Stresa Festival | Blog

- 10 days to the 2010 Spring Concerts!

A new season is beginning and it will be a very important one for us: it will be the eve of Stresa Festival’s jubilee, which we will celebrate with a big 2011 Festival!

On Saturday, May 8 we wait for you all for the first Spring Concert:  Galliano and Rubalcaba will perform in the Villa Pallavicino Garden. Don’t miss the event!

Last summer I had the great pleasure of learning about the Stresa Festival, and becoming acquainted with a couple of its organizers. I had heard of this yearly musical event, seen the posters around town, but until I met Filippo and Michela, who help to organize it, I was sadly ignorant of its scope and brilliance. Filippo first contacted me through Stresa Sights, I wrote a couple of guest posts for the then new Stresa Festival blog, and posted the schedule here for readers. I then met them in person at Santa Caterina, during the 2009 performance of the Bach solo concertos for Violincello. When I learned the history of the festival, saw the list and the caliber of the performers, and finally heard a performance for myself I knew that this was nothing ordinary… this is a world-class event of truly spectacular proportions, and I urge any of you who will be in Stresa during its 2010 season to make it a part of your vacation. I promise, I promise, you will not be disappointed.
The 2010 schedule has just been set. Certain performances, such as the Bach solo, are traditions that will continue this year. Others are new. Goran Bregovic and his Wedding and Funeral Band, soloists from the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with Vladimir Askenazy are among the highlights of the 49th Edition of the Settimane Musicale di Stresa. Director of the event is Gianandrea Noseda. To start off the season, on 8 May, will be another standard, the Concerti di Primavera, performed at Villa Pallavicino in Stresa, featuring French accordionist Richard Galliano. In the spring weeks that follow, look for the performances by Astor Paizzolla, Chet Baker, and pianist and composer Phillip Glass.
Throughout the summer, and into September, the performances continue. What makes these so special, in addition to the caliber of the performers, is the variety and beauty of the venues for the performances.
Certainly we’ll talk more of the Stresa Festival in these months. For now, I want you to have the information so that you can consider it in your planning. I am posting a link, in the right column of this blog, to the official site where tickets can be purchased. Please try to include this in your stay here… it is bound to become one of your most cherished memories, as it is for me.

This post was guest written by Dana Kaplan. Dana is the author of Stresa Sights, a travel blog advising fans of Stresa, Italy. www.stresasights.blogspot.com

Dear friends,

we’re ready to offer you the last appointments of Stresa Festival 2009! And we would like to thank you for the success of this Festival edition, how? For ex. giving you tha chance to hear the voice of the most important protagonists of our Festival, so here you are an exclusive interview with Valery Gergiev!

http://www.stresafestival.eu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/intervista-gergiev-250809_def.flv

On our website you will find more interviews to Jennifer Larmore, Gianandrea Noseda and many other videos about the last concerts of Stresa Festival!

Enjoy the multimedia pages and let your voice be loud on the Stresa Festival Blog!

Take a look to this new video about the Opening Concert of last Saturday!

All the updated videos soon on www.stresafestival.eu - multimedia pages

Enjoy them!

Hi dear friends!

Here you can find the new video of our Artistic Director: he will conduct three concerts at the Stresa Festival 2009 and he would like to invite you to these great events, take a look to this video!

We’re ready to start: enjoy the Stresa Festival 2009!

http://www.stresafestival.eu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/interv-noseda-suoi_en_def.flv

We’re all waiting for the Stresa Festival opening concert on August 21st!

Here you can find the video of laReverdie concert of last saturday. Other videos and tv reportages are available on our official website www.stresafestival.eu

We look forward to meeting you in Stresa!

Filippo

It was still a bit warm and sunny when we arrived at the imbarcadero in Stresa to wait for the ferry that would take us to L’Eremo Santa Caterina del Sasso, to hear Colin Carr perform the Bach solo concertos for violoncello. But as if on schedule, as we found seats on the ferry, the sun set quickly behind Mt. Mottarone and Mt. Orfano, and the breezes of the lake cooled us down. By the time we reached Santa Caterina the sky was providing a beautiful backdrop for our approach. Everything was perfectly arranged. We had time enough to climb the stone staircase to the abbey, and to enjoy the views as we walked under the archway to the chapel. There was time to admire the frescoes on the ceiling and the fragments of uncovered ones on the walls. After we took our seats on the comfortable gold-painted chairs that had been set up for the occasion Mr. Carr entered and climbed the few steps up to the platform that had been constructed at the altar, high enough so that we all could see him clearly. With all the lights dimmed, save for some small spotlights directed at him, he began to play.

Mr. Carr played Bach’s Suite n.1 and Suite n. 3, for 40 spellbinding minutes. The acoustics in the chapel are perfect. He then took a pause for 20 minutes before finishing the evening with Suite n. 5. By the time we left, the sky was a dark cobalt blue, and the path back to the staircase was lit with dozens of candles that had been placed along the low stone wall. Our ferry awaited, and as we moved quickly back to Stresa through Lago Maggiore, we could see, off in the distance, a fireworks display that was occurring at that time on Lago Mergozzo, some kilometers away.

From sunny start, to spectacular fireworks finish, this was a magical evening in every sense of the word. All of the Stresa Festival musical events are held in very special venues that, each in their own way, evoke this wondrous feeling. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of attending one of these events, I urge you to do so, as soon as you can.

This post was guest written by Dana Kaplan. Dana is the author of Stresa Sights, a travel blog advising fans of Stresa, Italy. www.stresasights.blogspot.com

Here you are a new forum for all the Stresa Festival Blog visitors!

Answering to this post you can “let your voice be loud”!

You will find a place where you can leave your opinions, sensations, blames, emotions… beginning with the first Musical Meditations’ concerts!

We’ll be waiting, once again, for your opinions!

The contest is now closed!

As soon as possible we’ll communicate the winner of two seats for one of the 2009 Stresa Festival concerts!

If you need further information about the 2009 edition look at this video… our Artistic Director, Gianandrea Noseda will talk about the Festival, enjoy it!

Filippo

On the evenings of August 1 and 2, 2009, the Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso will once again be the venue for the Bach Suite for Cello Solo performances. This year the celloist is Colin Carr. The hermitage has an interesting history; think about this as you approach it from the lake below…

It was on a stormy night in 1170 that the story of the hermitage and monastery of Santa Caterina del Sasso begins. During this storm, a rich trader named Alberto Besozzi was washed from his boat and was saved from certain drowning by the intervention of Santa Caterina. In a gesture of thanks Alberto decided to live out his life as a hermit in the caves in the rocks at that spot, and during his years there he built the first chapel on the site. Santa Caterina intervened again centuries later, wiping out the plague that had been terrorizing the region. And again the 17th century, when she is said to have stopped a massive rockslide before it crushed the chapel which contained the tomb of Alberto. Some like to say the evidence of this last miracle is in plain view inside the small chapel. In there, over the alter, a large boulder hangs dangerously, seemingly frozen in its fall by some invisible means. I won’t ruin the wonder by telling you the geological reasons for the rock’s strange state; isn’t it still remarkable that, for whatever reason, it hangs here looking impossible anyway.

Inside, the monastery has been recently renovated. Fragments of frescoes have been revealed. The beautiful arches and vaulted ceilings have been cleaned. Outside, fig trees, geranium, and oleander grow. Below, hundreds of feet below, the blue waters of Lago Maggiore wash up against the rocks. And far off in the distance is the snow-capped peak of Monte Rosa. Questa e’ la rara bellezza che c’e’ nel Santuario di Santa Caterina. This is the rare beauty that is Santa Caterina. And there couldn’t be a more magical location than this for the Bach performances…

Post guest written by Dana Kaplan, writer of Stresa Sights, a blog for visitors to Stresa. Thank you very much Dana!

www.stresasights.blogspot.com