Villefranche-sur-mer - Winter 2026 - 5

 Dear Friends,

Last night we went to a concert by the Orchestra Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.  It was performed in the Auditorium Rainier III.  The program was curated just for us.

    Johann Sebastian Bach, Suite pour orchestre n3 in ré majeur

    Joseph Haydn, Concerto pour violoncello en do majeur

    Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphonie n2 en ré majeur

First a little translation - in France they use do, ré, mi, fa, sol, la and si, instead of A, B, C, D, E, F and G. We would say the Bach Suite and the Beethoven symphony were in D major (not ré) and the Hayden concerto was in C major (not do).  Also a violoncello is the French word for a cello.

Ton Koopman was the conductor.  He is a well known conductor particularly of Baroque music.  The entire concert was great, particularly because we love Baroque music.  From our point of view unfortunately, it is very difficult to hear a symphony orchestra play an entire concert of Baroque music.  The orchestra played very well and the overall concert was great, but the real star of the night was the Hayden cello concerto in which the soloist was the principal cellist of the orchestra, Thierry Amadi.  Originally a special soloist was scheduled to play but had to cancel and was replaced by Thierry.  I think that audiences really enjoy hearing one of their own players as the soloist.  The potentially greater skill and musicality of an out of town soloist is not apparent to the most of the audience, and that potential greater skill level is more than offset by the thrill of hearing one of your own and the energy with which the local player rises to the occasion of being the star of the night.  We didn't even know Thierry, but we could hear and feel the music and the pride the audience took in his performance.  He was fantastic.

The venue, the Rainier III Auditorium, is a beautiful venue located right on the Mediterranean coast. 

Here we are in the lobby just before the performance.

Here is a photo of the interior before people have arrived.

The site lines are great as are the acoustics.  The people watching is also fantastic.  

Our entire experience was great.

Thank you for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal