Festival Beethoven de Beaune 2026 Opens in Timeless Dialogue at Musée Marmottan Monet
- 11 hours ago
- 2 min read
On 30 January 2026, the Musée Marmottan Monet offered a rare and intimate moment where music, painting, and history converged. In front of Claude Monet’s luminous canvases—surrounded by an audience suspended between sound and color—the Festival Beethoven de Beaune unveiled its avant-première concert, setting the tone for its eighth edition, to be held in Beaune from 23 to 26 April 2026.
The evening took the form of a cello and piano recital by two figures of the international music scene: Sung-Won Yang, cellist and Artistic Director of the festival, and Enrico Pace, pianist of profound poetic depth. Against the soft, breathing presence of Monet’s works, their performance embodied the festival’s theme for 2026: Intemporel—timelessness.
Rather than a simple preview, the concert unfolded as a meditation on musical continuity. Works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Johannes Brahms traced a dialogue across centuries, revealing how music transcends historical boundaries to speak directly to the present. Bach’s clarity and balance seemed to echo the measured stillness of Monet’s compositions, while Brahms’s sonatas unfolded with a deeply human intensity—dense, lyrical, and inward.
The setting played a central role in this experience. At the Musée Marmottan Monet, where painting captures fleeting impressions while preserving their permanence, music found an ideal counterpart. Sound, like light in Monet’s work, appeared and dissolved, leaving behind a lasting emotional trace. In this suspended atmosphere, listening became a shared act of presence.
A contemporary voice entered the evening through composer Éric Montalbetti, who introduced his new work Trois Impromptus, to be premiered during the festival in April. Speaking with warmth and sincerity, he evoked the personal and artistic relationships that inspired the piece, emphasizing listening, trust, and renewal. His intervention reaffirmed the festival’s commitment to living creation—timelessness not as a retreat into the past, but as a continuous unfolding.
Opening remarks by Festival President Frédéric Mugnier grounded the evening in place. He spoke of Beaune as a city of intimacy and depth, where architecture, gastronomy, wine, and culture coexist naturally. His words framed the festival as an invitation—to discover music within a setting where history remains vividly alive.
Festival Beethoven de Beaune 2026
23–26 April | Beaune, France
From 23 to 26 April 2026, the Festival Beethoven de Beaune brings together internationally acclaimed artists around its eighth edition. Led by Sung-Won Yang, cellist and Artistic Director, the festival welcomes musicians such as pianist Enrico Pace, the Cuarteto Casals, and the Trio con Brio Copenhagen, alongside soloists including harpist Isabelle Moretti and flutist Yae Ram Park.
Rooted in Beethoven’s music and extended through Bach, Schubert, and Brahms, the program also embraces contemporary creation, with a new work by Éric Montalbetti and the French premiere of Bent Sørensen. In Beaune’s historic venues, the festival offers a refined exploration of its 2026 theme, Intemporel, where musical heritage and the present meet in a shared listening experience.
More information: https://festival-beethoven-beaune.com/
