From August 19-29 Annecy, the beautiful lakeside resort town in the Haute-Savoie (south-east France) will host its Fifth International Summer Music Festival, Annecy Classic under the artistic direction of French musician Pascal Escande and Russian pianist Denis Matsuev.

Annecy became a music forum nearly fifty years ago when the French pianist Eliane Richepin began her famous summer seasons. As a contemporary of Marguerite Long and Yvonne Lefébure, Eliane Richepin paid great attention to the encouragement and support of the younger generation.

In 1970, she founded the Annecy Academy, an International Music Centre where young talented musicians could be taught by famous pianists and outstanding teachers of the day. In the 1980s, Eliane Richepin began an annual series of piano evenings entitled La Nuit du Piano, the purpose of which was to give these young people an opportunity to demonstrate their performing skills on stage.

Over recent years, Annecy’s August festival has become one of the France’s most prominent international music venues. Annecy’s revival five years ago and its present international status became possible thanks to the AVC Charity Foundation and to the personal interests of its founder, Andrey Cheglakov. Support of the Annecy Festival and made a significant contribution not only to its international status but to French culture as well.

During this Fifth Annecy season, there will be sixteen concerts of symphonic and chamber music and opera. As in previous years, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Yuri Temirkanov will be resident orchestra throughout the festival. The regular annual engagement of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the oldest established of Russia’s symphony orchestras has strengthened immeasurably Annecy’s international artistic networks, and have been a key to successful creative partnerships within the festival itself. This year, Zoltan Kocsis the legendary Hungarian conductor and pianist has accepted an invitation to lead the orchestra twice, first with pianist Denis Matsuev, and then with violinist Laurent Korcia. Chief conductor and artistic director Yuri Temirkanov will take the baton for the two final concerts, with soloists Yuja Wang, the young Chinese pianist, Denis Matsuev, piano and fellow compatriot, cellist Alexander Kniazev.

Artistic co-directors Pascal Escande and Denis Matsuev are putting lots of energy into promoting young musicians. Last year saw the first orchestral youth camp, Annecy Campus. This season, led by conductor Fayçal Karoui, there is the prospect of rehearsals with the St Petersburg Philharmonic, giving students the widest possible exposure to musicians who share vast experience of rehearsal and concert performance.

From August 15-27, the Auditorium of the College of Saint-Michel will be dedicated to the hosting of youth orchestra rehearsals for the many students who have come from around the world, including fifteen of the most talented members of the youth orchestra Baikal Stars, selected by Denis Matsuev. Workshops and master classes on the vocal arts at the School of Singing will be guided by Patrick Marco. A traditional series of piano master classes will be led this year by French pianist Roger Muraro, who will give a solo concert to the memory of Eliane Richepin.

Among other star guests will include an ensemble of The King’s Consort (UK), directed by founder Robert King; the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra under Vladimir Spivakov and the Zaïde Quartet (France). Soprano Lianna Haroutonian (Armenia), mezzo-soprano Géraldine Chauvet (France) and tenor Aquiles Machado (Venezuela) will join the brilliant young pianists, Benjamin Grosvenor (UK), David Fray (France), Anna Fedorova (Ukraine) and Li Siqian (China), to perform at La Nuit du Piano.

Annecy Classic Festival concerts will be held in the Church of St. Bernadette’s, at the Annecy Castle Museum, the Imperial Palace Hotel and at St Peter’s Cathedral.

A program of events and interviews with the artistes will be presented in a special diary available during the festival on the AVC Charity Foundation’s official website.

Victor Alexandrov, the AVC Charity Foundation music reviewer