Biarritz Piano Festival: good notes by the sea

For sixteen years, pianist and composer Thomas Valverde, founder of the Biarritz festival, has been unleashing his favorite instrument with a program and performers that go off the beaten track.

Concerts at 11 a.m., instruments installed on the beach promenade, digital keyboards, jazz, songs... Even if the Biarritz piano festival showcases the most beautiful scores written over the centuries, it also always offers a few side steps, to take the audience from one room to another, from one style to another, from one atmosphere to another... Thomas Valverde is not changing, for this ^16th edition, the recipe that works, filling, for a few summer evenings, the rotunda of the Bellevue center or the municipal casino of Biarritz.

"The avenues we've explored in recent years have borne fruit. The program therefore has a format and rhythm that are almost identical to those of previous editions: major concerts at Bellevue, an open-air jazz concert at the Biarritz lighthouse, free happenings at sunset..."

Among the pianists on the bill, Lucas Debargue, the I Giardini trio, Caroline Shaw, and Diana Cooper have included Ravel in their program in this anniversary year and tribute to the composer born in Ciboure in 1875, one hundred and fifty years ago. The selected works highlight particular universes, notably "Gaspard de la nuit," between poetry and mystery for Lucas Debargue (Monday, July 28). The I Giardini trio, with Sébastien Surel on violin, Pauline Buet on cello, and David Violi on piano, will combine the works of the Ciboure native with the creativity of American composer Caroline Shaw, Pulitzer Prize winner for music in 2013, for a new interpretation of Ravel's piano pieces (Sunday, August 3 at 8 p.m.).

As for side steps, Thomas Valverde offers a rarity with a piano and double bass evening, played respectively by Simon Ghraichy and Marc André (Wednesday, July 30 at 9 p.m.). "Simon shakes up the codes of classical music, and Marc's double bass lends itself to the Iberian atmosphere they develop around De Falla, Granados, and Piazolla," promises the artistic director. He links this reinterpretation of tunes from popular culture to the closing concert by Benjamin Grosvenor (Friday, August 8 at 9 p.m.): "This multi-award-winning Briton has chosen to highlight Mussorgsky and his 20th ^- century Russian music alongside Schumann's romanticism."

Nach, a pianist and singer from the Chedid tribe (Anna, Louis's youngest child, Matthieu's sister) will be present with her album "Peau neuve" (Thursday, July 31 at 8 p.m.). As for electronic music, it will be on the program a week later with the avant-garde Japanese composer Koki Nakano (Thursday, August 7 at 8 p.m.).

The first of the Piano and Sunset sessions will be held on the roof of the Cité de l'Océan, whose wave-like shape makes it an open-air auditorium (free entry, Tuesday, July 29). Thomas Valverde will perform "Polka," his latest album. For the second free event (Tuesday, August 5), the piano will be set up, as in previous editions, on the Côte des Basques for London musician Josef Akin.

Full program and ticketing on the festival website: biarritzpianofestival.com