Shortly before the planned start of the festival, the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad announce that a digital replacement programme will be launched on 2 February. Until the very end, the festival organisers had hoped to be able to hold the concerts as usual.

At the suggestion of their artistic director and violinist Renaud Capuçon, an alternative festival version can now be held. For the first time in the history of the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, the festival is going online. From 2 to 5 February, five special public concerts will take place in the church in Saanen, which will be filmed and recorded and can be streamed on the festival website. Also taking part are the partners RTS-Espace 2 and Mezzo as well as Medici TV, which will broadcast the concerts at a later date.

As the management writes, the digital festival “stands as a sign of hope and in thought for the artists and the currently completely stalled cultural scene – but also simply to be able to continue.” Unfortunately, the concerts for young talents and the two renowned competitions Prix Thierry Scherz and Prix André Hoffmann and the associated award ceremonies cannot be held.

It is therefore all the more gratifying that the five concerts will take place with an outstanding line-up. Only internationally renowned interpreters of our time will perform, led by the Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich, who remains loyal to the Sommets Musicaux, and a grand conclusion with the internationally acclaimed pianist Alexandre Kantorow.

A top-class musical treat
The five concerts in the church of Saanen (each at 7.30pm) will begin on Tuesday, 2 February with the legendary pianist Martha Argerich and violinist Renaud Capuçon, who has also recently taken over the direction of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. They will play Beethoven’s so-called Kreutzer Sonata, No. 9 in A major, op. 47 and the Sonata for Violin and Piano, A major, FWV 8 by Caesar Franck.

On 3 February, Martha Argerich will perform again, this time with her compatriot, the pianist Nelson Goerner. Two works for two pianos will be performed: En noir et blanc by Claude Debussy and Symphonic Dances, op. 45b, by Sergei Rachmaninov.

On 4 February, the winner of the 2020 Prix Thierry Scherz, Jean-Paul Gasparian, will perform Beethoven’s Spring Sonata, No. 5 in F major, op. 24, together with the South Korean violinist Bomsori Kim. Kim was recently heard in concert with Rafael Blechacz. Further on the programme are Johannes Brahms’ Sonata No. 3 in D minor, op. 108, and Nocturne and Tarantella by Karol Szymanowski. One day later, on 5 February, Michel Dalberto will give his piano recital that had originally been scheduled in the Sommets Musicaux season programme: the two sonatas No. 19, E minor, D 958 and 21, B flat major, D 960 by Franz Schubert. Dalberto was the first winner of the Salzburg International Mozart Competition in 1975, won the Clara Haskil Prize in the same year and the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1978, and is Professor Emeritus.

The crowning finale will be the internationally acclaimed pianist Alexandre Kantorow together with the French cellist Victor Julien-Laferrière, first prize winner in the international Concours Reine Elisabeth de Belgique, and Renaud Capuçon. The programme includes the Piano Trio in A minor, op. 50, In Memory of a Great Artist by Peter I. Tchaikovsky.

BASED ON AVS/LOTTE BRENNER

www.sommets-musicaux.ch