Marseillan has long been the muse of poets, novelists and painters. Now, the pretty

port on a Languedoc lagoon is to be celebrated in concert with the world premier of an

orchestral work in a UK concert hall in June.



En Vacances, by composer Stephen Scotchmer, which opens a programme of Mahler

and Schumann, evokes the spirit of summer in the picturesque port on the banks of

the Etang de Thau.



But concert goers might never have been granted this extra treat were it not for the anarchic tendencies of determined dog which hijacked a hire car when the composer tried to leave Marseillan ten years ago.



Shadow the sheepdog had recently emigrated to Marseillan, and developed a late-life passenger wanderlust. Seeing the car door open as the Scotchmers prepared to pack up after a holiday in the port, the dog jumped onto the front seat and refused to leave.

                                                              Thus it was that Stephen and Sarah Scotchmer first got to know their neighbours in the Port

                                                              Tabarka, as they enlisted help to track down Shadow’s owners. Nothing like a mini-crisis to

                                                              break the ice, and, as Stephen says “Since that time and on subsequent visits, we have all

                                                              become better acquainted, exchanging views and opinions on many a topic.”



                                                             Stephen and Sarah Scotchmer have been holidaying in the Port Tabarka ever since, and their

                                                             evenings spent sipping chilled Picpoul de Pinet and watching chalut fishing boats skimming

                                                             across the Etang towards the oyster beds are echoed in the new work.



                                                             “En Vacances is a fun piece. It doesn’t have a deep message. It is carefree and happy, inspired

                                                             by our many enjoyable visits to Marseillan, a sunny oasis on the Mediterranean coast.”



                                                             Stephen, composer of the popular children’s musical Alice in Wonderland, and whose recent

                                                             works have been broadcast on Classic FM, will conduct the concert (featuring the acclaimed

                                                             pianist Ivana Gavrić) at the Anvil Concert Hall in Basingstoke on June 15.



En Vacances will be a flavoursome amuse bouche for an unashamedly romantic and passionate concert, as prelude to Schumann’s piano concerto and Mahler’s first symphony



Rehearsals for the concert began in April, the culmination of a gentle nuturing process that has punctuated family holidays and breaks à deux over recent summers. Ideas and themes for the piece have simmered and percolated gently over mornings mooching the cobbled ruelles  of the historic “old town”, half-hours practicing remembered schoolroom French in the barber’s chair chez Marcel on boulevard Lamartine, afternoons wandering along the canal paths and leafy lanes beyond the village and hypnotic waterfront evenings watching the exuberant swoops, sweeps and shrieks of the hirondelles segue into the lamplight aerobatics of the pipistrelles.



Now the ingredients of a perfect day à la Marseillanaise are blent and ready to serve.



                                                           “The first section is characterised by a pastoral like theme followed by a subsidiary idea, which is

                                                           accompanied by typically French harmonies. The woodwind section has much solo writing and

                                                           the strings divide into ten parts at one point, creating a sensuous sonority and texture,” explains

                                                           the composer



                                                         “The central section is faster and folk-like in character and the tambourine features prominently.

                                                          The counterpoint in this section pays homage to J.S. Bach. Then, the final section recapitulates

                                                          the opening idea, but after a few bars, the music takes a different direction. A climax builds and,

                                                          after some tumultuous chromatic twists, the piece suddenly subsides and ends succinctly with

                                                          two emphatic chords.”



                                                          Perhaps best known for his arrangements of works by Beethoven, Chopin and Mendelssohn,

                                                          Stephen frequently travels beyond Marseillan for his work. For more than a decade he has

                                                          conducted the Honhardt Camerata’s New Year’s concert in Germany, and as a pianist he enjoys

                                                          accompanying his daughters, both accomplished musicians in their own rights. He has played the

                                                          Grieg ’Cello Sonata in the Wigmore Hall with Lucy and the Franck Violin Sonata in Leeds with

                                                          Emma.



                                                          As an orchestral conductor, Stephen has worked with such luminaries as Lesley Garrett, Kathryn

                                                          Stott and Natalie Clein, but he admits writing En Vacances with a very different performer in mind.



                                                          “Listen to the music and imagine the actress Estelle Skornik (who played Nicole in the Renault Clio

                                                            television adverts) cycling through the port of Marseillan and out along the lanes between the

                                                            vines!”



When I take the TGV and Eurostar north to return to the UK for the concert in June, I will bear this image in mind. But in the interval, I may well raise my glass in another toast. A tribute to the work’s unwitting patron; a sip and nod to the memory of my much missed friend, companion, amateur hijacker, muse and musical mentor: Shadow the sheepdog.



The music will an especial poignancy for me, for it was here, one morning in late summer, that Shadow, then old, tired, and arthritic; having enjoyed a long and lovely retirement, padded out of the house and took himself down to the waters of the port Tabarka, where he had had so many adventures. And there he closed his eyes and slipped into his final peaceful sleep.





En Vacances receives its premier on 15 June 2013, at the Anvil Theatre, Basingstoke, in a programme including Schumann’s Piano Concert and Mahler’s Symphony no 1. Performed by the Basingstoke Symphony Orchestra, featuring solist  Ivana Gavrić, conducted by Stephen Scotchmer.  www.bso.org.uk​
Box Office (UK) 01256 844244

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Laurence Phillips is an award winning travelwriter and playwright, whose recent books, How to be very very Lazy in Marseillan and a Lot of Languedoc (voted Guide Book of the Year) and a companion piece to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Travels With a Donkey both celebrate a love of life in Languedoc. He is based in Marseillan which he first discovered over a very long lunch that began in June 2000 and is still going strong, several tables later.