{"id":5450,"date":"2025-09-15T19:53:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christoph-poppen.com\/?p=5450"},"modified":"2025-09-29T20:02:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T20:02:23","slug":"incanti-musicali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christoph-poppen.com\/de\/incanti-musicali\/","title":{"rendered":"Incanti Musicali"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Translated article<\/h5>

FOGLIO QUOTIDIANO SATURDAY 2 AND SUNDAY 3 AUGUST 2025<\/p>

Listening to The Trout<\/em> (meaning Schubert\u2019s quintet) in the courtyard of an Arab castle in the middle of a suggestive nowhere, right on the border between Portugal and Spain? Done. Under the heading: music festivals where you least expect them\u2014welcome to Marv\u00e3o, with 99 inhabitants in winter, a few more in summer thanks to second-home owners. Two and a half hours by car from Lisbon, perched on a rocky spur from which one is tempted to recite Leopardi\u2019s L\u2019infinito<\/em>, because from that lonely hill the gaze stretches across endless kilometers, with no hedge to block the view. On one side the Alentejo, on the other Extremadura, and not as parched as clich\u00e9s suggest\u2014seen from up here, quite green, in fact.<\/p>

The village of white houses is completely enclosed by walls, like an Umbrian or Tuscan hamlet fit for radical chic holidays. But with two radical differences: almost no tourists, and such dense silence that you can practically hear<\/em> it. And here perhaps comes a reflection: immersed as we are in the generalized din of our noisy modernity, to truly appreciate music we paradoxically need, above all, silence. And here, silence abounds.<\/p>

The history of the Festival Internacional de M\u00fasica de Marv\u00e3o<\/strong> begins in 2014, when two musician spouses from Munich arrived on bicycles: he, Christoph Poppen, celebrated violinist and conductor; she, Juliane Banse, an equally celebrated soprano. Like everyone else, they fell in love with this place suspended in space and time. In fact, at one point during their visit, he disappeared; when he reappeared hours later, he announced to her that he had bought a house. The festival was born of that lightning strike. The couple began inviting friends, colleagues, and students; what was at first a pioneering experiment gradually gained structure, sponsors, and an international team, with an efficient Portuguese executive director and a French press officer who looks like In\u00e8s de la Fressange with even more allure. Incredible, but true. Thus what started as an expanded Hausmusik<\/em> gathering became a true festival, with its own loyal public\u2014or, as King Victor Emmanuel III would have put it, its \u201crevenants,\u201d returning year after year.<\/p>

The just-finished edition was the eleventh: nine dense days of concerts, usually at least two per day, up to four on weekends\u2014a veritable feast of music, sometimes too much, because if you have four concerts in a day, none can last two hours. But many performers are young and musically insatiable. There is no auditorium, of course. The most important concerts are held in the castle courtyard, a 12th-century Arab building with a turbulent frontier history. The acoustics are quite good, since the space is not huge\u2014about 500 seats. But when the wind blows it can get chilly, even freezing, and volunteers distribute fleece blankets branded by sponsors, like at the Archbishop\u2019s Palace in Aix-en-Provence when the mistral roars down the Rh\u00f4ne Valley.<\/p>

Otherwise, concerts are held in local churches, rustic and poor baroque, full of sorrowful Madonnas and dramatic Christs for Holy Week processions. Not acoustically perfect, but highly atmospheric. The program also included concerts in the castle cistern, underground, bare, and beautiful, or sunrise concerts\u2014fittingly featuring Haydn\u2019s\u00a0Sunrise Quartet<\/em>, Op. 76 No. 4.<\/p>

The audience is mixed: some locals, but many cosmopolitan visitors who have discovered this still-untouched corner and return every summer. Predominantly Germans and French, many now habitu\u00e9s, with recognition and embraces at the opening cocktail, where one appreciated the unusually brisk greetings from local authorities (at least until the undersecretary of culture launched into an endless harangue). Fortunately, the local wine is excellent. The festival is little known in Italy\u2014this very article attempts to make amends\u2014but quite well known in Portugal. Last year the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, attended; this year, he wrote a delightful and witty greeting in the program, announcing he had invited the diplomatic corps. (Note for Italian politicians: take lessons.)<\/p>

After last year\u2019s bold attempt at opera\u2014Mozart\u2019s\u00a0Die Entf\u00fchrung aus dem Serail<\/em>\u2014this year\u2019s program was limited to chamber music, often in enormous monographic programs. In two and a half days, I heard seven concerts. The level seemed very high to me: the average quality of young instrumentalists, who form the majority here, has never been so strong, much to the dismay of nostalgics. The question remains whether younger generations combine technical impeccability with interpretative awareness and imagination\u2014I\u2019m not entirely sure. But at least three young musicians here impressed me deeply.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What began as an expanded Hausmusik among friends has become a true festival, with loyal audiences who return every year like revenants.<\/p><\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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One was Chinese violinist\u00a0Kevin Zhu<\/strong>, much talked about already. Unfortunately, I missed his performance of Paganini\u2019s\u00a024 Caprices<\/em>, but I did hear him play Tchaikovsky\u2019s Trio Op. 50 and, above all, Debussy\u2019s Sonata in G minor\u2014not the hazy, blurry Debussy of bad tradition, but sharp, sparkling. Then there were two French cellists:\u00a0Aur\u00e9lien Pascal<\/strong>, heard in Schumann\u2019s Quintet and the Tchaikovsky Trio; and\u00a0Bruno Philippe<\/strong>, who thrilled me with a passionate, fiery (yet perfectly controlled) interpretation of Debussy\u2019s Sonata in D minor, with pianist Connie Shih bravely holding her ground.<\/p>

The ensembles are either established, like the excellent Malion Quartet, or specially assembled for the festival\u2014recognizable because they watch each other more intently. For instance, in Tchaikovsky\u2019s\u00a0Souvenir de Florence<\/em>, the Malion players were joined by violist Nicolas Garrigues and Pascal, for a brilliant, refined yet fiery performance. Still, it did not eclipse a truly wild rendition I once heard in Mantua\u2019s \u201cTrame sonore\u201d festival from an Italian-Russian sextet that risked everything with crazy tempos and dynamics\u2014yet always emerged victorious.<\/p>

Another distinctive feature of Marv\u00e3o is the mix of instrumental and vocal music. Here, with some exceptions, the vocal level was lower, though I must mention young Spanish baritone\u00a0Unai de la Rosa Hern\u00e1ndez<\/strong>, with a keen stylistic sense and genuine interpretive gifts, equally convincing in German (Brahms, Schumann) and French (Ravel, especially).<\/p>

There were also unusual concerts, such as one by the Portuguese polyphonic group\u00a0Officium Ensemble<\/strong>, led by Pedro Teixeira, performing rediscovered 16th\u201317th century works from \u00c9vora Cathedral archives. Unknown composers like Estev\u00e3o Lopes Morago, Duarte Lobo, Filipe da Magalh\u00e3es, Manuel Cardoso, and Estev\u00e3o de Brito proved anything but dull: the concert was marvelous, with warm, precise voices and no shrillness typical of some Anglo-Saxon choirs.<\/p>

The same choir sang Schubert\u2019s\u00a0Mass in G Major<\/em>\u00a0with the festival\u2019s string orchestra, conducted by Poppen, with soloists Banse and Christoph and Julian Pr\u00e9gardien (father and son). A true Mass, with Eucharistic celebration at Nossa Senhora da Estrela church\u2014unfortunately in Portuguese and Vatican II form. Latin and Tridentine rite would have been far more fitting. Still, the Mass\u2014Biedermeier charm evocative of Viennese baroque chapels\u2014was moving, even for skeptics.<\/p>

Another curious evening was titled\u00a0\u201cPai e Filho\u201d (Father and Son)<\/strong>: the German tenors Christoph and Julian Pr\u00e9gardien, 69 and 41 years old. Hearing two tenors, father and son, in a Liederabend is rare. Some duets were original, others arranged\u2014like Schubert\u2019s\u00a0Auf dem Wasser zu singen<\/em>. With pianist Silke Avenhaus, the result was delightful. Father, a bit tired but still a master; son, with a luminous, angelic timbre reminiscent of early Romantic tenors. Their voices blended beautifully, with shared phrasing and sensitivity\u2014perhaps inherited like blue eyes or an aquiline nose. A unique, unforgettable evening: who would have imagined hearing Brahms\u2019\u00a0Feldeinsamkeit<\/em>\u00a0sung together by father and son in a tiny Portuguese church?<\/p>

Marv\u00e3o, 99 inhabitants in winter, a few more in summer, perched between Alentejo and Extremadura, where one is tempted to recite \u201cL\u2019infinito.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Translated article FOGLIO QUOTIDIANO SATURDAY 2 AND SUNDAY 3 AUGUST 2025 Listening to The Trout (meaning Schubert\u2019s quintet) in the courtyard of an Arab castle in the middle of a suggestive nowhere, right on the border between Portugal and Spain? Done. Under the heading: music festivals where you least expect them\u2014welcome to Marv\u00e3o, with 99 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoph-poppen.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoph-poppen.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoph-poppen.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoph-poppen.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoph-poppen.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5450"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/christoph-poppen.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6323,"href":"https:\/\/christoph-poppen.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5450\/revisions\/6323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoph-poppen.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoph-poppen.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoph-poppen.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoph-poppen.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}