A festival celebrates pure life

This year’s programme is strongly inspired by the interwoveness of music and magic and by the fascination composers have with spirituality, mysticism, and the paranormal.

Debussy with his mythical creatures such as the Syrinx, Puck and Ondine; Saint-Saëns’ vast imagination embodied in the form of a zoo (and were those donkeys he was referring or music critics with his: „Persönlichkeiten mit langen Ohren“?). Schumanns’ „Märchenerzählungen“ remain shrouded in the mystery of what it was Schumann was trying to convey through his music; Bloch’s „Poemé Mystique“ and Beethoven’s „Ghost“ trio display colours of the supernatural or spiritual. The living composer Perez-Ramirez’s opus for GAIA is inspired by folklore from his country of origin, Peru. What is it „magic“ hold on these great composers, if not the ability to put a spell on us and allow us to be transported to another place, a dream-like, lucid state, even if just for the length of a piece?

Gwendolyn Masin
Founder and artistic director