Think of the feverish thrill of discovering the new and the naughty in London during the Swinging 60s. Now multiply that by decades of opulence and a determination to find different ways of enjoyment and indulgence. Oh, and do that in a Paris gratefully free of war.  That’s the Belle Époque, pressure-cooker Parisian years from 1871 to 1914 that touched everything from architecture to jewellery and continuously sustained new forms of music. 

New to St John’s this year, the Belle Époque Festival is a tantalising peek into a musical world turning its back on heavy symphonic styles and doing it in a world building the Eiffel Tower in steel, welcoming motor cars and aeroplanes. Bombastic architecture and gilded decors were replaced by the amusing swirls of Art Nouveau. The yearly cycle of Haute Couture was created, hems raised, hair shortened, and food was celebratory. Everyone wanted to be in Paris, especially rich Americans.

From 1903, it was Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Their salon encouraged Picasso and other brave visual reinventors. Winnaretta Singer, daughter of the inventor of the sewing machine, married Prince Edmond de Polignac, both of them gay, and created a glittering hothouse of new music, inspiring premieres by those such as Debussy, Ravel, Faure and de Falla. Lesser salons wanted lighter music, joie de vivre rather than Sturm und Drang. And there were the Folies Bergère and Toulouse-Lautrec’s Moulin Rouge, creator of the wickedest version of the Can-Can.

These remarkable times provide the backdrop to the Belle Époque Festival at St John’s, which features one composer as a steady and fascinating thread, Reynaldo Hahn. Born in Venezuela, Hahn emigrated with his family to Paris in the late 1870s where he studied alongside Ravel and under the tutelage of Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, and Camille Saint-Saëns. He composed over 100 art songs and eventually rose to Director of the Paris Opéra.

A programme of eight events includes a dedicated Hahn recital from the internationally acclaimed Véronique Gens (soprano) and Susan Manoff (piano), a Southbank Sinfonia performance with Hahn’s orchestral Provencal Concerto and Hungarian Suite, a Masterclass with Véronique Gens, a talk, and concerts with surprising appearances from Bach, Mozart, Haydn, and Rameau. 

The last song of the last concert of the Belle Époque Festival is A Chloris, Hahn’s hymn to the nymph of Spring renewal, with perhaps the most enchanting of all accompaniments. It’s the perfect way to sign off this Festival and to leave you wanting more in 2023.