The 2011 Trasimeno Music Festival

It is always an incredible feeling to get to the end of another edition of my Trasimeno Music Festival after all the preparation that goes into it throughout the year. Not only musical preparation—that is an immense job in itself, playing 6 different programmes in seven days—but also all the administration and organizing the goes on behind the scenes. What makes me most happy is to hear the level of artistry that the musicians attain, and this year we had a fantastic line-up: flautist Andrea Oliva playing Bach on the flute with a whole palette of colours; the young Carducci Quartet from England who excelled in a wide range of repertoire, including two quintets in which they were joined by Munich violist Burkhard Sigl; the singer Helena Juntunen whose dramatic singing was put to use in Beethoven’s “Ah! perfido” and a lieder recital; the Orchestra da Camera di Mantova in Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, led by the conductor I most admire, Hannu Lintu. The closing concert of the festival was in the Basilica of San Pietro in Perugia (a favourite venue of Herbert von Karajan) and we bravely did an all-Schumann programme for piano and orchestra. I will never forget this. It was one of the most demanding but exhilarating concerts I have ever given. And then to see all my friends, old and new, from all over the world gathered together in one place and sharing the same experience. That is another thing that gives me great happiness. A novelty this year was a concert featuring young artists. It was held in the small piazza of San Savino, a picturesque borgo overlooking Lake Trasimeno. The artists were from Italy (Marta Marinelli on the harp, Gianluca Campo on flute) and from Canada (Annie Yim, piano; Kerson Leong, violin; and his brother Stanley, cello), playing in all different combinations a wide variety of music. Then exiting the piazza, the entire audience was treated to a buffet supper provided by the people of San Savino—a lovely surprise! Thank you to all who made this festival such a resounding success. See you in 2012!

Angela Hewitt
Artistic Director