Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay Music Festival – Via Aeterna

Three halls in the abbey will come to life on this day with a varied musical programme presented by the Via Aeterna festival.

In the abbey church

• 10.00 am – Bach, ‘Suites for Solo Cello’“The entire body of work by Johann Sebastian Bach is deeply embodied and, as such, profoundly spiritual. The Suites for Solo Cello, regarded as the cellists’ Bible, have been with me for over thirty-five years. Each has its own identity, its own colour, and what unites them in my eyes is the spirit that runs through them. They bring comfort, bring joy, and are always present at pivotal moments in history. They have universal significance and build wonderful bridges between people. Let us remember Mstislav Rostropovich playing in front of the Berlin Wall,” Léa Duret. 
• 2.30 pm – VOCAL ENSEMBLE OF THE MAÎTRISE DE STE ANNE D’AURAY STRADIVARIA, wind octet, GILLES GÉRARD & GUILLAUME CUILLER, conducted by“Souffles sacrés” At the dawn of the 19th century, at a time when France was undergoing its revolution and Mont Saint-Michel had become a prison, the musical flourishing of the European courts was in full swing, notably seeing the rise of wind ensembles, which made it possible to perform major works with small ensembles. Thus, when Schubert composed his 7th and final Mass, he wrote it for choir and wind ensemble. The natural, pure voices of the Maîtrise de Sainte-Anne-d’Auray blend with the woodwinds and brass of the Stradivaria ensemble in perfect harmony, bringing to life this score known as the ‘Deutsche Messe’, as this iconic figure of German Romanticism wrote it not in Latin but in German, and moreover to non-liturgical texts. It therefore met with some reluctance from the clergy upon its premiere, but very quickly gained great popularity in Austria and Germany, thanks to Schubert’s melodic genius. 
• 7 .00 pm – EVA ZAÏCIK, mezzo-soprano, LE POÈME HARMONIQUE, VINCENT DUMESTRE, conductor “NISI DOMINUS – VIVALDI’In Vivaldi’s day, Venice was renowned throughout Europe for the splendour of its processions. Combining popular devotional songs chanted in unison with polyphonic music dating back to ancient times, it is this festive atmosphere that Vincent Dumestre has sought to recreate. Excitement gives way to contemplation in this programme, crowned by Vivaldi’s *Nisi Dominus*, that superb masterpiece based on Psalm 127, no doubt written for a young pupil at the Ospedale della Pietà – here the brilliant Eva Zaïcik, who made her mark in 2018 at the Voix Nouvelles competition, the Victoires de la Musique and the Queen Elisabeth Competition. 

In the Monks’ Refectory

• 1.00 pm – ENSEMBLE COMET MUSICKE, FRANCISCO MAÑALICH, tenor and viola da gamba, AUDE-MARIE PILOZ, viola da gamba, CYRILLE MÉTIVIER, viela and cornetto, CAMILLE RANCIÈRE, lira da braccio and viela, NOLWENN TARDY, vièle andvocals “ORFEO”‘Un canoro semi deo Orphée’, the singing demigod, by Monteverdi and his contemporaries. *L’Orfeo*, Monteverdi’s first opera, is a turning point in the history of music, marking the boundary between the Renaissance and the Baroque era. It inspires the theme of this concert and takes us on the journey of Orpheus, the mythical poet in love. The father of song, Orpheus possesses a unique power: when he sings accompanied by his lyre, ‘the marvellous lyre with its red and warm strings’, the fiercest beasts become gentle, stones and trees are moved by his heavenly voice, mighty rivers halt to listen to him, and even the gods are moved. The path to follow is quite simple: it is the sound of his voice in the company of Monteverdi, Rossi and Cavalli, complemented by instrumental pieces by Pietro Lappi and Adriano Banchieri performed by a consort of viols and violas; and we shall journey with him across all boundaries, from life and love to the ultimate: death.  
• 5.30 pm – PHILIPPE MOURATOGLOU, guitar ; HENRI DEMARQUETTE, cello “SOL!”Works by Caccini, Ferrari, Monteverdi, D’India... Works written for guitar and cello are a rare occurrence. Yet this is precisely the idea embraced by the Brazilian composer Radamés Gnattali in his Sonata for Cello and Guitar: he thus illustrates just how thin the line is between popular and classical music in Brazilian culture. To build an entire concert around this work, Henri Demarquette and Philippe Mouratoglou have immersed themselves in the joys of transcription, guided by a single principle: to bring together their instruments – as noble as they are popular – to celebrate light and joy through sun-drenched music, ranging from the shores of the Mediterranean to the lands of South America. 

In the Scriptorium

• 4.00 pm – Ô LAETITIA CORCELLE ENSEMBLE, conducted by “LES CHANTS DE LA TERRE”Works by Victoria, Richou, Saint-Saëns.‘Les Chants de la Nature’ recorded and composed by Fernand Deroussen.The audio-naturalist Fernand Deroussen hears in the vibrant sounds of nature a veritable symphony of life. But for most people, are they merely noises? Or do they share the roots of our musical material through their rhythms, pitches and polyphonies? This is a unique and deeply evocative concert, for which Fernand Deroussen has composed a soundscape that is as realistic as possible using field recordings, offering the listener all the emotion of a pure moment in nature.  This immersion in this living soundscape is interwoven with the singing voices of the eight Ô singers, who enter into a dialogue with the wild. Another dialogue emerges: that of time, featuring works from the Renaissance by Lobo and Victoria, and from our own era by Bertrand Richou, a talented composer who sets texts by Saint Francis of Assisi and Baudelaire to music here.