One of Europe’s oldest classical music festivals is under way just along the coast from Monaco, where the 77th Festival de Musique de Menton is staging a fortnight of open-air concerts on the parvis of the Basilica Saint-Michel-Archange until 7 August. Held each summer in the baroque heart of the old town, overlooking the Mediterranean, the festival opened on 25 July with the cellist Gautier Capuçon and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, conducted by Lionel Bringuier, in a programme of Saint-Saëns and Beethoven.
The event traces its origins to August 1949, when the Hungarian-born impresario André Böröcz heard Bach drifting from a radio across the deserted parvis of Saint-Michel and resolved to bring music to the setting. The first festival followed on 5 August 1950, when the Végh Quartet performed Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven beneath the church’s polychrome façade. In the decades since, the parvis has hosted many of the century’s most celebrated musicians, among them Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Isaac Stern, Wilhelm Kempff and Maria-João Pires. The festival has been led since 2012 by the conductor Paul-Emmanuel Thomas, its artistic director.
This year’s programme
The 2026 edition brings together more than 150 artists across fourteen main concerts and a series of free events, spread between the parvis, the Palais de l’Europe and open-air esplanades. Evening concerts on the parvis form the centrepiece, while the Palais de l’Europe hosts a run of recitals and chamber programmes.
Among the highlights still to come are the violinist Leonidas Kavakos with the pianist Enrico Pace on 4 August, and the pianist Alexandre Kantorow, who closes the festival on 7 August with a solo recital ranging from Bach and Beethoven to Chopin. The programme also reaches beyond the classical canon. The baroque is represented by the cellist Nicolas Altstaedt with Ensemble Jupiter and the lutenist Thomas Dunford on 29 July, and by Ensemble I Gemelli under the tenor Emiliano Gonzalez Toro on 5 August, while jazz arrives on 28 July with The Amazing Keystone Big Band performing Gershwin. On 6 August, the marimba player Vassilena Serafimova and the pianist Thomas Enhco give a duo recital at the Palais de l’Europe.
Free concerts and a Monaco connection
Alongside the ticketed programme, the festival stages a number of free concerts intended to involve the town and its residents. These include a pre-opening performance by Ensemble Spark, whose ‘From Bach to the Beatles’ concert was given on the Esplanade des Sablettes, as well as the Festival Mass on 2 August and a concert by the Sirba Octet on 3 August. For Monaco audiences, the free bill also features Monaco Brass, which performed on 27 July, and a concert by the laureates of cellist Gautier Capuçon’s foundation the same evening.
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Photo source: Menton Music Festival