There has been in Helsinki for many years already a festival called “Les Lumiéres” (Festival of the enlightenment era), which is despite its humble size usually rather interesting when it comes to its programme. This year a French baroque orchestra called Concerto Soave visited the festival and the theme was Marseille after plague (this particular plague roamed in Marseille in 1720).
The first concert of the festival (“The two faces of
Marseille”) was held in Tenalji von Fersen in Suomenlinna fortress island,
which suits this type of small concerts well even though the ferry ride to the island
does pose some logistics challenges (the venue cannot be recommended to people
who have trouble walking some distance on uneven surfaces).
The programme of the evening consisted of pieces from French
baroque era composers, which I have to admit I did not recognize. But that made
it even more interesting to get to know their music and the orchestra was a
great interpreter of this music. The programme leaflet had a small text of each
composer either in English or in French, so the knowledge of both these
languages was a plus.
The soloist of the evening was soprano Lise Virice, who sang
and performed nicely. Both the soloist and the members of the orchestra had
dressed up to the concert in a vaguely “baroque” style, so in addition to
listening the music you could also admire their attires.
Between the pieces two actors: Joachim Wigelius (count Anckarbjelke)
and Anja Bargum (his cousing Emilie Havskrona) chatted in Finnish, Swedish and
French about Marseille during plague, thus giving the concert some interesting
background information. Wigelius was absolutely charming as the slightly posh
count.
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