After four decades of extraordinary vitality, its prestige always inviolate, the principal feature of the programme chosen by the Pollença Festival for 2003 is its openness and diversity, drawn up to satisfy the predilections of the public.

     A programme whose connecting thread combines commitment to continuity and a panorama of distinctive flavours at the service of other demands, among them, and in a prime position, being receptive to new ideas and audiences.

    The present in Pollença continues to break moulds, a result of its indefatigable youthfulness and audacity when planning the performances it brings to the concert platform.

     The inaugural concert brings us the exquisite embassy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the generic name of Berliner Barock Solisten with its Artistic Leader and violin soloist Rainer Kussmaul, and the French flautist, Emmanuel Pahud, as the invited soloist.

   The next step will be marked by the return of the Labèque sisters, Katia and Marielle, in a duet capable of simultaneously harmonising apparently irreconcilable and explosive opposites with spectacle. Their recital is the original version, written for two pianos and percussion, by Leonard Bernstein, for the musical West Side Story. It is a worthy successor.

     This year will also see the return of the Balearic Symphony Orchestra Ciutat de Palma, which will be performing in Pollença under the baton of its resident conductor Edmon Colomer, and with the inspired cellist Mischa Maisky in two concerts for cello and orchestra written by Haydn and Shostakovich.

     As for phenomenal young talent, there is twofold delight with the prodigy and pianist Yundi Li who was the first winner in fifteen years of the Gold Medal awarded at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw -and since then under exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon- and the American violinist, Leila Josefowicz , soloist with such leading American and European orchestras as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and, in addition, winner of the Diapason d'Or Prize.

    The programme embraces a dozen evenings without squandering a single one, and offers excellency throughout, with a certain exquisiteness. To give but two of the most outstanding examples, it will present the tenor, Thomas Moser, who will leave an indelible impression on the audience with his unique and resplendent voice, and the celebrated Baroque ensemble from Amsterdam, directed by Richard Egarr.

    The chamber music inclinations of the Festival -not for nothing does Eugen Prokop, the artistic director, believe that chamber music is the equivalent of poetry in literature- are to be seen in 2003, in visits of appreciable intensity. It commences with the Guarneri Trio from Prague, well known for their technical virtuosity and their elegant interpretation style, then the Philharmonisches Bläserquintett Berlin, followed by the repertoire of the bygone strings of the Prazak Quartet, and finally, the well-proven excellence of the Bolshoi Don Cossacks.

     In short, when 30th August brings the closing performance of the Los Romeros Guitar Quartet, we will be pervaded with the sensation of having witnessed an exciting and diverse programme, in perfect harmony with one of the great assets of the Pollença Festival, the certitude of quality, having experienced a sonorous mosaic, capable of satisfying the deepest curiosity and the most demanding music lover.