With the arrival of summer, this week’s images focus on the festival season. While Bach’s cantatas resonate in Leipzig, French Baroque takes center stage in Potsdam and Saint-Denis, Monteverdi shines once again in his hometown of Mantua, and the Handel Prize in Halle is awarded to a Baroque master… 
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The Top Cantatas at the Bachfest in Leipzig
The Leipzig Bachfest continues to present its ‘hit parade’ of cantatas, as voted for by Bach enthusiasts around the world. Ranked 42nd in the top 50, cantatas BWV 34–37 were performed to a full house at St Thomas’s Church by Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent.
With Grace Davidson, Alex Potter, Guy Cutting, Johannes Kammler, Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent.
The Ensemble Correspondances Opens the Potsdam Festival
To open the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Sébastien Daucé and his Ensemble Correspondances revisited some of the most notable moments in Parisian music, spanning the period from the reign of Louis XIV to the Enlightenment. The programme included excerpts from Le Ballet royal de la nuit, which was originally danced by a 17-year-old Louis XIV, as well as selections from Cavalli’s Ercole amante, André Campra’s L’Europe galante, and Rameau’s Anacréon, thus linking the repertoires of Versailles with those of Potsdam Sanssouci.
With Caroline Weynants, Blandine de Sansal, Bastien Rimondi, Étienne Bazola, Sébastien Daucé and the Ensemble Correspondances.
An “Idylle” at the Paris/Saint-Denis Festival
At the Paris/Saint-Denis Festival, mezzo-soprano Léa Desandre and lutenist Thomas Dunford performed a programme entitled Idylle, which featured French love songs spanning three centuries interspersed with lute solos. From Marc-Antoine Charpentier to Claude Debussy, including Offenbach and Barbara, the programme traces the tradition of the French chanson through the ages.
With Léa Desandre and Thomas Dunford.
Cappella Mediterranea and The Vespers for the Blessed Virgin in Mantua
In Mantua, the birthplace of Claudio Monteverdi, Leonardo García Alarcón and his ensemble opened the 43rd edition of the Monteverdi Festival at the Church of Sant’Agostino with The Virgin’s Vespers, a striking work that reveals Monteverdi’s luminous character.
With Miriam Allan, Mariana Flores, Leandro Marziotte, Nicholas Scott, Mathias Vidal, Salvo Vitale, Andreas Wolf, Thibaut Lenaerts and the Chœur de chambre de Namur, Leonardo García-Alarcón and the ensemble Cappella Mediterranea.
The 2026 Handel Prize Awarded to René Jacobs in Halle
Conductor and former countertenor René Jacobs received the City of Halle’s Handel Prize. Judith Marquardt, the Saxon city’s deputy mayor for culture, presented the award on behalf of the Handel-Haus Foundation. Festival director Florian Amort was present. The award recognizes Jacobs’s “exceptional body of work” and his influence on the modern reception of Handel. Since the 1980s, Jacobs has reinvigorated performances of the composer’s operas and oratorios, from Giulio Cesare to Theodora, by blending historical accuracy with dramatic flair. The award ceremony followed the gala concert, during which he conducted the Kammerorchester Basel in Aci, Galatea e Polifemo.
With Judith Marquardt, Florian Amort and René Jacobs.
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