At Musée Pierre-de-Luxembourg in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon to see Enguerrand Quarton’s amazing altarpiece ‘The Coronation of the Virgin’. It was commissioned in 1453 by Jean de Montagny, a canon in Avignon, for the Carthusian monastery of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon.

Enguerrand Quarton ‘The Coronation of the Virgin’ (1453 – 54)

The painting is in two main sections. In the upper section the Virgin is crowned by the Holy Trinity. Unusually, God the Father and Jesus Christ are depicted as mirror images with the same form, with the Holy Spirit between them. They are surrounded by groups of angels painted in a vivid red colour. This near-symmetry is a feature of the painting and occurs in several places.

In the lower section, just left of the crucified Christ, Mont Saint Victoire, a notable local feature of the landscape, rises above the horizon, whilst to Christ’s right is the kneeling figure of the donor. Below the cross are depictions of the cities of Rome and Jerusalem and under them is the Last Judgement. Angels receive the souls of the saved beneath Jerusalem, whilst the damned are tormented in hell beneath Rome.

Betsy Jolas is a ninety-six year old French – American composer who was in tonight’s audience at the Grand Théâtre de Provence to hear the European premiere of her latest work for symphony orchestra and soprano. ‘These beautiful years’ was a joint commission from the LSO, the Festival d’Aix and the Cleveland Orchestra  It is a joyful piece that includes fragments of the melody of ‘Happy Birthday’ and snippets of Mozart operas. Towards the end a solo soprano joins the orchestra as a ‘messenger angel’ to call everyone to celebrate – as the audience did when she was introduced to them at the conclusion of the piece.

Betsy Jolas

Mahler’s Symphony no. 7 in E minor, sometimes called ‘Song of the Night’, dates from 1905 and opens up a completely different world. It is a monumental eighty-minute work, which Rattle conducted from memory. In some parts it evokes the natural world, in others the brass bands that Mahler heard in his youth. It is a complex work yet Rattle’s handling of the LSO brought clarity to it. The audience loved it and the performance was rewarded with a deserved standing ovation.

Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra

Betsy Jolas ‘These Breautiful Years’; Gustav Mahler; ‘Symphony no. 7 in E minor’.

In contrast to any misgivings about last night’s performance of ‘L’Opera de Quat’Sou’, this performance of Alban Berg’s ‘Wozzeck’ was nothing short of superb. The London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle were on excellent form and the cast of the opera, in particular Christian Gerhaher in the title role and Maria Byström as Marie, sang wonderfully. The production by stage director Simon McBurney and set designer Miriam Buether really brought the story to life.

Malin Byström as Marie and Christian Gerhaher as Wozzeck

Again there is a political aspect to the story, Wozzeck is a soldier who represents the social injustices of the time. He is a pitiful character who kills his mistress out of jealousy before committing suicide. Although he carries out a murder it is difficult not to have sympathy for Wozzeck, who clearly has a ravaged mind. Berg’s music, although atonal, adds to the drama of the story. It was wonderfully performed by all.

The modern art collection at Aix’s Granet Museum was considerably expanded in 2011 when the Jean and Suzanne Planque Foundation donated the Jean Planque collection, named after the Swiss painter and collector who died in 1998. To house the collection the museum was expanded into the nearby Chapelle des Pénitents blanc, an impressive seventeenth-century chapel.

The collection includes some 300 paintings, drawings and sculptures by Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, including Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Degas and Redon, as well as major artists of the twentieth century, including Bonnard, Rouault, Braque, Dufy, Léger and Klee. Planque became close friends with Pablo Picasso during his time as advisor to the Galerie Beyeler in the 1960s and over time amassed a collection of more than twenty of his works.

Paul Cezanne ‘Bathers’ (c.1895)

Edgar Degas ‘Two Bathers’ (c.1895)

Claude Monet ‘Leicester Square’ (1901)

Pierre Bonnard ‘Torso of a Woman in Profile’ (c.1918)

Paul Klee ‘Un son de la flore nordique’ (1924)

Fernand Léger ‘The Rose and Compass’ (1925)

Pablo Picasso ‘Compotier avec fruits et couverts’ (1924)

Pablo Picasso ‘Le Sauvetage’ (1933)

Pablo Picasso ‘Femme au chapeau dans un fauteuil’ (1939)

Pablo Picasso ‘Femme au chat assise dans un fauteuil’ (1964)

Pablo Picasso ‘Nu et homme à la pipe (La Conversation)’ (1968)

In 2000, collector Philippe Meyer donated an exceptional collection of works to the Museums of France. The Musée d’Orsay, the initial recipient of the collection, deposited a large part of it at the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence, a city that Meyer was particularly fond of. 

Eugène Boudin ‘Marine, soleil couchant’ (1883 – 87)

Piet Mondrian ‘Composition en rouge, jaune et bleu’ (1922)

Paul Klee ‘Coup de foudre’ (1924)

Fernand Léger ‘Le pot rouge’ (1926)

Pablo Picasso ‘Femme au balcon’ (1937)

Alberto Giacometti ‘L’homme qui chavire’ (1950)

At the Hôtel de Caumont, Aix-en-Provence, for the exhibition ‘Max Ernst. Mondes magiques, mondes libérés’, a survey of the career of the German-born artist who was associated with both the Dada group and Surrealism.

The exhibition presents 120 works that retrace the career of this ingenious artist who distanced himself from any group style to pursue his own techniques, which included collage, frottage (pencil rubbings of relief surfaces and textured objects), grattage (scratching fresh paint with a sharp blade) and decalcomania (transferring paint from one surface to another by pressing the two surfaces together).

Born in Brühl, Germany, in 1891, Ernst began painting in 1909, however his studies were interrupted by World War I, in which he served on both the eastern and western fronts. He moved to Paris in 1922 and two years later became a founding member of the Surrealist movement. At the outbreak of World War II, Ernst moved to the United States, where he joined his third wife, the collector and gallery owner Peggy Guggenheim. However, the marriage did not last and in 1946 he married American Surrealist painter Dorothea Tanning. He returned to France in 1953. Ernst died at the age of 84 on 1 April 1976 in Paris.

Max Ernst ‘Oedipus Rex’ (1922)

Max Ernst ‘Monument aux oiseaux’ (1927)

Max Ernst ‘Epiphanie’ (1940)

Max Ernst ‘Un tissu de mensonges’ (1959)

Max Ernst ‘La dernière forêt’ (1960 – 70)

Max Ernst ‘La fête a Séillans’ (1964)

‘L’Opera de Quat’Sous’ (original German ‘Die Dreigroschenoper’; in English ‘The Threepenny Opera’), first produced in August 1928, was adapted from a translation of John Gay’s eighteenth-century English ballad opera, ‘The Beggar’s Opera’. 

Although Brecht wrote the text prior to the political plays influenced by his reading of Marx, his interpretation was intended as a socialist critique of capitalist society. However, this approach was totally lost in this production, staged by Thomas Ostermeier and performed by members of the Comédie-Française, where French slapstick often took over. In theory, the ideas of a communist utopia, which swept across Europe at the time, should have been ideally set in the underworld of 1920s London; but the production was too slick, and sometimes too silly, to put across any political message.

Birane Ba as Macheath

Nevertheless, it was not an unenjoyable evening as it was saved by the quality of the musicians and much of the singing. The production’s shortcomings were unfortunately down to Ostermeier’s staging.

In the beautiful town of Aix-en-Provence for the 2023 Festival. Looking forward to some wonderful opera and classical music.

I will particularly enjoy seeing Alban Berg’s ‘Wozzeck’, with music by the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, at Le Grand Théâtre de Provence. I had tickets for the same production at the 2020 Festival but it was unfortunately cancelled because of Covid. Rattle and the LSO will also be performing Mahler’s Symphony no. 7 and I will also be at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché for a new production of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s ‘L’Opera de Quat’Sous’, performed by La Comédie-Française. Much to look forward to.

At the Issigeac International Music Academy in the Dordogne for a concert by the internationally-acclaimed Quatuor Dudok from Amsterdam. Quatuor Dudok are Marleen Wester and Judith Van Driel (violins), Marie-Louise de Jong (viola) and David Faber (cello). They treated us to an evening of quartets from the Classical (Mozart), Romantic (Tchaikovsky) and Modern (Shostakovich) periods.

Quatuor Dudok

The first half opened with Mozart’s ‘String Quartet no. 23 in F major (K590)’. Written in 1790, it is the third of the Prussian Quartets dedicated to the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm II. It is in four movements, the second of which is reminiscent of a siciliana, with a gentle pastoral feel. The last movement is more lively, with each instrument given the opportunity to play a solo part.

The Quartet really came alive with the second piece, Tchaikovsky’s ‘String Quartet no. 1 in D major’ (opus 11). The second movement, the Andante cantibile in B flat, is one of Tchaikovsky’s best-known themes and was exquisitely played. The Scherzo and Finale are much more lively and showed off the Dudok’s virtuosity at its very best.

The second half, Shostakovich’s ‘String Quartet no. 5 (opus 92), was much darker and more serious. Shostakovich wrote the piece in the autum of 1952, during the final paranoid years of Stalin’s reign, but it remained in manuscript until November 1953, when it was performed by the Beethoven Quartet, to whom it is dedicated. The work develops from a motif containing the composer’s musical monogram, DSCH (D, E-flat, C, B natural), and was played by the Dudoks with great feeling.

The standing ovation which the Quartet received was well deserved and brought them back for an encore of a string quartet arrangement by cellist David Faber of a Shostakovich Piano Prelude.

Mozart ‘String Quartet no. 23 in F major (K590)’; Tchaikovsky ‘String Quartet no. 1 in D major’ (opus 11); Shostakovich ‘String Quartet no. 5 (opus 92).

At the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, for a fascinating exhibition entitled ‘Songlines. Tracking the Seven Sisters’. Aboriginal Australians’ understanding of the world and its creation is referred to as The Dreaming, which involves the passing on of beliefs via stories and songs known as Songlines. These Songlines enable trails through the country to be remembered by future generations.

This exhibition tells of a trail known as the Seven Sisters. In the story the seven sisters (Minyipuru) travel across the land in an effort to flee from their pursuer, known as Yurla. The works in the exhibition tell the story of their journey through Martu Country in central Western Australia. The vibrant acrylic paintings are representations of the creation stories linking places on the journey. The woven sculptures of the Seven Sisters Tree Women (Minyma Puna Kungkarangkalpa), made from grass, raffia and fencing wire, represent the sisters after they have learned to disguise themselves to preserve their safety.

Kumpaya Girgirba, Ngamaru Bidu, Thelma Judson, Reena Rogers, Yuwali Janice Nixon, Karnu Nancy Taylor and Ngalangka Nola Taylor ‘Hunting Ground, Parnngurr Area’ (2014)

Betty Laidlaw and Nyumitja Laidlaw ‘Tjukurrpa Kungkarrangkalpa’ (1994)

Tjapartji Kanytjuri Bates ‘Tjukurrpa Kungkarrangkalpa’ (1995)

Carol Maanyatja Golding ‘Wanarn’ (2004)

Ilawanti Ungkutjuru Ken and associates ‘Seven Sisters Tree Women’ (2013)

It is particularly enjoyable to spend time looking around the Quai Branly permanent collection and I am always drawn towards the Oceanic collection which has some spectacular exhibits.

Funerary Mask (New Ireland, early 20th century)

Malagan mask (New Ireland, end 19th century)

‘Vungvung mask’ (New Britain, late 19th century)

Asmat mask costume (1990s)