Festival International et Académie

Telegraph, Michael White

How professionals and amateurs find common ground and make sweet music in the south of France

But the lesson of an experience like Musique Cordiale is that there are other things in music-making that count for at least as much as perfection: qualities to do with effort and commitment and communication of a sense that what you’re singing/playing truly matters to you. And on those terms, this B Minor Mass was fabulous.

I heard it twice, in different hill-town churches, played on both occasions to packed audiences that overflowed into the street outside. There was a real sense of occasion: far greater than when you go and hear a comparable concert at the Barbican or Southbank.

 

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