It also features three concerts to mark the 20 years that Jordi Savall has taken part in the festival. It offers more than 30 concerts over the course of four weeks of music that kick off on 14 September with the program “Celebrate this Festival” serving up works by Purcell as performed by La Fenice, the Namur Chamber Choir and countertenor Jean Michel Fumas, under the direction of Jean Tubéry.

Other highlights of this first week include concerts by clavichord player Leonardo García Alarcón performing Bach’s English Suites (15 September) and a concert by Florilegium and King’s College Cambridge which, under the title “The Art of Contrast”, presents works by Purcell and Handel (15 September) and a concert by Le Parlement de la Musique. Under the direction of Martin Gester it presents the program “Tribute, from Vivaldi to Denoye”, with works by J. A. Denoye and Corette (16 September).

The second week of the festival features a programme dedicated to Charpentier and Lully, with performances by William Christie’s Les Arts Florissants (Thursday the 20th), one entitled “The Baroque of the Seas of the North”, dedicated to Nordic composers and performed by Concerto Copenhagen directed by Lars Ulrik Mortensen (21 Sepyember); the program entitled “English Melting Pot” with works from Handel, Geminiani, Avison and Roman performed by Coro Ars Nova and Concerto Conpenhagen, again under Lars Ulrik Mortensen (22 September) and a “Tribute to Buxtehude” on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of his death, performed by the Amsterdan Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Ton Koopman (23 September).

The festival’s third week offers a production of the Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, in an “alternative” version rendered by Compañía Opera-Teatro, the group Les Boreales and a group of young performers (September 27, 28 and 29). This week will also feature the three concerts by Jordi Savall, the first with Hesperion XXI entitled “The Tears of the Muses”, including works by Byrd, Dowland and Gibbons (September 28). The second concert is entitled “Music for the Theatre of Shakespeare” with works by Locke and Purcell performed by Le Concert des Nations (September 29), while the third is a solo concert with works for viola da gamba by Tobias Hume (September 30).

In October highlights of the festival include two programs by Handel: Messiah with Arsys Bourgogne and Les Folies Françaises (October 6) and “Cantatas for Cardinal Ottoboni” with La Risonanza (October 11).

Further information is available from: www.ambronay.org