Ancient sacred and baroque music festival at saint Michel abbey in northern France

ome to the famous Jean de Boizard organ (1714) the Saint-Michel abbey has welcomed for the last several years, the most sought after artists of ancient music. The music coproduced by radio France MUSIQUE with the choreographic collection called TEMPERAMENTS, confirms the baroque destiny of the abbey in harmony with the site. The ancient and baroque music festival The festival has its roots in the restoration of the prestigious historical organ (1714) of the abbey church and the artistic activity that followed as a result since1984. The festival was started in 1987 with the important decision by Radio France and the Conseil General of the Aisne departement : Every Whit Monday the train of FRANCE MUSIQUE radio would, for a whole day of music, take several hundred Parisian music lovers to attend two concerts transmitted live on radio.
       Still today, the festival offers this formula to a large public coming from neighbouring regions or from farther away, and invites you to meet the greatest specialists of baroque repertoire. On Sundays, in June and July, two concerts are given (at 11.30 a.m. and 5 p.m.) with the possibility of lunch (at 1 p.m.) and a questions and answers meeting with the artists at 3 p.m. Jordi Savall, Philippe Herreweghe, William Christie, Gustav Leonhardt, Gérard Lesne, Martin Gester, Marc Minkowski, André Isoir, Michel Chapuis, Hervé Niquet, Skip Sempé, Sigiswald and Wieland Kuijken, Graham O'Reilly and numerous other artists take seats among the regular and faithful guests of the Saint-Michel festival.
       Beyond the diffusion of music, this action is part of a large departmental program, as witnessed for instance by the French music festival in Laon in the autumn, and is the source of an important record collection, mainly produced by Radio France since 1987. Together with the ADAMA (Association for the Development of musical activities in Aisne) which handles the artistic part of the festival it has enabled the production at the abbey, of about 25 CD's forming theTempéraments ,collection focused on historical organs in France and Europe: it is coproduced by Radio France and the General Counsel of Aisne.
       In an environment favourable to artistic values in harmony with the nature of the site, all of these actions significantly strengthen the musical vocation of the site and add to its notoriety.