Joyful Performances from the Vibrant Spring Arts Festival Hit the Right Note in 2023

HelloMonaco took the opportunity to immerse itself in the Spring Art Festival taking place this month under often gorgeous spring weather typical of the Principality.

We just couldn’t miss the organ concert at Saint-Charles Church featuring the impresario of the great organ of the Saint-Eustache church in Paris, Thomas Ospital who delivered in a poignant recital works which figure among the last pages of their creators: the Viennese master Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Pater seraphicus César Franck and the prematurely deceased genius Julius Reubke.

Thomas Ospital generously gave HelloMonaco an interview especially for HelloMonaco readers’ ears. Here are some snippets:

HelloMonaco: What does it mean for you to participate in this festival? 

Thomas Ospital: Well, it’s a really big thing for me to be a part of this festival. This festival is very well known and has been for years and years. …I feel very, very happy, actually, to see an organ recital in such a classical music festival … I think it’s very important for the public and for the organizers to put this concert inside such a big program like the one in the festival here in Monte-Carlo.

HelloMonaco: What about the selection of the music, how was it prepared?

Thomas Ospital: It was that the artistic director of the festival {Bruno Mantovani} wanted some pieces of Mozart and Frank because it’s thematic for this year to put the first and the last pieces of composers …And for Bach, Bach suits this instrument quite well; it was the reason I put Bach. 

HelloMonaco: What do you think about Monaco. How do you like it? 

Thomas Ospital: …I had the chance yesterday to have a tour of the city walking for hours after my rehearsal time. That was really a treat because I could discover actually… the beauty of the little streets, which are in the Italian style and visit the very beauty of the city… I like very much the old part of the city, with the palace and the streets which remind me a lot of Italy… you have a lot of life here and I like it very much. 

And having enjoyed the organ recital HelloMonaco next chose a concert featuring the violin.

Violin Concerto at the Oceanographic Museum

Not to be missed was this concert on March 18th at the Musée Océanographique.

The French Diane’s chief conductor-violinist, Stéphanie-Marie Degand, returned to the Baroque era of the birth of the orchestra and the violin concerto, mixing French taste, its sonic power and its massive effects, with Italian virtuosity. An innovative and spectacular performance including pieces among:

• François Rebel (1701-1775)and François Francoeur (1698-1787) ,Overture to Scanderberg

• Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764)
  Concerto for violin and orchestra in D major, Op. 7 No. 2
• Pietro Locatelli (1695-1764) Concerto grosso in E flat major
  “Il pianto d’Arianna”, Op. 7 No. 6
• Francesco Geminiani (1678-1741) Concerto grosso in D minor “La Follia”
• Antonio Vivaldi (1685-1750) Concerto for four violins, cello, strings and basso continuo in B minor, RV 580
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Concerto for two violins in D minor, BWV 1043

The Spring Art Festival under the presidency of H.R.H. Princess of Hanover, is a true institution in the Monegasque artistic panorama. It was born 37 years ago from the desire of Prince Rainier III to make the Principality a preferred stage for major masters and innovators in the Art of Music.

And it does it in style, year after year.