A Festival of Music in Santiago de Compostela
- A Festival of music that reflects the experience of the Christian pilgrim, seeking to transform earthly tributes into heavenly joys.
- Uplifting and spiritual music from the Middle Ages to the present day is performed in nine private concerts in churches, cloisters and palaces.
- Performers include the Gabrieli Consort, La Serenissima, His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts, Dominant Quartet, Rosemary Joshua, Mhairi Lawson and Neil Davies.
- The goal of countless pilgrims for twelve hundred years, Santiago de Compostela is one of the world's greatest pilgrimage destinations and an ideal setting for the festival. Here the footsore and weary find fulfilment and repose.
A moving celebration of sacred music
This is a festival of music which lifts the spirits and speaks of celestial glories, and of music which touches the heart and leads to contemplation of higher things. Little of the music has a direct connection to the pilgrimage to Santiago, but all in some way reflects or is analogous to the experience of the Christian pilgrim, seeking to transform earthly tribulations into heavenly joys.
Nine concerts in churches, cloisters and palaces present music from the length and breadth of Europe, from the Middle Ages to the present day. The outstanding line-up of performers includes the Gabrieli Consort, La Serenissima, His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts, Dominant Quartet, Rosemary Joshua, Mhairi Lawson and Neal Davies.
The goal of countless pilgrims for twelve hundred years, Santiago de Compostela is one of the world’s greatest pilgrimage destinations and an ideal setting for the festival. Here the footsore and weary find fulfilment and repose.
Granite austerity, gilded glory
Santiago de Compostela grew up around the alleged tomb of St James the Great, which was miraculously rediscovered in the ninth century in the Galician highlands. Among the best-preserved historic cities of Europe, a labyrinth of streets, steps and plazas threads around churches, palaces, monasteries and rank-and-file houses and shops. It is almost completely unspoilt by modern intrusions.
On the headland of Iberia not far from the Atlantic, rain is frequent, mist common, and pines and deciduous forests cloak the surrounding hills. Inhospitable topography, intractable stone: granite is the building material, the paving, the sculptor’s medium. There is scarcely any level ground.
Austerity and severity characterise much of the architecture, appropriately expressing the ideals of purposeful privation. But there is also an abundance of elaborate decoration, carved and gilded, profuse and prolix, awe-inspiring and uplifting; thus are the sentiments of Christian joy expressed.
Private concerts in great historic buildings
The concerts are private, being exclusive to the two hundred or so people who book a package which includes not only all nine concerts but also hotel accommodation, flights from the UK, dinners, receptions and lectures. The festival is musically quite intensive, but there is free time in which to explore Santiago (a living, thriving town, not a museum city) or join some of the talks on offer each morning.
The venues are among the finest buildings in the city. The Romanesque Cathedral of St James, built around the Shrine of the Apostle and ultimate destination of camino pilgrims, is one of the great buildings of the Middle Ages. But Santiago continued as a pilgrimage destination into the modern era, and many of the buildings date from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
All the venues, hotels and restaurants are within walking distance of one another, so apart from the airport transfers there is no need to use vehicular transport.