Master pianists shine on C. Bechstein at the Nohant Festival

The Nohant Festival Chopin takes place on the estate Maison de George Sand

The Nohant Festival takes place at the Maison de George Sand in Nohant-Vic. The property was the home of George Sand (1804-1876) and was acquired by the French state in 1952. Sand had written many of her books on her estate, as well as housing the most important artists and writers of her time. Chopin, Balzac, Turgenev and Delacroix took the latch in the hand.

From June 9th to July 24th, Nohant was once more dedicated to piano music: The Nohant Festival Chopin 2018 took place under the artistic direction of Professor Yves Henry.

Much praise from the pianists for the C. Bechstein concert grand piano

After the opening concert with Shlomo Mintz (violin) and Itamar Golan (piano), pianists such as Eliane Reyes (with cellist Ivan Karzina), Andrei Korobeinikov, Nathanael Gouin, Alexandre Kantorov, Fanny Azzuro, Seong-Jin Cho, Michel Dalberto, Dimitri Malignan and the super virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin wonderful concerts at the festival. After their appearances they praised the wonderful atmosphere in Nohant and especially the "brilliant", "wonderful" and "magnificent" C. Bechstein grand piano in the artists' book of the festival. A big compliment for our brand, which was also appreciated by our leading concert technician Torben Garlin. He serviced the D 282 for most of the concerts and was personally on site to prepare the grand piano for each recital at its best.

A great performance by Julien Brocal - he made the piano shine!

A special highlight was the appearance of Julien Brocal: The pianist had actually only stepped in for Fazil Say, who had to cancel his recital at the Nohant Festival Chopin for health reasons. But Brocal was much more than just a replacement and played an impressive piano recital: First, the Andante spianato Op. 22, the 3 Nocturnes Op. 15 and the fourth ballad Op. 52 by Chopin together with the 7 Préludes Op. 40 by Bortkiewicz in the first part of the concert, as well as the paisajes and the variations on a Chopin theme by Mompou in the second part. His wonderfully warm and bright piano sound thrilled the audience at the Domaine de George Sand. With several encores by Ravel the pianist showed again his beautiful singing piano sound. Congratulations for this great performance!

"I would like to emphasize that the Bechstein as a modern successor of the Pleyels is best suited for Chopin."

In the last week of the festival, well-known artists such as Dana Ciocarlie, Philippe Cassard, Ingolf Wunder, Nicolas Stavy and Abdel Rahman El Bacha made their appearance - there was once again much praise for the artistic achievements and for the sound and playability of C. Bechstein Concert grand D 282. Particularly noteworthy was the outstanding piano recital by Philippe Cassard, who played a very wide program sounding breathtakingly beautiful (from Rameau and Chabrier on Grieg, Debussy and Trotignon to Wagner and Chopin), and the evening with Abdel Rahman El Bacha who presented Preludes by Chopin and Rachmaninov cleverly and highly virtuoso in single pairs. Incidentally, El Bacha noted after his concert in the artist's book: "I would like to emphasize that the Bechstein as a modern successor to the Pleyel is ideally suited for Chopin."

Miki Yamagata, Diana Cooper, Anastasia Rizikov and Aleksandra Swigut, who attended the masterclass of Professor Yves Henry, played the last concert of this wonderful festival. It will certainly stay in the memory of the enthusiastic listeners for a long time.