Summer is the time for discovery. The days are long, the nights are mild - and the urge to explore is overwhelming. From August 16 to September 1, the Sion Festival invites you to satisfy your desires from far flung places, and to taste a little bit of the world's song; this year, in fact, we are exploring the territories of the intimate, exploring in music the personal and inner sound imagination, which feeds the creativity of great artists. However, some composers were traveling beings, volatile creatures whose ears were stimulated everywhere, with the "golden glow of nomadic music". And these shards, secretly, reflected in their works.
The opening concert, performed by two immense musicians (Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Polina Leshenko), will offer us an insight into Georges Enescu's Romanian childhood - piano-cymbalum and Roma violin - but also into the powerful and colourful imagination of Maurice Ravel, who fantasizes about Hungary to the rhythm of a dishevelled Gypsy, and evokes the memory of New York bars and sardonic blues.
Other intimate moments, other journeys; on August 17, at 8 p.m., the great Sergei Babayan will bring to life some of Frederic Chopin's most beautiful pages, where we will sometimes hear the shadows of a lost and ardently longed-for Poland singing.
Finally, on August 31, at 8pm, Pavel Vernikov and Miguel Da Silva, accompanied by four students, will dive into the world of the sextet for strings. Among other works performed, Tchaikovsky's masterpiece Souvenir de Florencewill take its listeners on a unique journey from Italy to Russia. The composition of these four contrasting movements revived for the composer the image of the inspirational Italian light - its sweetness and tragedy - in the heart of the winter in Petersburg.
When travelling, therefore: there is something for all destinations, for all sound-scapes!
16.08 : Kopatchiskaja & Leshenko
17.08 : Babayan plays Chopin
31.08 : Vernikov & Da Silva
And the Sion Festival is bursting with other concerts, conferences and events. Find the complete program on our website: www.sion-festival.ch or follow us on the social networks (facebook - instagram).
An example: Around the world in an armchair
On August 25 at 11 a.m., the Ferme-Asile will be transformed into a "travel machine", between rocket and flying carpet. Composer and multi-instrumentalist Jean Duperrex will present a family show, dusting off the ears of children (and their parents) with panache. Because the world is rich with so many silky or more acidic sounds... You certainly know the violin, piano, guitar or accordion; but have you ever heard of the balafon, the fujara, the hang?
A playful journey through the music of the five continents, this delicious "round the world in an armchair" will enchant young and old alike.
Free admission for children up to 16 years old.
25.08 Tour du Monde dans un fauteil
| 
