Like every year, the Neuilly-sur-Seine town hall offers free prestigious Christmas concerts every weekend before the holidays. Saturday November 30 and Sunday December 1, time for the classical and baroque repertoire for the first two meetings.
The tree, the advent calendar and… The Christmas concerts in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Like every year as the holidays approach, the town hall of the Ile-de-France commune now perpetuates the tradition of offering a prestigious concert free of charge to all audiences on Saturdays and Sundays before the Christmas weekend. Entrances are free and without reservation, so the first to arrive will be the best off.
Saturday November 30: Along the Danube with family
For the first meeting of this 2024 edition, music lovers have an appointment for a cruise along the Danube River, which has inspired many artists, musicians in the lead. It will be a family cruise, since it is the Pascal trio who will officiate on the stage of the Salon d'Honneur at the Hôtel de Ville. The pianist Denis Pascal and his young sons Aurélien, a new figure on the cello in France, and Alexandre, on the violin, make up this trio where the affinities are obvious.
Two brothers with already busy careers on the biggest concert stages, and whose father is recognized throughout the world for his interpretations rich in great ethical and historical rigor. They should do wonders in the repertoire proposed for Saturday's concert, namely the Trio for piano and strings n°4 op. 90 “Dumky” by Antonin Dvorák, and the Trio for Piano and Strings No. 2 Op. 100 by Franz Schubert. A work which also appears on the first recording of the Pascal trio, released in 2021. “A chamber music concert is a challenge. A real dialogue with a musical partner on stage is a miracle and it intensely illuminates the audience,” explains Denis Pascal in the concert’s note of intent. There is no doubt that sparks should fly during this inaugural evening.
“Nostalgia along the Danube”, concert by the Pascal trio, Saturday November 30, 4 p.m., Hall of Honor at the Hôtel de Ville, Neuilly-sur-Seine.
Sunday December 1: “Mi Libertad”, profane and sacred Spain
Le Poème Harmonique is quite simply one of the greatest early music ensembles, since its formation in 1998 by Vincent Dumestre. Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical… Each work, whatever its era, becomes a jewel once performed by this group, whose more than fifty records are regularly praised by the public and critics alike. It goes without saying that the concert offered this Sunday at 4 p.m., in the grounds of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste church, is unmissable. And to celebrate the entry into the holiday month, Vincent Dumestre takes spectators to a country whose repertoire he has mastered to perfection, Spain.
With this program “Mi Libertad”, he offers a series of famous tunes from the 16th and 17th centuries, those which saw Iberian culture develop throughout the world, up to the Americas, a continent which inherited the musical tradition of religious missionaries from the 16th century. “Like painting and literature, Spain in the Golden Age owes a lot to music, which played an important role in the cultural influence it experienced at the time,” explains the conductor, adding that “ However scholarly they may be, this music owes a large part of its charm to the fact that it has always kept contact with popular music, from which it borrows its themes, melodies and freedom of inspiration.
Mixing both secular tunes and sacred repertoire, the program highlights male voices, all of which will compose the choirs during the concert. Enough to vibrate in unison, carried by tunes of timeless beauty.
“Mi Libertad”, concert of the Poème Harmonique, dir. Vincent Dumestre, Sunday December 1, 4 p.m., Saint-Jean-Baptiste church, Neuilly-sur-Seine.
