In less than two weeks the Pablo Casals Festival starts in Prades, a small town in South West France.

Casals, the world famous cellist, was born in Spain in 1876 and being an ardent Republican fled from his homeland when General Franco came to power, vowing never to return to Spain until democracy was restored. He became an exile in the small French Catalan town in the Tet Valley and spent a large part of the 1940s and 1950s there. He founded the music festival in 1951 and since its inception it has attracted world famous musicians. Even after he went to live in Puerto Rico he continued to direct the Prades Festival for a further ten years.

The first concert of the 2007 season is held on 26 July and features works by Bach, Brahms and Beethoven played by the Orchestre de Palma de Majorca. The setting is about a mile outside Prades at the beautiful Abbey of St Michel de Cuxa, a medieval Catalan monastery, currently occupied by a small community of Benedictine monks from the monastery of Montserrat in Spain.

Lesser known composers, such as Rubinstein and Gnessin feature in the festival as well and on the final night, all the soloists taking part this year play works by their own nations’ composers:  Bach, Mozart, Britten, Franck, Prokofiev, Lutoslawski, Von Donhanyi  and Corigliano. Concerts also take place in the Eglise St Pierre de Prades and other local churches as well as at the abbey.

Several of the concerts are free and some take place in the early evening unlike those at the Abbey which do not start until 9pm. Eglise St Pierre is well worth a visit even if you are not attending a concert there. It has an impressive 12th century Romanesque bell tower and 17th century sculpture “The Entombment of Christ” by the Catalan sculptor Josep Sunyer, who was also responsible for the church’s altar-piece, said to be the largest in France.

The Musee Pablo Casals is an interesting testimony to Prades’ most famous resident and contains some fascinating photos and letters along with his piano.

The Rentals France website has a good selection of properties in the Pyrenees Orientales including some in Prades itself.