digital diary

Antonio Peralta Gámez (President of the Musical Association of the Costa Tropical). On the evening of August 24, the First Early Music Festival closed its first edition at the Villa Astrida estate located in Playa Granada, Motril, with an excellent result, as planned by the organization, which was run by the Musical Association of the Costa Tropical, as well as its economic cost.

The Festival, which aims to honour the memory of King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola, has achieved a second objective that is no less interesting, namely, to contribute to the development of tourism in the area. This was achieved with an attendance of the public, mostly residents of Playa Granada, who were grateful for its organisation, or who had come expressly from other places on the coast to hear music that is gaining more and more followers every day.

The opening concert It was led by a luxury ensemble, Vestigium Ensemble, which thrilled an expectant audience by bidding farewell to the young trio of flute, viola da gamba and harpsichord with a thunderous applause and admiration for music that left a delicate and charming taste, having as its leitmotif the myth of Apollo and Marsyas.

The concert, sponsored by the Juventudes Musicales de España for being the winning group of the National Competition organized by said entity and held in Madrid in 2023, is made up of three Spanish musicians based in Switzerland whose main objective is the historical interpretation of early music. They have recently participated in the Fringe Festival of the Utrecht Early Music Festival, in the International Young Artists’ Presentation (IYAP) of the Antwerp Early Music Festival and in the third edition of the Rosa do Mundo – Música Antiga Festival in Portimão. Its members, Ana Fernández Anguita, baroque flute; Andrés García Fraile, viola da gamba and Eliot Xaquin D. Martínez, harpsichord, showed their individual and group virtuosity that accredits them as one of the most prestigious and promising Spanish early music groups.

The second concert The concert offered by the Tafelkmusic group was held in Villa Astrida with an artistic success guaranteed by the experience of its protagonists: the flutist Tatiana Franco Vidal, professor at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, who showed her perfect mastery, an unrivalled sound and an unbeatable technique; the baroque cellist Héctor Hervás, who demonstrated his mastery of a complicated instrument from which he obtained a full and secure sound, showing his knowledge and experience even in those moments feared by all instrumentalists, the breaking of a string; finally, the harpsichordist Juanma Moreno, a true master, which he demonstrated throughout the concert, always being present, even in the difficult moment of occupying the unexpected cello, “filling in” with a brilliant improvisation, asking the audience to choose a theme beforehand; one fan proposed “the pheasant”. Juanma Moreno did not hesitate and the moment had a flavour of times gone by, reminiscent of the past of great harpsichordists such as Scarlatti, JS Bach or, more recently, the Alicante native Genoveva Gálvez of happy memory on 27 February 1979 in the hall of the Motril School of Arts and before that the Italian harpsichordist Gabriella Gentile Verona on 11 February 1978, as recorded in the memoirs of Juventudes Musicales de Motril.

A concert by the Tafelmusik Granada trio on August 23, 2024 at the First Balduino and Fabiola Early Music Festival held in Villa Astrida de Playa Granada in Motril that will also go down in history.

The third concert The Festival was led by the Mediterranean Chamber Orchestra with a reduced format of nine musicians, taking into account the equally reduced space of the charming courtyard of Villa Astrida.

The public’s response exceeded all expectations and the Orchestra had no choice but to go out onto the porch of the beautiful garden of the house where the more than one hundred spectators have comfortably enjoyed the space and the light respite of the sea breeze provided by the nearby Mediterranean.

The performers feared that the sound would be damaged, but fortunately the Orchestra was able to show off all its power with a program that was very much appreciated by the public, as befits these summer events.

Special mention should be made of concertmaster Atsuko Neriishi, who performed Vivaldi’s Summer of the Four Seasons with a virtuosity that moved the audience.

Similarly, the violins Adriana Zarzuela and Oscar Sánchez did the same with JS Bach’s Double Concerto, which was highly applauded.

The rest of the programme, Purcell’s Abdelazer Suite, Albinoni’s Adagio, Telemann’s Don Quixotte Suite and other treats such as Handel’s famous Sarabande, delighted the audience on an evening that, it must be said, was rounded off by the Paladares company with its delicious tapas and cold beer during the break.

Final concert of an Early Music Festival that was born with the intention of being permanent on the part of its organizers, the Musical Association of the Costa Tropical, to whom the public showed their gratitude for making it possible to enjoy beautiful and unusual music.

The public also expressed their gratitude to the manager of Villa Astrida by kindly offering the use and enjoyment of the house and gardens of Villa Astrida, where King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola spent so many summers and who, said Isabel Ferrer, “will surely be listening to the concert from up there.”