Oh my! Here we go—let’s kick off the new year 2023! 🎹🎶📝📚✨🌟💫💖 May it be a lucky year, and I wish you all the very best!! 🪄✨ Thanks to our friend Franck Ciup, who’s as inventive as ever—beyond imagination!! 😳🤔 & A huge thank you to Phillipe Destouesse, who—out of friendship and love for the piano—is lending us this exceptional piano for the very first time at the Château de Bourgon for a musical moment! 🎹🤩 Bösendorfer Vienna Concert 2.80!!!
Sunday, February 12, 4:00 p.m.
at the Château de Bourgon in Montourtier (Montsûrs) “Good Food and Good Drink” A show created by Sophie Parel & Franck Ciup Texts by: Daudet, Blixen, Desproges, Colette, Valles, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Astier, Pushkin, Molière Piano compositions by Franck CIUP.
Sophie Parel, a theater director, filmmaker, and actress, works with her friend Franck Ciup, a composer and pianist. They met in Avignon and enjoy creating simple performances—readings that blend piano music and text. 🎹🎶📝📚✨ Sophie and Franck dare to take the stage as two characters to perform excerpts from anthologies of gastronomy and taste, featuring legendary vintages, alternating these passages with delightful musical interludes on the piano—and plenty of laughter.
It’s delicious, flavorful—all this literature, music, and dishes simmered with love really whets the appetite. Here we are, transported from Bach to Bacchus, intoxicated by divine wines and words. 😋📝🎶🍽🍷✨🤪 They’ve already brought Chekhov to the stage with “The Love Letters of Olga Knipper and Anton,” “Good Food and Good Drink,” “Once Upon a Time, Cyrano”—a shared love for these Alexandrian verses—and “The Child of the High Seas” by Supervielle.
Note: (Laurent Deutsch, Actor, Writer, Director, December 21, 2022, at the Théâtre Saint Bonnet ” “I can tell you that at the piano, Franck is like a big cat—a tomcat—who manages to play with incredible delicacy and, at the same time, in a truly gargantuan, thunderous way.”
Yet the piano is never mistreated—a mind-boggling paradox between the lightness of the sounds, the power of the instrument, and the emotion it conveys. Franck is a Hugolian homage; he is both Jean Valjean and Cosette, Depardieu and Barbara.”) Reservations required at 0611372999 or by email: [email protected] Price: €15 for ARPECAT members who have paid their 2023 dues; €25 for non-members.
As always, there’ll be a potluck cocktail party after the concert! Bring whatever you’d like to share! 🥂✨🍱 Another fun fact: Arielle Beck was on the show “Prodiges” five years ago! She’s 13 now and has come a long way since then—the Château de Bourgon loves her, and I think the feeling is mutual!
Saturday, April 1, at 4 p.m.
Piano concert featuring Arielle Beck, who was a finalist on the TV show “Prodiges” five years ago! She is now 14 years old and has had an amazing journey since then; this year, she was unanimously accepted into the CNSMDP.
She returns to enchant us at the Château de Bourgon and perform the following works: - Robert Schumann, *Davidsbündlertänze*, Op. 6 (eighteen pieces). - Frédéric Chopin, *Twelve Études*, Op. 25.
**MAY**
Sunday, May 7, 4:00 p.m.: “Just Friends” Jazz Concert
JUNE**Saturday, the 24th, at 6 p.m.: a four-hand piano concert featuring young French and Portuguese pianists—donations welcome
JULY
Concert on Sunday, July 16, at 6:00 p.m. Featuring Congyu Wang, an internationally renowned pianist!! I am deeply honored that she is coming to France to perform at the Château de Bourgon as part of her world tour. Etudes by Wild/Gershwin; Rachmaninoff Preludes, Op. 23; Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise; Ravel’s “Gaspard de la nuit”; Liszt / Chopin. After the concert, everyone is welcome to bring a picnic and grilled food to share in the garden. A complimentary glass of rosé will be provided! 🍹🌞😎
AUGUST The play *The Imaginary Invalid* by Molière, starring Brigitte Perrier and the 11-member troupe l’Etoffe des Songes. 2 performances: * Saturday, August 19, 8:00 p.m. * Sunday, August 20, 4:00 p.m. And we’ll wrap up with a musical performance by Annie Servais 
Nicolas Mignard (1606–1668).
Molière (1622–1673) as Caesar in *The Death of Pompey*, a tragedy by Corneille. Paris, Carnavalet Museum. * Wednesday, August 30, 8:00 p.m. The CARAVAGE Ensemble, led by Adrien Michel on cello, featuring a total of seven musicians, including Vincent Lochet on clarinet, Anne Balu and Florian Dantel on violin, Alexandre Lory on piano, Evan Mut on viola, Simon Guillot on the flute… Weber’s Clarinet Quintet, Mendelssohn’s First Trio, and excerpts from Grieg’s *Peer Gynt*.
SEPTEMBER
On JEP, the castle will be open for guided tours on Sunday, September 17, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
OCTOBER * Sunday, October 1: CONCERT CANCELED Schubert program: Anja Linder on harp and Julie Sevilla-Fraysse on cello A preview of the album to be released on October 27 * Sunday, October 15: Giorgi IULDASHEVI M. on piano
Ravel - “Pavane for a Dead Princess” D. Scarlatti - Sonata L.V. Beethoven - Sonata in C-sharp minor, “Moonlight,” Op. 27, No. 2 - Intermission - C.
Franck - Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, Op. 18 D. Scarlatti - Sonata P.I. Tchaikovsky - M.
Pletnev - “The Nutcracker” Suite 1. Lively March 2. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy: Andante ma non troppo 3.
Tarantella 4. Intermezzo 5. Trepak (Russian dance): Molto vivace 6.
Tea (Chinese dance): Allegro moderato 7. Andante maestoso**
NOVEMBER** * Sunday, November 26, 4:00 p.m. Martin Romberg: composer, pianist, and conductor! A wonderful event!
Mystery, Myth, and Enchantment: The Norwegian neo-Romantic composer Martin Romberg has performed his music—which draws on themes from Europe’s mythical heritage—all over the world. His music seeks to highlight the metaphysical and archetypal aspects of the human imagination in a universal way, musically liberated from time and the sense of time.
In 2023, he composed three complete cycles for soprano and piano that explore surprising aspects of written myth, often approached from a feminine and supernatural perspective. All the songs were written for the Norwegian soprano Susanna Wolff.
Vampire Songs—A cycle of four songs, written in French by the Norwegian poet Cornelius Jakhelln, is based on the poet’s impressions during a mysterious journey through the mountains of Transylvania in 2020.
The songs explore the strange elegance, emotion, and superhuman arrogance of vampires in a romantic yet eerie way. It is a journey through the inner psychological state of a female vampire transcending time and space, as well as an exploration of the universal human desire for eternal life, wrapped in an air of Latin mysticism.
The work was commissioned by the RO-CULTURA program of the Romanian Ministry of Culture and premiered by Susanna Wolff and Ioan Mihailescu in Timisoara on November 17, 2023. *Werewolf Songs*—a cycle of seven songs, written in German by the Norwegian poet Cornelius Jakhelln, explore the world of werewolves and fairy tales, focusing on the psychic and mythical relationship between a little girl and a wolf, as well as the desire to transform into forms of primal power.
It is also a story of returning to a compromise with our own humanity. Some songs paraphrase and play with the works of masters of German literature, such as Wagner and Goethe, as well as quotations from the New Testament.
The collection was commissioned by the Temnitzer Orgeltage in Germany and premiered by Susanna Wolff and Max Carsley on October 15, 2023. *Elven Songs—A Cycle of 6 Songs* is based on poems and lyrics translated by J.R.R.
Quenya, Tolkien’s Elvish Language, by Louisa May Alcott, Jane Taylor, Martin Romberg, and Tolkien. The language invented by Tolkien was developed over a period of 63 years, from 1910 to 1973, and forms the linguistic backbone that led to his mythopoetic literary masterpiece, *The Silmarillion*, in 1977.
The poems in this collection tell stories about the departure of elves from this world and the twilight of such transitions to the realm of shadows and desire. The translations were done by the Norwegian linguistic genius Thorin J.
Berge, who also contributed to the pronunciation in general. The work was commissioned by the Classix Festival in Iași, Romania, and premiered by Susanna Wolff and Florent Mourier on March 2, 2023. Martin Romberg, born in 1978, is a Norwegian composer.
He is one of the most prolific composers of orchestral music of his generation in Scandinavia. He is best known for his works for choir and orchestra inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien and fantasy literature.
DECEMBER Sunday, December 10, 4:00 p.m.: Piano concert with Christian Wachter: - Bach: French Overture, BWV 831/1 - Mozart: Adagio in B minor, K. 540 - Schubert: Sonata, D. 959 And, as always, there will be surprises to add to this marathon of discovery of our heritage—in music and literature!
Cocktail reception after the concert. Arpecat Concert: €15 for members, €25 for non-members (to join the Arpecat association: €15 plus an annual membership fee of €15). Covid-19 health guidelines will be followed in accordance with government instructions!
Aerial Tour of the Site: Narrated Tour—Thanks to Radio Fidélité: Château de Bourgon · Radio Tour of the Château de Bourgon