Читать книгу 101 Romantic Weekends in Europe - Sarah Woods - Страница 9

CONTACTS Santander International Music Festival Tel: +34 942 210 508 / 942 314 853 Fax: +34 942 314 767 www.festivalsantander.com

August in Santander is set to a romantic musical score as breathtaking, rapturous symphonies and stirring concertos fill the city with wisps of harmonic joy. Moving orchestral drama evokes the passion of heart-rending tragedy while soulful sonatas and concerto ritornelli whirl through Santander like a melodic virtuosic cyclone. From sweet piano refrains and dancing violins to cello solos and full orchestral might, the city plays host to umpteen renditions and repertoires from every classical genre. Delight in moody modernisti movements and the delicate Romantic era’s lyrical touch during Northern Spain’s month-long celebration of music that culminates in a rousing performance by the National Orchestra of Spain.

Named for the Latin Sancti Emeterii, Santander is characterised by fine historic buildings on handsome, Roman-built streets lined with trees and shrubs. At the heart of the city, the garden-filled Paseo de Pereda boulevard splits the old quarter from Santander’s sandy, coastal strip. One of the city’s earliest constructions, a 13th-century cathedral, sits atop catacombs, underground sculpture and sombre, vaulted chambers close to the grand bourgeois mansion houses overlooking the Bay of Biscay. Here, the Palacio de Festivales (Festival Palace), built by Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza, is the venue of the prestigious Santander International Festival, one of Spain’s oldest musical celebrations. Though smaller performances can be enjoyed in the intimate setting of over 40 historic cloisters and gardens across the city, it is the Festival Palace that embodies the spirit of the occasion from a full-on symphonic extravaganza that sets the tone of the many dozens of operatic and choral concerts that follow. Inaugurated in 1991 with Handel’s oratorio, Joshua, a stirring piece from the height of his late creative period, the Festival Palace is in its element with big-stage productions mixing historic, ecclesiastic and aristocratic elements with a flavour of the mountains and the sea. The venue’s haunting acoustics blend with a stunning stage set – a large window that frames the Bay of Biscay provides the backdrop. To the sound of rapturous applause, the scenery takes on a romantic fervour at the climax of the festival when showered with thousands of single-stem roses from the stalls.

Cuban dancer Lorna Feijoo, of the Boston Ballet, performs during a rehearsal of Les Sylphydes for the Santander International Festival.