Music in the Cevennes

Summer in the south of France is always magical for music, whichever kind you enjoy.  Jazz, chamber music, many other styles have their own festivals in different localities.  We are early music fans, and already there has been plenty to tempt us - the Maguelone Festival in the coastal mediaeval cathedral just south of Lunel took place at the beginning of the month and we were lucky to hear two concerts there.  http://www.musiqueancienneamaguelone.com/

Then this week has been the Festival des Cordes Sensibles www.festivalcordessensibles.com in the rural area north of Alès.  We were attracted to the concert in St Jean de Valériscles because our friend Evelyn Tubb, accompanied by the equally well-known lutenist Anthony Rooley, were performing there yesterday.  So we drove into the Cevennes to find this village with a mediaeval centre which can be approached literally only through archways and tunnels!  We arrived early and had a chance to look round and walk along the river bank before it was time to go up to the church, where we met Evelyn and Tony .

They were glad to see us because they needed help in translating part of their introduction into French.  Mary obliged and helped tell the story of this multi-faceted programme - Islamic/ Christian/ Jewish/ secular, which sprang from a visit to Jerusalem in the late 1990s.  It aimed to identify common and positive features of the three religions and of secular life - love and the worship of God - which are uniting rather than dividing factors in a situation of strife.

The small church was quite full.  There is a little gallery at the back, and the acoustics were excellent - Evelyn sang as she walked round the church a few times, and we could hear well. The music was sublime - ranging from the middle ages to the baroque, performed with passion and intensity, and the kaleidoscopic colour and range for which Ev has become so well-known.  The songs were acted out with elegant genstures and movements.  Several pieces we knew well, including Purcell's Blessed Virgin's expostulation, Monteverdi's Nigra sum from the 1610 Vespers (the text 'I am black but comely' is from the Song of Songs) and two Dowland songs which took us right back to the time when we met Evelyn in the 1970s.  In all we felt excited, privileged and moved to be part of this concert which contained so much that we knew and also pieces we were hearing for the first time, performed by such complete artists and at the same time by friends.