Press Release

Sion, 31 August 2026

A baroque and chamber music grand finale for the Sion Festival 2026

Chamber music and Baroque music will provide a magnificent finale to the 2026 Sion Festival, starting this Thursday, 3 September. Janine Jansen’s talented musician friends – she herself has had to withdraw for health reasons – will perform some gems from the chamber music repertoire at the Pôle Musique, followed by performances in three churches in Sion. Lucie Horsch will enrich this new ‘Church Tour’ with a journey through the 17th- and 18th-century recorder repertoire. Les Solistes Français and José-Daniel Castellon will pay tribute to leading figures of the Baroque era.

This Thursday, 3 September, at Bramois Church, José-Daniel Castellon’s solo flute will converse with the strings of Les Solistes Français and their first violinist, Paul Rouger, in Bach’s popular Suite in B minor, as well as in concertos by Vivaldi – including the evocative "Tempesta di Mare" – and Leclair. A journey into a musical world where virtuosity, elegance and expressiveness will come together.

On Saturday 5 September at the Black Box in Sion, Boris Brovtsyn, Amihai Grosz, Blythe Teh Engstroem, Daniel Blendulf, Jonathan Swensen and Denis Kozhukhin will take the audience on a journey through three musical eras, from Beethoven’s nascent Romanticism to Kodály’s bold modernism, tinged with Hungarian folklore, via Brahms’s passionate lyricism.

The public will be able to hear many of these performers again on Sunday 6 September during a special evening that will take them to three iconic churches in Sion for three concerts, each with its own distinct atmosphere and sound – a Church Trail conceived by artistic co-director Janine Jansen.

One of the concerts will be devoted to Shostakovich’s late sonatas for violin and viola – the piece depending on the trail selected. The other will transport the audience to the heart of Baroque Europe, from the Dutch Golden Age to Italian influences, in the company of Lucie Horsch and David Jansen.

The final concert – for which Svetlana Makarova will join the ensemble – will pay tribute to one of the absolute highlights of chamber music: Franz Schubert’s splendid Quintet for two cellos.

62^nd SION FESTIVAL – THIRD WEEK'S CALENDAR

3.9, 19.30 | Church of Bramois | Les Solistes Français & José-Daniel Castellon

• Les Solistes Français
• Paul Rouger violin & conducting
• José-Daniel Castellon flute

Programme : J.-S. Bach, Suite No. 2 in B minor BWV 1067; A. Vivaldi, Concerto in F major for flute RV 433 "La Tempesta di Mare" and Concerto in C major for flautino RV 443; J.-M. Leclair, Concerto No. 3 for flute Op. 7

Link to the concert site

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5.9, 19.30 | Black Box, Pôle Musique | Masterpieces of chamber music

• Boris Brovtsyn violin
• Amihai Grosz alto
• Blythe Teh Engstroem alto
• Daniel Blendulf cello
• Jonathan Swensen cello
• Denis Kozhukhin piano

Programme : L. v. Beethoven, String Trio in C minor Op. 9 No. 3; J. Brahms, Piano and String Quartet No. 1 in G minor Op. 25; Z. Kodály, Sonata for solo cello Op. 8 

Link to the concert site

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6.9, 17.00/18.15/19.30 | Church Trail (Temple Protestant, St-Théodule, Sacré-Cœur)

• Boris Brovtsyn violin
• Svetlana Makarova violin
• Amihai Grosz alto
• Jonathan Swensen cello
• Daniel Blendulf cello
• Denis Kozhukhin piano
• Lucie Horsch recorder
• David Jansen harpsicord

Two trails, A and B, are at choice.

Programme : D. Shostakovich, Violin Sonata in G major Op. 134 (Trail A); D. Shostakovich, Sonata for Viola in C major Op. 147 (Trail B); F. Schubert, Quintet in C major D. 956 (Trails A + B); Pieces by C. P. E. Bach, D. Castello, N. Chédeville / A. Vivaldi, J. van Eyck, J. A. Hasse, G. P. Telemann (Trails A + B)

Link to the site of Trail A

Link to the site of Trail B

sion-violon-musique.ch