We get lost in the corridors of the vast palace of Congress-like liner. A door on the right, a young blonde rushes in singing. She repeats in a full lung of litanies in Corsica, still moved by the stage of polyphonic music programmed when It is not classic. The event in nice, looks like a musical cruise of three days where one can enter in a room, face to face with four singers of gospel music, down one floor and attend a performance of marionettes. “60 free concerts, it is unique in the world”, ton Patrick Poivre d’arvor, who presents each year to the event. The huge Congress hall is full of spectators coming and going.

” READ ALSO – It is not classical in 2018: a 14th edition is open to young people from 0 to 99 years old

the highlight of The show? Ibrahim Maalouf and Angelique Kidjo came on Saturday night, giving life to the Queen of Saba, a fable epic written by the singer and set to music by the trumpet player. Anne-Marie Dumont, the vice-chair of the department in charge of culture, loose fiery kisses to the crowd during his speech. But well watch Ibrahim Maalouf, the queen of Sheba tonight, it is the singer from benin to the voice of gold. Throughout the show, the covers of looks and smiles. The trumpeter, as happy as a child, provides guidance to the musicians, made abrupt cuts of rhythms, launches solo: he led his world to the stick.

The two artists are the apostles of the universality in music. “We come every two of the classic. But the classic itself is made of a lot of different influences,” explains Angelique Kidjo in the scenes. She is also a diva that Ibrahim Maalouf is quiet: they agree. And summarize with one voice: “music is a universal emotion, in our DNA.”

If It is not classic, everything is permitted

This weekend, the usual rules of the classic should not be. If the public is sometimes dispelled, artists, them, benefit, to what is generally denied. For example, to engage the public. At the end of their recital, guitarist Laurent Blanquart and flautist Vincent Lucas asked: “we still have a little time yet?”. Full of enthusiasm, the listeners respond in the affirmative. And After a dream of Fauré ends with the mesmerizing.

The artists are invited to play a card resolutely singular. Up to a clarinet player, who, at a concert dedicated to the music of the films of Miyazaki, arrives on stage dressed as princess Mononoke. Open the classical music by making it more playful is the intent of the organizers. A vow, which translates to a happy hubbub and the smell of waffle. It is necessary to say that, not content to attract an audience already broad, the organizers went to target

The four young musicians of the quartet Zahir, from the Conservatory of Peers, have interpreted, in particular, transcriptions of works by Debussy and Gabriel Pierné. It is not classical

less than 3 years. Balloons in the shape of a unicorn are all the rage. “This is what I love, whether it is living, if I hear a child cry, I want to invite on stage!”, we trusted Angelique Kidjo before the concert.

When the talented saxophonists in the quartet Zahir come on stage, they outline a choreography that makes us fear that their shiny instruments do not collide. One cannot help but wonder if they are not crazy. But the young musicians capture their audience. In particular, with Rhapsodish , a work by Alexis Ciesla. “This is my dad, who has composed!”, starts up one of the entrre them. And while they interpret the melody inspired by the tradition of ashkenazi, a brilliant orange light sweeps the audience.

A mixture of tastes and colors that sums up the event. In the hall, two very old friends, John and Paul, talking together, oblivious to all this movement. Sitting one beside the other as they would be in front of the sea, on a parapet of the old port.