Welcome to Musique Cordiale

The 2008 festival, now a distant memory, leaves me feeling proud, delighted and energized about 2009. It was wonderful to have the support of all of you who come back each year and exciting to welcome newcomers, participants and public. Everyone worked hard, slept slightly and rehearsed patiently in order to produce concerts of a high standard. Audiences were larger than ever and typically enthusiastic.

With the echoes of Mozart’s Coronation Mass still ringing through the streets of Seillans, we sat around a groaning table of leftovers and rosé at Chemin des Moulins and set about the business of planning the 2009 Festival. Unanimously, Mozart’s Requiem was settled on for the finale. Tom Seligman is coming back to conduct the Chamber Orchestra and Choral concerts which will include Poulenc’s Quatre Motets Pour un Temps de Pénitence.

Musique-Cordiale 2009 is August 6 – 14. Choir members should arrive on Sat 8 August and leave on Sat 15 after the last concert on the Friday evening - (this makes the accommodation situation easier, as houses are let from Sat – Sat at this time of the year).

Following the success of our first foray into the world of opera last year, we have invited Andy Staples to direct Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro in the Place du Valat in 2009. The production, conducted from the harpsichord by Graham Ross, will première at Wilton’s Music Hall in London before making the journey to Seillans where it will be married with the talents of Ensemble Cordiale.

By popular request, our recording engineer, Peter Harrison has produced a complete set of CDs of all the concerts of Musique-Cordiale 2008. They are available at www.disk2discdirect.co.uk and would no doubt make lovely Christmas presents...

Registration forms and other information will be posted on the website very soon.

Pippa Pawlik
December 2008

Musique-Cordiale is an association of music-lovers, who have come together over the years to make music with their friends in beautiful surroundings. It holds an annual festival of choral and classical music. This takes place each summer in the South of France.

The founder and artistic director of Musique-Cordiale, Pippa Pawlik, originally brought together friends from England, France, Germany and Switzerland. Other musicians from around the world have since joined them to form an international choir and orchestra with instrumental and vocal soloists. This is known as the Ensemble Cordial. It is the mixture of good amateurs, professionals and young musicians making music at a high level which makes the atmosphere so special. It aims to act as a platform for young artists and to promote a musical entente cordiale in one of the most wonderful parts of Europe. Full-scale choral concerts by the Ensemble are complemented during the festival by a variety of excellent smaller performances by individual musicians and chamber groups.