We are at the Saintes Festival and each day, the festival office sends us a link to a PDF of the program with artist biographies and the order of music. However, what is missing are any texts or translations, so Bill Potter has taken the time to research as many lyrics as possible to compile a new PDF with the words of any vocal or choral music. It’s a lot of work for him each day, for which I am grateful! In some cases, the program order was changed, but with the translations Bill found, it was easy enough to follow along.

Yesterday we had three more concerts, the first beginning at 3:00 pm, called Cercles by Ensemble La Sensible, led by vocalist and dancer Helena Bregar, with Maria Wilgos, baroque guitar and recorder; Klaudina Zolnierek, theorbo; and Raphael Mas, percussion and voice. It was considered a “Youth Concert,” and what I was most impressed with was the singing of the principal, Helena Bregar. I found a short YouTube video which was a perfect microcosm of the Italian, French, Spanish and Latin American songs that were song. What I was amazed at was how Helena’s voice changed dramatically, depending on what language she was singing—her Mexican song sounded like an unsophisticated indigenous girl while her French and Italian songs were more refined. The audience loved it too, and called them back for two encores.

This concert was held in the Cité Entrepreneurial Auditorium, one of two we attended here, which had comfortable seats but most importantly, air conditioning!

Our second concert was at 6:00 pm and was called Les Surprises, directed by Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas, and was a program of Bach family compositions, including Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, and Johann Sebastian Bach, in addition to Georg Böhm and Georg Stölzel. What made this unusual was that all the movements were mixed up—the opening harpsichord concerto had the first movement by C.P.E. Bach, second movement by W.F. Bach, and third movement by J. S. Bach.

I did a double-take when I heard the aria and choral, “Ob bei uns ist der Sünden viel” because it was an instrumental transcription of the organ piece I play, “Aus tiefer Not”! I quickly Googled the title, and sure enough, this came from Cantata 38 on the tune, “Aus tiefer Not.” This is one of my favorite Bach pieces, which has four voices in the manuals and two voices in canon in the pedal. I have long wanted this played at my funeral, but I’m afraid not too many people play it because it’s too difficult.

The last concert we attended at 9:00 pm was called Le Concert Spirituel and directed by Hervé Niquet. It was performed by “a cast of thousands,” with a five 8-voice choirs, cornets, sackbuts, dulcians, and keyboards, featuring the music of Orazio Benevolo, Francesco Corteccia, Alessandro Striggio, Domenico Massenzio, and Pierluigi de Palestrina. The group sang from the transept with the audience facing the center of the nave—we were in the front of the cathedral facing the organ. In the huge cathedral of Saint Pierre, it sounded like polychoral Monteverdi, with massive walls of sound, echoing and bouncing back all over the building. Loud? Sure, but with those forces it was truly glorious and grand. It started out with the huge choir processing into the cathedral singing chant and accompanied by a drone of brass instruments, truly spine-chilling.

Although the Festival continues for one more day, BIll Potter and I will be taking the train to Paris to spend a few more days before returning home. It’s been a fantastic trip so far, but I’m running out of clean clothes!

We discovered the Festival bus on our second day here which offered a free ride between concert venues. See the musical notes on the bus signage?