/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-COSTA RICA: Classics Heard Amidst Palms and Pines

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Néfer Muñoz

SAN JOSE, Aug 14 2002 (IPS) - Classical works by the likes of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven are the centrepiece of a unique cultural project this month in Costa Rica, where music can be heard amidst the sound of the surf at the beach and the wind of the mountain forests.

The 12th International Music Festival, which lasts through Aug 25, offers aficionados an array of concerts performed in different Costa Rican outdoor venues by groups and soloists of international prominence.

Musicians from the region, and from the United States and various countries of Asia, Europe and Oceania are casting aside the formalities of major concert halls for one month to perform on the beach and in forests, bringing the works of the most noted classical composers to festival-goers.

“This festival is the only one in the world of its kind. For one month, Costa Rica joins the ranks of the leading international music capitals,” said Jordi Antich, a Costa Rican cellist who has been dedicated to organising this annual event since 1991.

That first concert series 11 years ago, envisioned as a tribute to Mozart at 200 years since his death, soon became one of the main cultural events of Central America.

“Our idea is to mix the exquisiteness of classical music with the splendours of nature and eco-tourism,” Antich, who studied at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory and is a member of Costa Rica’s National Symphony, told IPS.

For this year’s festival, 70 musicians from 10 countries are performing at 15 different venues, including small inns located on the beach or in the mountains, centres of attraction for travellers who enjoy nature.

The hotels are offering music-lovers the chance to take in concerts as part of special packages that also include banquets and lodging.

“The concerts take place at sunset on a nature reserve, at an archaeological site, in a coastal Caribbean forest or on a Pacific Ocean beach,” said Antich.

The main attractions of this year’s festival include two international orchestras, the Hellenic Camerata, from Greece, and the Chamber Orchestra of Uppsala, Sweden, as well as Russian pianist Ilya Itin and his compatriot, violinist Dimitri Berlinsky.

There is also a great deal of excitement about the participation of Swiss guitarist Christoph Jägging, the Enso Quartet, made up of musicians of different nationalities, and the U.S.-based New World Symphony.

“We are taking advantage of Costa Rica’s great natural diversity for this festival. Some concerts are being performed at sea level, and others at an altitude of 2,000 metres,” said organiser Antich.

The event is making use of several unique geographic points in Costa Rica, a country covering 51,100 square km where one can spend the morning on a sunny beach and the afternoon on a mountaintop cloud forest.

Although most of the venues for the recitals are natural sites, the gala concerts are being performed at the headquarters of the festival, San José’s National Theatre.

Construction of the National Theatre was completed in 1897. It is considered the crown jewel of Costa Rican architecture and is one of Latin America’s top cultural centres.

“To hear this kind of music in a natural environment is simply spectacular,” Rafael Calderón, head chef at mountaintop hotel El Tirol, said in a conversation with IPS.

El Tirol is serving as a festival venue for the sixth time and is hosting several concerts this month, in a special hall and outside among the pine trees.

“Because the hotel is small, it seems as if the musicians are playing for you personally. I think it’s great — a refreshing change,” said Calderón.

The organisers of Costa Rica’s 12th International Music Festival expect a total of 12,000 people — local residents and foreign visitors alike — to attend this year’s recitals.

“This festival is already in its 12th year and it has definitely maintained its international-level quality,” music critic Andrés Sáenz told IPS.

“I have high expectations for this year’s event. The repertoire is very interesting and it maintains the festival’s high standards,” he added.