Archive for February, 2006

For everyone who has an interest in organ music then you may be interested in the man and music behind the annual music season held each year in Pontorson, Southern Normandy.

Over twenty years ago the small town of Pontorson raised money to have its church organ restored. The 19th century organ was totally rebuilt and extended and the commune funded a massive 90% of the restoration work. Pontorson church interestingly has some amazing acoustics and consequently in 1989 the new mayor was interested in promoting Pontorson to a wider public.

At this point I would just like to take an aside and introduce Francis to this story, a long time resident of the local village of La Rive, which sits on the ancient pilgrim route to Le Mont St Michel. From the door of Francis's charming house in the village you look out at the marshes and Le Mont St Michel beyond.
Francis came to La Rive in the mid70's. He took a job on Le Mont St Michel as a guide then as the organist in the Abbey there.

So back to Pontorson, as I was telling you the new mayor was interested in putting Pontorson on the cultural map and decided to plan for some summer concerts. Among the members of the town council was a friend of Francis's who approached him to organise ten concerts over two months. No mean feat as there was no funding initially to start, so all the work of organising and setting up the concerts was entirely voluntary. However after the first season that proved to be such a success the concert season has now been running for 18 years. 

Each season an underlying thread or theme runs through the concerts ranging from sea and mother, international, British and so on. Musicians from all over Europe play a wide variety of music from 18th century choral music from Prague, mediaeval music from Con Brio to modern Flamenco from Spain. 

Later Musicales Musicales Manche was set up with Francis at the helm. The objective was ultimately to unite many small communes within Manche from Juvigny le Tetre to Villedieu to Barfleur etc and to link them all together to form music and cultural links and run concert seasons across the department.

In 1996 the Director of Monuments for Brittany asked Francis to compile a report on the church organs in Brittany. For years money had been spent on restoring some 31 of them, many were rarely used for concerts. Francis's study that took some time and a lot of effort unfortunately was read only by a few, mainly because of the lack of exchange of information between the different cultural actors. It did highlight however, how the organ plays a central role in creating a strong link between the church and everyday life within the community. This was something special, as once again history has repeated itself and the church in Pontorson with its annual concerts brings those links to life again, if only for a few months of the year!

The concert season runs from April to October and the provisional programme includes:

9th April  Concert/ Conference  Pietr Eben with Marianne Levy-Noisette, organ and Denise Blanc singer: Praque la tragique.

27th May Denis Travert trumpet and Erwan Le Prado organ

8th July Frederic Guillemin organ and Gemma Raya Livingstone Soprano: Henry Purcell.

21st July Les Archets de Bretagne   Mozart: concerto flute and harp.

9th August Frantisek Vanicek organ and Mailys de Villoutreys, mezzo-soprano un air de Praque.

14th October Caroline Shuster- Fournier organ and Dwrdan natural horn un soleil de braises.

Contact OCAC, Mairie, Pontorson 50170
Direction Francis Prod'homme, 0233608009
Reservations Tourist Office Pontorson 02 33 60 20 65

Entry is 10 euros, 8 euros for holders of an OCAC card pass for 6 concerts 40 euros Free for students.

See more at:  www.musiquesapontorson.com