Classical music lovers were delighted this weekend, but few. At La Flèche and Le Lude, the La Folle Journée festival only attracted 2,320 visitors against about 6,000 usually. “But we still have a real presence of the public, which is satisfying, it is that we managed to maintain this event“, welcomes Richard Le Normand, the director of the cultural center of Carroi.
“Usually, we open the ticket office in December and we have a large influx of reservations that day“, he continues. “This year, we had almost no one. Reservations were released at the last minute, sometimes just before the concerts.” In question, the health crisis and the permanent uncertainty about the maintenance of events. This Sunday at the beginning of the afternoon, the Coppélia room was half empty.
Overwhelmed spectators
But the rest of the spectators were very happy to be able to enjoy this dedicated edition to the Austrian composer Schubert, including a concert by a string quartet, a piano and a mezzo-soprano. “We took the opportunity to come with the children to have access to culture, to know what classical music is and to see real instruments“, says Myriam, recently installed at La Flèche.
– Raphael Cann
Others do not miss any edition. “But I like fairly light classical music“, specifies Philippe, a retiree from Fléch. “These are fairly short concerts, so it allows you to see different things.” For example, he will take the opportunity to continue with a concert of choirs at St. Thomas Church. The musicians did not hesitate to reclaim Schubert’s scores. “We wanted to involve our friend Victoire Bunel and Sarah Ristorcelli on the piano“, says Hortense Fourrier, of the Elmire quartet. “ESo we wrote ourselves arrangements for quartet/voice and for quartet/voice and piano.”