Basque works drawn from music collected in rural areas, as well as contemporary works evoking the life of farming communities. The Ensemble intercontemporain and its conductor Pierre Bleuse, who delighted us last year with a tribute to Ligeti, are back with a programme based on major contemporary composers laying claim to a Ravelian heritage: George Benjamin and Michael Jarrell, both of whom will be present.
Benjamin’s opera Into the Little Hill, inspired by the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, will be the starting point for a weekend devoted to Fantastic Tales, featuring Beauty and the Beast, Tom Thumb, Sleeping Beauty and the Snow Queen, as well as Pan, Orpheus, Narcissus and Ondine, and the witches of Night on Bald Mountain.
A new feature this year is the introduction of themed weekends on Ravel-linked subjects, which I hope will further open up the field of possibilities. The second weekend of the festival will be devoted to Ravel’s teacher, Gabriel Fauré, the centenary of whose death we are celebrating.

After a day in Itxassou devoted to Fauré, his friends and his pupils, Sunday in Cambo-les-Bains will depict an imaginary visit by Fauré to Albéniz, the two musicians having struck up a close friendship late in life.

This year also sees a real renaissance for the Academy, thanks to the brand new Centre Culturel Peyuco Duhart, which will be the students’ living space for the space a fortnight.
Public masterclasses with the teachers and a number of very special guests will punctuate the Festival programme, right up to the grand concert on 30 August. This year, I also wished to see the Festival and the Academy more closely interconnected, with a number of concerts featuring young musicians in the company of their elders.

On 4 September, the Festival will close with a grand opening: the explosive show CAGE², which I shall be presenting in the company of dancer and choreographer Élodie Sicard, will kick off the Le Temps d’Aimer la danse festival, another of the Basque Country’s flagship events.

“I have never been so happy to live, and I firmly believe that joy is far more fertile than suffering”, Ravel wrote one day in a letter to Marguerite de Saint-Marceaux.

From 19 August to 4 September, I invite you to take part in this immense outburst of optimism and beauty!

—
Bertrand Chamayou
Chairman and Artistic director

Sar-hitza

Duela kasik bost urte, Jean-François Heisser nirekin harremanetan jarri zen harekin parte har nezan Ravel festibalaren abenturan. Orduan, asmoa zen Akademia eta Festibala bilduko zituen proiektu handi bat elkarrekin eraikitzea, eta, gero, bien artean programatutako zenbait edizioren ondotik, zuzendaritza nire gomendio uztea.
Haur-haurretik Maurice Ravelekiko dudan pasioa eta Euskal Herriarekiko dudan maitasuna bereizezinak dira. Gainera, nerabe gaztea nintzelarik, 1996an, Akademian ikasle izan nintzen. Donibane Lohizunen iragan uda haiek nire biziko memento garrantzitsuak izan ziren, ikasteko, garatzeko, baina baita topaketak egiteko ere.
Maiz amestu izan dut zer itxura hartuko zuen Ravelen ondoan Euskal Herrian egonez hainbeste gozatu zuten musikari guzien izpirituei dei eginez –Stravinsky, Albéniz, Chaliapine, Debussy, Thibaud, Prokofiev, Poulenc eta abar– antolatutako gertakari handi batek. Bada, amets hau gauzatzeko aukera eman dit Jean-François-ek, eta biziki eskerdun natzaio.

Beraz, emozioz beterik aurkezten dizuet 2024ko edizioa.
2021etik 2023ra hasi genuenaren jarraipen gisa, egitarau honen arkitektura zenbait zutabe sinfonikotan oinarritzen da: hala, aurten, berriz gurekin izanen ditugu Les Siècles, Le Concert Spirituel eta Bordele Akitaniako Orkestra Nazionala. Radio Franceko Orkestra Filarmonikoa lehen aldiz etorriko da, Sol Gabetta festibalaren lagun handiarekin batera.
Ohiko beste talde eta artista batzuk izanen ditugu ere, hala nola, Belcea kuartetoa, Katia eta Marielle Labèque edo Jean-Frédéric Neuburger eta, bistan da, Jean-François Heisser ere.
Horrez gain, lehen aldiz errezibituko ditugu Barbara Hannigan, Tabea Zimmermann, Alena Baeva, Vadym Kholodenko, Jonathan Biss, Véronique Gens eta Jordi Savall artista handiak. Azken honek festibalerako pentsatutako kantu zerrenda joko digu, antzinako musikaren, kantu herrikoien eta Ravelen obren moldaketen artean.

Hegiak taldeko musikariek eskainiko dizkigute baserrialdean bildutako euskal kantu tradizionalak eta laborarien bizia gogora ekartzen duten obra garaikideak.

Ensemble intercontemporain taldea gure garaiko konpositore nagusien inguruko –George Benjamin eta Michael Jarrell– kantu zerrenda batekin itzuliko da, eta bi konpositore haiek ere hor izanen dira. Benjaminen Into the Little Hill opera, Hamelingo txirulariaren kondairan oinarritua, “Fantasiazko Ipuinei” eskainitako asteburuaren abiapuntua izanen da.

Izan ere, aurtengo berrikuntzetarik bat da Ravelekin zerikusia duten gaiei buruzko asteburu tematikoak antolatzea.

Festibalaren bigarren asteburua haren maisu izan zen Gabriel Fauréri eskainiko zaio, Fauréren heriotzaren mendeburua ospatzen ari baikara. Itsasun Fauréri eta haren lagunei eta ikasleei eskainitako egun baten ondotik, Kanbon, igandean, Faurék Albénizi egin irudimenezko bisita itxuratuko da.

Bestalde, Akademiako irakasleek eta Festibaleko gonbidatu batzuek gidaturiko ikasgai magistral publikoek puntuzkatuko dute egitarau hori, abuztuaren 30eko kontzertu nagusira arte.
Azkenik, aurten, Festibalaren eta Akademiaren arteko harremana indartu nahi izan dut, zaharragoekin batera gazteak argitan ezarriko dituzten kontzertu batzuk antolatuz.
Irailaren 4an, festibalaren amaierako ikuskizuna irekidura bat izanen da ere, CAGE² ikuskizun zirraragarriak Euskal Herriko beste gertakari enblematiko bat den Biarritzeko Maitaldiaren irekitzea iragarriko baitu.
“… benetan uste dut poza sufrimendua baino askoz emankorragoa dela”, idatzi zuen Ravelek. Baikortasun eta edertasun oldar handi batean parte hartzera gonbidatzen zaituztet abuztuaren 19tik irailaren 4ra!

—
Bertrand Chamayou
Zuzendari artistikoa