The Verbier Festival just announced its program for this year’s edition. From the 22nd of July until the 7th of August you can come discover, in the heart of Swiss Alps, stars and young talents of the classical music. For the opening night, the “living legend” violinist, Kyung Wha Chung, will be back on stage after several years of break, under the conductor Charles Dutoit and the Verbier Festival Orchestra. The festival orchestra will receive this year some well-known conductors like Michael Tilson Thomas, Paavo Järvi or Iván Fischer.

 Let us point out some of the best of what this year’s program can offer: for pianistic recitals, we have the talented Daniil Trifonov, the « flying fingers » Yuja Wang, the Russian titan Grigory Sokolov with the impressive Schumann’s Fantasy and Chopin’s sonata n°2 or the Armenian pianist Sergei Babayan who will play Bach’s first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier. On the 28th of July, the Hungarian pianist András Schiff comes back as a soloist with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra in a vigorous program with the “Emperor” Piano Concerto. Then on the 1st of August you can admire, in Brahms’ double concerto for violin and cello, Leonidas Kavakos and Alexander Buzlov, by the side of one of the busiest conductors nowadays, Paavo Järvi (Music Director of Orchestre de Paris, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and NHK Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo) who will also add Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony to the program. For more diversity, Verbier Festival offers also a jazz evening on the 2nd of August, with the worthy successor of Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Reeves and her virtuosity, charisma and warmhearted voice. 

In the afternoons of July 23 and July 30, you will have a chance to discover the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra – program launched in 2013 under the name Music Camp, designated to youngsters in the age of 15 to 18 and whose ambition is to deliver one of the best musical experiences in the world for young musicians. This year’s first concert of VFJO will be under their chief conductor Daniel Harding with Stephan Genz and his interpretation of Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder; and the second one conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk. 

For the closing night, we have on program one of the biggest Mahlerians of nowadays, Michael Tilson Thomas. This American conductor will give Symphony n°3 with joined forces of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, the contralto Nathalie Stutzmann and choirs of the region. 

This was only a little taste of this year rich program of the Verbier Festival. To discover the rest of the concerts (with musicians like cellist Misha Misky, accordionist Ksenija Sidorova, violinist Joshua Bell, soprano Anja Kampe or Jerusalem quartet) please visit festival’s official website : http://www.verbierfestival.com 

Adela Pudlakova