Musical Destinations
Michael White heads to Andermatt and Klosters
We all know what Swiss skiing villages do in winter. But in the summer, when there’s no snow, they’re confronted by an existential problem – which their marketing departments solve by telling you that Alpine valleys are still lovely when they’re green rather than white, and perfect places for a music festival. Hence Verbier and Gstaad, which have become big, established players on the European summer music circuit. And hence two newer projects that now run in Andermatt and Klosters, which are both a couple of hours by car from Zurich Airport: Klosters to the east and Andermatt the south.
They’re also reachable by train; and though you have to change in far-flung stations, with what look like perilously close connecting times, Swiss railways tend to work with helpful punctuality.
So, as the journey to these places is at least as good as the stay, you can sit back and enjoy the scenery – which is beyond stunning on the Klosters route as you skirt shimmering blue lakes and rolling pastureland, and zig-zag up into the mountains. You won’t need a book.
The trick with Klosters is to get off at the right stop, which is not the first you arrive at: you need Klosters Platz, not Klosters Dorf. There is extraordinary wealth here, and a quick tour of the small, exquisite shops – which all seem to be jewellers or estate agents – stand testimony to it. But the wealth of Klosters is discreet. The heady days when Hollywood celebrities decamped here and Gene Kelly danced
(so legend has it) on the tables of the Hotel Chesa Grischuna have been replaced by a more guarded culture of financiers who fly by private helicopter to their shuttered
wooden chalets on the lower slopes. But this is still where Prince Charles sweeps in for off-camera, off-piste fun (the local cable car up to the Gotschnagrat is called the ‘Prince of Wales’). And printed programmes for the Klosters Festival come with his photograph and personal endorsement. He’s a keen supporter. As are ordinary Klosters townsfolk, who are passionate about the whole thing: there’s a waiting list for volunteers.
The Festival grew out of ad hoc music projects that regularised into a more solid programme in 2017, with David Whelton, former boss of the Philharmonia Orchestra, as artistic director. Larger concerts run in a new, multi-purpose hall attached to a riverside sports complex. But smaller ones turn up in more engaging venues like the town’s 18th-century
Reform Church, or an artist’s studio where I have memories of hearing a recital as I looked through a window onto the mountains and watched paragliders floating past to the accompaniment of some ethereal Mozart: an experience you don’t get at Wigmore Hall.
Concerts aside, things to do in Klosters include hanging out at the Hotel Vereina, which is the social hub of the town and somewhere to enjoy expensive drinks with expensive (though in fairness, often fascinating) people; trekking out to the Alpenrosli restaurant, whose terrace commands breath-taking views; or taking the little red train to Davos, the neighbouring town.
If arriving into Klosters station can be underwhelming, Andermatt station feels like the middle of nowhere, on a great empty site currently fringed by building works. But that’s because it serves a town in transition: fashionable in the 19th century, reduced to the functionality of an army garrison in the 20th, and only recently revived as a ‘destination’ – thanks largely to the efforts of an Egyptian property developer who is building hotels and apartment blocks like there’s no tomorrow, doubling the town’s size in the process.
Attached to one of his hotels, the Radisson, is a concert hall that opened in 2019. And it’s there that a group of enterprising young Brits have established a festival season – big with ambition in that it opened with the Berlin Philharmonic and Daniel Barenboim. Smaller events happen in Andermatt’s uber-luxury hotel, the Chedi. And the Chedi takes you to the heart of the old town – which is more pleasing than the station area, with little bridges that criss-cross a sparkling river, wooden chalets with cascading windowbox displays and other classic Swissery.
That said, the joy of Andermatt is walking out of it – straight onto open meadows that turn into rugged mountain paths with panoramic views. It’s hiking country to perfection. High up. Bracing. Fresh air with a vengeance.
The uncertainties of COVID mean that neither of these Swiss resorts can guarantee what they’ll offer musically in 2021. But Klosters managed to run its festival at the height of the pandemic last summer and is confident it can do so again, from 31 July to 8 August. And Andermatt has plans for a festival in September, details to be announced. All I can say is, check their websites and be hopeful. Further info: visit klosters-music.ch and andermattmusic.com
The Klosters Festival programmes come with Prince Charles’s personal endorsement