This year sees us explore some of the fascinating music and musicians to have emerged from Paris.  French music is one of my great passions and it has been a pleasure to investigate further the depths of inspiration garnered from the nation’s capital by those composers who lived and/or worked there.  From legendary names, such as Mozart and Tchaikovsky, who passed through on their travels, to the colourful characters who form the backbone of the French School of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, there is little doubt that the vibrancy of Paris’s artistic and political scene offered an environment which allowed musical creativity to flourish.

As always, our Festival is committed to the principle that good programme building should be informative as well as entertaining.  Each of our recitals focuses on a particular narrative related to Paris, whether it is a brief overview of a great composer’s influences and legacies, or an exploration of a distinguished institution.  I am delighted that Piers Burton-Page, a renowned broadcaster and scholar, will offer a number of short talks to complement our concerts, thus helping to create an artistic environment  which we hope you will find involving and rewarding.

Those of you who have joined us in previous years will notice that 2010 sees a significant change to the Festival’s format.  In the place of three separate weekends, we have adopted a more concise series of events in which all our musicians will be resident together.  It is our hope that this revised format will ensure LICMF can manage financially and practically in the long term, while offering you, our audience, the opportunity to truly familiarise yourselves with our musical guests in the kind of friendly and informal atmosphere that helps make our Festival such a special event.

This year also sees, for the first time in LICMF’s history, the BBC in residence: three of our concerts will be recorded by Radio 3 for future broadcast in the Lunchtime Concerts slot.  I am particularly thrilled by this development, as it is a recognition for which we have been striving for over a number of years. Indeed it is very rare for the BBC to commission recordings from a Festival as young as ours, so I consider their involvement to be both a privilege and a confirmation that the quality of music-making for which LICMF has become renowned is seldom matched elsewhere.

Once again my thanks go to those who put in countless hours behind the scenes with unflinching resolve.  They are the lifeblood of LICMF and its continued existence in these economically challenged times is a credit to their commitment and passion to live music in our county.