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MUSIC PROMENADE FESTIVAL 2nd edition The second edition of the Music Promenade Festival was held from Thursday 27 December 2007 to Saturday 5 January in Gstaad, Rougemont and Lauenen in the Swiss Alps. Eleven concerts of world class quality over ten days in five different locations were enjoyed by hundreds of visitors and local residents with presentations, meetings and dinners at the finest restaurants including the Grand Hotel Park and Restaurants Rialto and Olden in Gstaad. Guests of Honour HE the Director General of the United Nations and Mrs Ordzhonikidze
Musicians John Apeitos, Director Grace Bumbry, soprano Caroline Haffner, piano Liu Ji, piano Norbert Kiser, trumpet MozART Quartet Aiman Mussakhojayeva, violin Mauro Pagano, tenor Julien Quentin, piano Alexander Schmalcz, piano Vladimir Sverdlov, piano Agnieska Tobik, violin Irini Tsirakidis, soprano Leontina Vaduva, soprano Alessandro Valoriani, organ Tatiana Vassilieva, cello Maxim Vengerov, violin Mélodie Zhao, piano Aygolek Violinist Ensemble of Kazakhstan Music Promenade Festival Chamber Orchestra
Sponsors Van Cleef & Arpels Regenlab Switzerland Grand Hotel Park Gstaad Cenovis Senses Ltd Geneva Maserati International School 'Le Rosey' Swissotel Metropole Geneva Alain Cobacho de Barth Hervé Charlet Forum Grimaldi Monaco Gstaad Yacht Club Claude Lebet Pianostreet.com SPG Finest Properties Geneva Yacht Club of Monaco
PATRONS Host patron of the Festival: Donata Bertarelli-Späth Marraine du Gala des Coeurs: Sophia Loren
Comité de Soutien SA Prince Mubarak Al Sabah Maître Salvatore Aversano Alain Cabacho de Barth Monika del Campo Bacardi, Lady of Bayfield Hall Gustavo Bonde Patrick de Brou de Laurière Comte et Comtesse Pierre Cheremetieff Martin T:son Engstroem Corinne & Maurizio Ferro Donatella Flick International Conducting Competition Christiane Fournier-Laroque Ade Garrick Baronne Gennaro di Giacomo di Giampaolo Jean-Jacques Giraud Evelyn et Benoît de Gorsky Marthe Keller Antoine Y. Khairallah Comtesse Setsuko Klossowska de Rola Dame Felicity Lott SAR Prince Pavlos of Greece Professor Panagiotis Pavlopoulos Catherine Pastor Caroline & Vadim Repin Comte Gonzague Saint Bris Fazil Say Homayra Sellier Princesse Francoise Sturdza Jean-Yves Thibaudet Maître Monique Desforges-Thierry, Maître Hubert Thierry Pierre-François Unger, Conseiller d'état Maxim Vengerov Professeur Heinrich Walt Jonathan Wilson, Wall Street Journal Europe
Comité jeunes Anastasia & Dimitri Dogaev Princesse Delphine Lubomirska SA Duchesse Rixa von Oldenburg
Concerts complimentary (local organisations and businesses who spread the word about the festival): The team at the GRAND HOTEL PARK GSTAAD • Star Design Gstaad Promenade• ANTIQUA MENUS PLAISIRS, Gstaad Promenade • Saanen Airport • Ski School Gstaad & region • Ski stations Gstaad-Eggli, Saanen-Eggli (and Ski Bar Zelle) Wasserngrat &Wispile • Early Beck Gstaad Promenade & region • Zwahlen-Hüni, Fine Clothes & Tailors • OlyVer Coiffure Grand Hotel Park Gstaad • The Spa, Grand Hotel Park Gstaad • Herren Coiffure, by the Promenade, Gstaad • Boulangerie du Village, Beck Rougemont •Vinotheque Pernet Gstaad Promenade • Intersport Gstaad • Adler Gstaad • Molkerei Gstaad • Doris's Kaffeestube • Villiger Rolex Gstaad Promenade • Papeterie Cadenau Gstaad Promenade • Apple Pie Tearoom Gstaad • Cashmere Corner Gstaad • Pharmacie Capitole Gstaad • Romang Schuhe Gstaad Promenade • Ballonchateaudoex.ch • Charly's Café Gstaad Promenade • Worni Augenoptik Gstaad Promenade • Lorenz Bach Gstaad Promenade • Caveau Bacchus Gstaad Promenade • Brotbar Gstaad (365 Tagen) • Edelweiss Sport Gstaad • Lauenen Tourismus • Rougemont Tourisme • Grima Gstaad • Overlap AG - Swissrentasport (Hertz-Tamoil) Gstaad • Buchhandlung "Au Foyer" • The teams at Hotels Arc-en-ciel, Le Grand Chalet, Christiania Gstaad Promenade, Gstaaderhof, Bernerhof, Bellerive à Gstaad • Hotels Alpenland, Wildhorn et Geltenhorn à Lauenen • Hotels Steinberger & Ermitage Golf, Saanen - Schönried • Hotel Bären à Gsteig • Auberge de la Commune Rougemont • Hotel-Restaurant l'Ermitage à Château d'Oex • Tennishalle & Schwimmbad Gstaad • "Openair Champagne Bar Centro" Gstaad Promenade • Molkerei Saanen • Blum Haushalt Saanen • Museum Landschaft Saanen • Coiffure Marti Saanen • Bäckerie Müller Saanen • Metzgerei Nydegger Saanen • Bäckerie Dubi Gstaad • Antiques Echinard • Restaurant Rialto, Gstaad Promenade • Restaurant Olden Gstaad Promenade. The churches of Lauenen, Rougemont, Gstaad and Chateau d'Oex • Gstaad Yacht Club.
Press Reports Berner Oberlander Music and Vision Daily Gstaad Life Radio China International has a website article with interviews and photos from the 31 December recitals by Mélodie Zhao and Liu Ji (links on the Music Promenade Festival website).
Organisation links APMC Green Cross International Global Humanitarian Forum Medi Terra The Glenn Gould Foundation Canada
Review The last night of the Music Promenade Festival on 5 January in Switzerland was a unique musical occasion. Leontina Vaduva, the much respected soprano made her debut performance of Tatiana's Letter Aria from Tschaikovsky's 'Eugene Onegin'. It is this quality of performance which makes the name for any music festival, anywhere in the world. Eleven concerts in 10 days in five pleasant churches (and one hotel) in the Swiss countryside sounded an echo of the first, great days of Yehudi Menuhin's Festival which started in a similar musical fashion fifty years ago. Today's best musicians - including stalwarts Maxim Vengerov, Grace Bumbry and Aiman Musakhodzhayeva plus respected professionals such as Irini Tskirakidis, John Apeitos, Tatiana Vassilieva, Julien Quentin and Mauro Pagano and young stars including Liu Ji and Mélodie Zhao were brought together to perform in this glitzy and fashionable part of the Swiss Alps over the new year from 27 December to 5 January. The Festival's Artistic Director, Caroline Murat (herself a concert pianist under her stagename of Caroline Haffner) is the musician responsible for the event. "I travelled so much at the start of my career" Caroline said. "I must have gone around the world at least twice playing concerts in all the great music countries of the world. My friendships with Russian musicians are perhaps the ones which have lasted the longest. As a student myself in Moscow in 1966, the great Canadian pianist Glenn Gould's May1957 tour to Russia had become legendary among musicians there. It opened a completely new way forward for pianists. That is why we celebrated Glenn Gould's Moscow recital from 1957; at that time, in the classical world he was 'outside the frame'. We are delighted to be part of the Glenn Gould Foundation's "Year of Glenn Gould" Celebrations." "Each concert in the Music Promenade Festival was a celebration" Caroline said. "For example, the emblematic work in Glenn Gould's life was Bach's 'Goldberg Variations'; the famous recording which is the reference for all pianists." It is perhaps a sign of the future with so many young people learning the piano in China that 17 year old Liu Ji , who Caroline met while working as coordinator of the Piano Academy at the Verbier Festival, should have been given the responsibility of playing the Variations at the Festival. Caroline herself played the Goldberg Variations when she too was 17 years old - for her graduation concert at the Paris Conservatoire. John Apeitos, the conductor for the Festival's new chamber orchestra, said on hearing Liu Ji for the first time that he had not been so impressed by hearing a pianist for the first time since he heard Claudio Arrau in 1974. Caroline continued her story of the Festival:"My dear friend Maxim Vengerov created his own title for his contribution: "Maxim Vengerov's Musical Artistry" and it is perhaps a new stage in his career too, as a musician introducing music to new audiences - and speaking with musicians such as Grisha Zhislin and working with " MozART" a seriously engaging quartet from Poland." The Promenade Festival, which 'walks' from one location to another offers opportunities for musicians at the start and towards the end of their careers. Grace Bumbry, the American soprano, programmed the final appearance of her Farewell Tour at the Festival - her only date in Switzerland. It was a moving recital, beautifully sung and with the humanitarian side of the musicians showing - in support of Kofi Annan's 'Global Humanitarian Forum.' Further information Music Promenade Festival website MUSIC PROMENADE FESTIVAL
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