Dear friends of "Les Musiciens d'Europe",
Greetings often lead us to look back on the months that have just passed. Three words come to mind when we look back on the year 2023 of the orchestra «Les Musiciens d’Europe »: joy, pleasure and discovery. The joy of welcoming musicians who, away from the orchestra for several years, came back to play with us. But also the joy of meeting new musicians, from various backgrounds and different countries (Belgium, Ukraine, Lithuania, etc.). These meetings are the richness and strength of our orchestra which defends the ideals of European humanism and peace.
The pleasure, in August, of offering to the public the second edition of “Promenades musicales de La Garde” (coproduced with « Les Amis de La Garde »). During these three days, the large audience was invited to discover, in the green setting of the « Domaine de la Garde », a program combining chamber and symphonic music on the theme of nature.
The discovery : in spring 2023, the musicians discovered the music composed by the Alsatian composer Auguste Schirlé. The orchestra created two works by this still little-known 20th-century composer, the Symphony opus 2 and the symphonic poem « Le Taennchel » opus 34. Béatrice Schirlé, granddaughter of the composer, joins us to thank everyone who participated in or supported this wonderful project. If you would like to discover these works that have never been recorded until now, do not hesitate to browse the video gallery on our website.
2024 will be a year rich in projects, with the theme of water running through all of them.
From August 19 to 25, the orchestra will once again be in residence at the « Domaine de la Garde » to prepare the third edition of the « Promenades musicales de la Garde » (August 23-24-25). Then in autumn 2024, in the « Val d’Argent » in Alsace, the orchestra will offer a program entitled “L’eau du Val d’Argent” combining symphonic concerts, educational workshops and conferences.
Find out more on our website Les Musiciens d'Europe.
We hope to see many of you at our forthcoming concerts and wish you a very happy new year 2024, filled with musical delights.
Laure Bonnemaison and the members of the MDE committee
Hello everyone,
A little word from the balcony (Christmas!) to wish you all a wonderful musical reunion, within the MDE of course, but also in all the musical groups that you will frequent during this year 2024 that so many people will not have the opportunity to celebrate.
But it is on their behalf that we must not let our guard down (« Promenades musicales de La Garde »), neither in August, nor before nor after. You will also have the opportunity to refresh yourself twice with the waters that we are going to make flow together (symphonic poems) while trying to make the birds sing during the next season by paying Orpheus's head.
And then, the Val d’Argent awaits us!
In memory of our founding in Strasbourg 30 years ago (season 24-25) we will be returning to «Le Tombeau de Couperin» that Ravel so brilliantly imagined in the Renaissance tradition, after having succeeded – we hope – in Beethoven's 8th symphony which was missing from our repertoire.
A varied program therefore, rich in discoveries and technique, but above all overflowing with music.
This will allow us to keep smiling in the face of setbacks, to give pleasure – or rather joy – to all the people who will say to themselves: these «Musiciens d’Europe»! What a temper! What consistency! What sharing!
Jean-Marie Curti Artistic director of Les Musiciens d'Europe
I have just read again an old classic: “Sociology of Music” by Max Weber (1864-1920).
Weber was one of the main creators of modern sociology. But he also had an uncommon knowledge of musical history and theory. He wrote this book at the end of his life, without having time to finish it. Nevertheless, it was published in 1924, and we will soon be celebrating its centenary...
This is not the place to try to summarize this amazing book for you. Let us just say that, while admirably knowing and esteeming the musical history of many countries around the world, it is the social history of European music that Weber studied and particularly admired. And so I said to myself that if Weber had lived a hundred years later, he would certainly have become a great friend of « Les Musiciens d’Europe »; the originality of our social and musical organization would certainly have fascinated him! While waiting to talk about it again with other Weberians, I wish you all a new year full of musical discoveries!
Piet Steenackers President of "Les Musiciens d'Europe"