Cartagena Music Festival: Exploring European Music in Colombia

Talking about European music in the land of bullerengue seems strange. It feels foreign to approach works inspired by the moonlight of the Bergamo Alps while facing the Caribbean Sea; pieces that evoke snow, mazurkas and not chalupoa; modal ambiguities between minor and major, instead of responsorial choruses; symphonic timpani and not cheerful drum heads. Talking about a festival dedicated to Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic and Swedish nationalism, ignoring our own nationalism, does not seem like a good idea at first glance.

However, the Cartagena Music Festival is about to turn 18 in Colombia, adding more and more concerts and more attendees. So many that, according to Law 2340 of 2023, the event is already Cultural Heritage of the Nation. It was founded in 2007 by Víctor Salvi and Julia Salvi – its current president – ​​with the purpose of, I quote verbatim from the definition of its objectives: “To be one of the most important meetings of cultured and academic music in Colombia and Latin America”, understanding cultured music, in this case, as European music.

The criticisms made by some sectors of Colombian music are clear: Eurocentrism, elitism and colonialism. The question, then, is: Why is it still such a successful and popular festival? The answer is in a name: Antonio Miscená.

Miscená was born in southern Italy and trained as a musician at the Conservatory of Perugia, a medieval city 150 kilometers from Rome. For more than 20 years he was the director of the Association of Musical Instrument Builders in Italy and, currently, he is the artistic director of the Cartagena Music Festival.

How does an Italian become the person in charge of a festival in Cartagena?

That’s a story like so many. Before coming for the first time, I didn’t even know where Colombia was on the map. But there are always points of connection. Mine was Víctor Salvi, Julia’s ex-husband, who was part of the board of the Association of Musical Instrument Builders of which I was director. With him we did a harp conference in Perugia and Julia arrived there, but that time I didn’t know her well. We met again in 2012, when she invited me to a Congress in Medellín in which I presented all the Italian production of instruments: harps, accordions, cremona violins, pianofortes. We stayed in touch, I invited her to the Turin Book Fair and she invited me again to Colombia, this time to the music festival. I came, I met him and we agreed that she would help him organize the musical part, but only for a year, because I had many commitments. To make a long story short, that was in 2012 and I’m still here.

Do you feel that the festival has changed since then?

I have seen him grow and change. Before, I would dare say, fewer musicians came; They were not thematic festivals…

Was that your idea?

Yes. I am used to doing thematic festivals because I find it more interesting. It is like a trip that is announced by a clear theme and then develops. Now, it can be developed poorly and everything can be turned upside down, but if it is done well, the audience grows and technical capacity increases. The latter is very important: if a music festival doesn’t sound good, it’s of no use. You need good players, but also good pianos, good tuners. A complete team. I still bring six or seven technicians from Italy because with television and internet broadcasts I can’t risk the sound being heard badly.

Another thing I did was internationalize it: create an original festival with original songs that musicians are interested in, because they also get bored of always playing the same 20 pieces. When they are good and receptive and you offer them material to study, they appreciate it.

“I made a festival that would interest musicians. When they are good and receptive and you offer them material to study, they appreciate it.”

What do you respond to the criticism that the festival is elitist?

What is an urban legend. I can assure it with statistics. Before the pandemic we had thirty thousand spectators—which for a classical music festival is a lot. Of those, the majority were spectators of free concerts: those in San Pedro Square and the Convention Center.

The attendees who paid their ticket and went to the concerts in the two chapels did not exceed nine thousand. So, it is clear that there is a group of high-income people who finance the rest. It’s the same thing that happens in all festivals, that’s how they are financed.

And to those who say they prefer foreign musicians to Colombian ones?

Look, if you have musicians like Santiago Cañón, who is Colombian, you can ask him to play any repertoire. This year he is going to play a Haydn concerto that I don’t make a German or an Austrian play, but Santiago can play it without a problem.

But the meter for those musicians is European music, not Colombian…

There is something with the rhetoric of Colombian talent… I am in Naples and if I want to search for music by Colombian authors on the internet, everything is a disaster. There are no good recordings, there are no things done to professional standards. It seems that Colombian academic music does not exist. There are no academic records, it is full of historical confusions and practically – it pains me to say it – there are no chamber music works. Every year I invite the same quartet, because it is the only good one I know. And look, that’s another urban legend, that we disdain Colombian music. For some editions, we have included two days dedicated to it. Two of the nine are more or less six concerts. We are also making editorial publications and professionally recording music from what could be the classics: Holguín, Adolfo Mejía, Figueroa…

And the composers?

That is true and there is a reason: lack of knowledge. Because it is one thing to talk about them and another to have their scores. We have done some things by Boulanger and Clara Schumann, but in the Colombian case, I don’t know much. It will be a task, I’m going to document myself.

The next edition of the Cartagena Music Festival will be held from January 5 to 13, 2024. The Heredia Theater is one of the temples that hosts it.

Let’s go back to this year’s festival, which is called: Symphony of Nature. Tell us what it is about this time?

The idea arose last year, after having had Eastern European music as a theme. This year, then, we wanted to dedicate it to the north and we realized that almost all the composers from that place have something in common and that is the relationship with nature: Grieg, Nielsen, Sibelius, Sveinbjörnson… All of them. And then we realized that canonical composers also have this relationship very present: Bach, Haydn, Beethoven. Why wouldn’t we include them too? This is how it was born The symphony of nature. If we organized it chronologically, we would have Vivaldi with his famous Four Seasons, which are the first example of descriptive nature. Then, Beethoven comes with an important piece which is the Pastoral Symphony, more suggestive than descriptive in nature. Debussy with a completely different way of approaching nature: atmospheric, sensitive, abstract. Until we reach Grieg, Sibelius and all the music of the north. That will be, more or less, the route of the nine days of the festival, which we have prepared so that people can enjoy in Cartagena between January 5 and 13, 2023.

*Musical journalist, winner of two Simón Bolívar awards. Direct Classic sign, on the National Radio of Colombia.

2024-01-05 22:48:51
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