Programme

Un grand bol d’art !*

Unmissable summer event, the Festival des Forêts will offer from June 21 to July 15, 2021, an exceptional 29 ^e edition adapted to health constraints.

Despite the current uncertainty and building on the success of 2020, the Festival des Forêts and its president and artistic director Bruno Ory-Lavollée, always on the lookout for new formats, will be proposing for the 29 ^th edition a particularly unique programming. Read the Editorial 2021

The theme of this edition Auf dem Wasser zu singen ( Singing on the water ) is inspired by ‘a famous song by Schubert, evokes the rivers – the Aisne and the Oise – and the ponds which characterize the landscapes of the forests of Compiègne and Laigue and invites to the many musical translations of the aquatic world.

With nineteen concerts and ten musical forest baths, this program will focus on the outdoors (the courtyard of the Château de Pierrefonds in particular) and will take over new places. It will nevertheless include a few concerts in emblematic closed places (such as the Imperial Theater of Compiègne) in strict compliance with health standards.

Festive concerts

Music is a party! Bolstered by this adage and always looking for new links between the public and the performers, the Festival des Forêts is moving away from the beaten track.

• A musical walk with the musicians of the Open Chamber Orchestra will celebrate Mozart in the village of Pierrefonds, between the castle and the lake.
• A concert on the water with the wind quintet, Le Concert Impromptu is planned in the bucolic setting of the Coucoo La Réserve eco-domain in Saint-Léger-aux-Bois.
• A large concert by the Center Region Harmony Orchestra conducted by Philippe Ferro will be offered with picnic and fireworks in the Brunerie park in Choisy-au-Bac.

• A humorous concert to a text by Jean-Pierre Coffe “The descent to pleasure” bringing together soprano Julie Cherrier, baritone Jean-Philippe Lafont, pianist Frédéric Chaslin and an oenologist will celebrate the joys wine and intoxication in the newly inaugurated orangery of Saint-Pierre-en-Chastres.

* Article published on the Festival des Forêts: Un grand bol d´art , Le Journal du Dimanche by Marie-Anne Kleiber

Renowned performers

• The Open Chamber Orchestra , a chamber orchestra founded in 2017 by the conductor and violinist Yaïr Benaïm is starting a collaboration with the Festival des Forêts this year.
  It is with the pianist Dana Ciocarlie (with whom the Open Chamber Orchestra plans to play in the long term the complete Mozart piano concertos ), that the orchestra, under the direction of Yaïr Banaïm, will offer two concerts this year (including one in the park of Château de Pierrefonds), each articulated around a Mozart piano concerto.
• The Orchester de Picardie under the direction of Arie van Beek will perform with Geneviève Laurenceau at the Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne a French music program, largely devoted to Saint-Saëns , thus marking the centenary anniversary of the death of this composer.
• Aline Piboule , pianist and writer Pascal Quignard , Prix Goncourt 2002, will offer a recital-story that will combine extracts from Boutès or the desire to throw water , translations of Apollonius of Rhodes and musical works from the classical repertoire (Ravel, Chopin, Fauré, Schubert, Messiæn).
• In addition to a duo concert with Thierry Escaich , the young Albanian pianist, Marie-Ange Nguci, will offer a solo concert devoted to pieces of French music (Saint Saëns, César Franck, Escaich).
• A remarkable duo also, that formed by the violinist Sarah Nemtanu , first violin of the National Orchestra of France, multiplying international distinctions, with the pianist Romain Descharmes , first Grand Prize of the Dublin International Competition in 2006.

Résidence

Composer in residence, Thierry Escaich continues his companionship with the Festival des Forêts for the third consecutive year.

• A world premiere by this composer will see the light of day at the Festival des Forêts in 2021: a work written for a horn quartet performed by the Argos Quartet, formed at the initiative of horn player Hervé Joulain .
• Thierry Escaich will continue to lead this year an academy of young composers and will perform on the organ one of his major works, the Litanies of the shadow , with the young Albanian pianist Marie-Ange Nguci , whose first disc In mirror received a Choc Classica and many echoes in the press.

Bains de forêt musicaux

In addition to the concerts, the 29th ^e Festival of Forests will give pride of place to the Musical forest baths which perfectly embody the alchemy between music and nature on which the festival is founded, by offering a unique experience to recharge your batteries.

For this 29 ^th edition, 10 musical forest baths will be offered with the intervention of leading musicians, in particular the oboist Gabriel Pidoux , violist Adrien Boisseau , violinist Marie-Astrid Hulot and clarinetist Rémi Delangle.

These “musical forest baths” combine the benefits of contact with nature (they take place in the woods), with music (a musician artist is present) and with oneself (thanks to resourcing exercises from sophrology , yoga or Qi-gong). They take the form of a three-hour immersion in the forest, which follows a specific protocol. The group consists of a maximum of twenty people, led by a mediator and accompanied by an artist musician.

Inspired by the Japanese technique of shinrin yoku (literally, forest bath ), a practice of immersion in the forest whose scientific studies have shown the many benefits for health, Musical forest baths were created by the Forest Festival two years ago.

They are very popular with the public and are offered all year round to individuals and businesses.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

TICKET OFFICE / DETAILED CONCERTS PROGRAM from May 5, 2021

• Online at: www.festivaldesforets.fr
• By phone on 03 44 40 28 99

ACCESS

• By road
  From Paris: A1 motorway, direction Lille (85 km)
• By train
  55 ’on average from Paris-Nord.
• On site
  Free shuttles provided for each event outside Compiègne