Altitude Immobilier

14 culture A n exceptional winter season for music lovers in Crans-Montana Seven musical evenings, inspired by Vienna, are being showcased for the public to enjoy from New Year to Easter. Is there a better way to celebrate New year than to witness the sparkling style of piano star Khatia Buniatishvili? This brilliant virtuoso will be the soloist of the 8th Crans Montana New Year Gala Concert on January 1. The big gala evening, which is supported by the Francis and Marie-France Minkoff Foundation, is the most important cultural event in Valais. Buniatishvili will captivate the audience with her incredible piano performance of Rachmaninov's Concerto No. 2 and works by Tchaikovsky. In the second half, the Cameristi della Scala Orchestra will recreate the feel of Vienna's famous New Year's Concerts playing the music of Johann Strauss and Franz von Suppé. The orchestra from Milan will be conducted by Dionysis Grammenos. This 30-year-old Greek conductor was hailed by Die Welt as “one of the most promising stars of tomorrow”. The concert will start at 5pm at Le Regent Sport Center. The next day, everyone from five to 95 will be able to discover and enjoy a multi-media show of the sequel to Peter and the Wolf, The Duck Lives. The story of Peter and the Wolf began here at the festival last year. This year the aim is to enthral the audience with the wonderful adventures of the Duck, the Cat and the Bird. The orchestra, specially formed for the event, will be under the direction of conductor Laurent Zufferey. The visual aspects of the show will be provided by Massimo Racozzi and Fabio Babich whose sand art will be projected onto a screen while Eric Constantin will be the narrator. Also on the billing for the evening at Le Regent Sport Centre will be The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas and two works by Johann Strauss, I and II. Free admission for children under 16 years old. The February Festival has been entitled Vienna the Magnificent by the musical director Michaël Guttman. He has chosen works that illustrate the musical richness typical of Vienna and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Who better than Roby Lakatos, the Hungarian and gypsy virtuoso, to better illustrate this dimension that inspired so much Haydn and Brahms? The festival will start on February 8 with a programme of typically Austrian and German ballads in the first part of Vienna That Cries, Vienna That Laughs, and the playful operetta of Franz Lehar for the second. Laure Barras will be the soprano, Richard Helm the baritone while Irene Puccia will accompany them on the piano. On February 16th, the theme of the night will be the common thread between Mozart and Schoenberg. The concert on February 20th will explore the journey from Vienna to Hollywood. In the last century, with many Viennese composers forced to exile themselves with their art, Erich Wolfgang Korngold conquered Hollywood films with this music, thus helping the global success of American cinema. He will be honoured, surrounded by masterpieces of the Viennese repertoire such as Schubert's sonata Arpeggione. The festival will finish on February 23 with a fiesta of Hungarian dances. Finally, the Easter Concert will be given on April 12 at the church of Chermignon-Dessus by the Oracantat Choir and the Valais Chamber Orchestra. Under the baton of Sébastien Bagnoud, they will present a programme with Czech influences from Bohemia, a neighbour of Vienna. Roby Lakatos