Rebecca Franks breathes in the spring air in the popular southern city, where the music making sparkles and the sun always shines
MUSICAL DESTINATIONS
We might all love Paris in the springtime, but it’s not the only French city worthy of your affections in April. Down in the sunny south is beautiful Aix-en-Provence, where golden light bathes the streets and squares, which are lined with elegant buildings, shaded by plane trees and freshened by fountains. When I arrive just before Easter, the sun is already deliciously warm, a welcome change from the cooler UK. The city is only a half-hour drive from Marseilles airport, but as I saunter, happily half-lost, following my nose, around the cobbled streets of the old medieval heart of Aix, it feels like I’ve stepped into a different world. It’s busy with tourists, and the many shops selling fragrant local lavender are doing a roaring trade, but it’s easy enough to slip down a side street and find a quiet café for a coffee.
Even just a few days in Aix-en-Provence is a tonic. The sunshine warms body and soul. It’s one of the reasons that violinist Renaud Capuçon loves the place, so much so that he co-founded a music festival here. He’s now its artistic director. ‘There’s no rain. The public can go to Germany, Austria, Switzerland and England for other festivals, but here it comes with the sun,’ he says, smiling but not really joking. ‘People can come for holidays, for music, to spend a week here and discover the musicians but also the city, the wine, the mountains. We are a very complete festival.’
As it enters its 11th year, the annual Festival de Pâques – or Easter Festival of Aix-en-Provence – has become as much of a fixture as the city’s summer opera festival, attracting some of the leading artists of the day. No surprise to learn, I’m sure, that it always takes place around Easter – and a performance of one of JS Bach’s two passions is a fixture on Good Friday. For 2024, it’s the turn of the St John Passion, with a line-up of soloists including Jakob Pilgram as The Evangelist, with Andrea Marcon conducting La Cetra Barockorchester from Basel. Last year, during my visit, the mighty St Matthew Passion was on the programme – and it was a deeply moving performance. Among its international soloists were Ian Bostridge as a dramatic Evangelist and Benjamin Appl as Jesus, but my overwhelming impression was
