Sevilla open-air music festival: Jazz, classical, flamenco and more in the Alcázar gardens

AFTER being called off last year, Sevilla's 'Nights in the Garden' music festival at the Royal Alcázar are now well under way and the programme of events stretches through until October 10.

Since its launch on July 28, a total of 12,311 people have attended the open-air evening concerts in the ancient Arab fortress, one of the southern city's most iconic landmarks.

This week brings a string of typically-Mediterranean, classical, Mediaeval and jazz music – mostly faithful to their original styles but with a dash of artistic licence to bring them up to date in some cases.

They include the fast-paced traditional Turkish melodies and folk dances that act as an artistic bridge between east and west, balancing the exotic mysteries of the Middle East with the familiarity of Europe – as well as Sephardic lullabies, which seal the fusion, given that Spain was once home to a huge Sephardic Jewish community who lived there for centuries until the Inquisition, and a significant minority of Turkish people are direct descendants of these, meaning they are automatically entitled to joint Spanish citizenship.

Flamenco is, naturally, very present, given its long-standing tradition in Andalucía and specifically in the Sevilla area, and which its 'native' performers have always stressed is not a stage art that can be taught, but a movement and rhythm that flows through the blood and seeps through into each generation, almost in the DNA, as a form of personal expression that dates back to the days of oral history and storytelling.

Folk music, dance and costume from the Moorish era, the seven centuries of the Mediaeval period when mainland Spain's southernmost region was known as Al-Andalus, and also a fusion of traditional performing arts with influences from the north-western region of Galicia and its Celtic notes, from Portugal with its Fado melodies blended with Celtic, and classical Cuban.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) brings the multi-cultural, versatile Mashrabiya Trio, with traditional music from the near east and countries on the shores of the Mediterranean, and Wednesday (September 8) is when one of Spain's biggest Mediaeval music bands, Axabeba, takes to the stage, with a full guided commentary to help the audience understand the history behind the music, and verse set to tune to mark the 800th anniversary of the birth of Alfonso X 'The Wise', a poet as well as a King.

The musical poetry includes verses in tribute to all eight provinces in Andalucía and to key towns and cities, such as Algeciras, Cádiz and Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz province), Almería, Sevilla, the Huelva-province coastal town of Ayamonte, and the Málaga-province day-trip magnet of Ronda.

Thursday, September 9 takes a trip to the centre of Europe with the classical trio Artemisa – made up of the famous chamber music concert performers Mariarosaria D'Aprile (violin), Aglaya González (viola) and Mercedes Ruiz (cello) – with their repertoire 'Old Bach and Viennese Classicism' which includes the works of Mozart, Hummel and Beethoven.

The bi-centenary of the birth of French-born Sevilla composer Pauline Viardot-García is celebrated on Friday (September 10) by the Viardot Ensemble 21, with Polish soprano Urszula Bardlowska, Portugese mezzo-soprano Helena Resurreição, and Sevilla pianist Francisco Soriano.

One of Spain's top female pianists, and one of the most international of her generation, the award-winning Isabel Dobarro has performed in key concert halls in the USA, Russia, Portugal and Italy will follow on with the Pauline Viardot tribute on September 11, and rounding off the weekend is pianist Chico Pérez with his fusion of jazz, blues, flamenco and classical – described as 'music without walls' and 'a whirlwind of feelings and emotions' that is 'the perfect introduction to flamenco for newcomers' – on September 12.

Tickets are priced at just €7 a head – considerably lower than in similar music festivals across Spain in summer – and can be purchased online via Sevilla ayuntamiento, or city hall.

You can also find direct routes to official ticket points of sale via an internet search for Noches en el Alcázar 2021, or via the website for the Alcázar itself, Alcazarsevilla.org.

But for those who miss out this time, more sessions are on the cards for the next four weeks, details of which will be released by the council as they are scheduled.