75th edition – September 9 to 18, 2022

As in 1948 and even more so in the following years, great conductors, soloists, and renowned ensembles are invited to Besançon and the region. Even more than at the beginning, European orchestras will be present, coming this year from Switzerland, Germany and the Czech Republic.
The forays into baroque and vocal music will be particularly striking, while today’s music will find a new echo with the universe of Alexandros Markeas, composer in residence.
Absent during the first decades, world music and jazz have retained their place, which they have won over the last twenty years. As a sign of its willingness to open up (probably more than at the beginning), the Festival will start with 24 hours of free concerts, from the opening at Prés-de-Vaux and La Rodia, to the eight concerts offered the next day in downtown Besançon.
In a world still under tension, music is not only an escape or a refuge for everyone, but it brings us together through concerts, bringing together artists, creators and audiences.
As an association and as the Festival team, it is our mission, our passion, our ideal to create these moments where humanity is at its most beautiful, as have all those who, since the founders of the Festival, have contributed to its functioning and development.

Jean-Michel Mathé, Director

Our anniversary edition ended on Sunday September 18, 2022, after 33 concerts and more than 700 artists.

This year, we invited major international symphonic groups (which had not been present for the last two years), as well as prestigious vocal ensembles and artists, to perform an ambitious program that delighted the public.
Among the highlights were the Compagnie La Tempête and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt), but also the concert of Anima Eterna Brugge with Bruckner’s 7th symphony, the Orchestre Français des Jeunes as an opening act (which insisted on playing despite the inclement weather), and the arrival of the Collegium 1704, one of the most brilliant baroque ensembles in Prague.
In terms of cross-cultural music, the four concerts lived up to their promises, with a special mention for Éléonore who made the audience dance to her Kurdish and Anatolian melodies.

Several concerts were sold out:

• the Compagnie La Tempête, which once again confirmed its place in the hearts of festival-goers;
• Shéhérazade with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra and Anna Vinnitskaya at the piano, a real highlight of this edition;
• the Béla Quartet, whose audacity carried high the colors, among other names, of Alexandros Markeas, composer in residence of the Festival;
• the Orchestre Victor Hugo Franche-Comté , which closed this 75th Festival with a journey along the Bohemian Way.

As for the Apéro-jazz, attendance was a little lower than in previous years, mainly due to unstable weather conditions.

• Slight drop in attendance: down about 12% from 2018, a pre-Covid baseline year with no Conductors’ Competition

• The 2022 budget is approximately equal to 2018, the pre-Codiv reference year and without competition

• After two years marked by the health crisis and a change in the practices of festival-goers observed in many events, we had anticipated the slight drop in attendance by committing equity for this recovery year.