Subscribe to get notified about new events!

Consort laurentien

Consort Laurentien promotes early music through performances and educational initiatives, celebrating the rich heritage of baroque composers. Their mission is to revive and share the beauty of historical music, fostering appreciation and understanding in diverse audiences.

Ce programme est un p&eacute;riple musical vers l&rsquo;Italie des compositeurs du premier baroque Claudio Monteverdi, Alessandro Grandi et Dario Castello. Au c&oelig;ur d&rsquo;un bouillonnement d&rsquo;id&eacute;es et esth&eacute;tiques nouvelles, un nouveau style musical &eacute;merge, empli de surprise et de contrastes extr&ecirc;mes. Ce style moderne s&rsquo;articule dans la musique vocale autour du texte, que l&rsquo;on cherche &agrave; suivre et exprimer dans tous ses d&eacute;tails, autant sonores que s&eacute;mantiques, menant &agrave; une exag&eacute;ration des contrastes et des changements soundains dans le discours et la texture de la musique. Une innovation primordiale est l&rsquo;&eacute;mergence de la monodie et de la musique concert&eacute;e avec basse continue. Plusieurs des innovations de ce style moderne se retrouvent naturellement dans la musique instrumentale &ndash; l&rsquo;absence de texte lui conf&egrave;re toutefois encore davantage de libert&eacute;. C&rsquo;est ce qu&rsquo;Athanasius Kircher d&eacute;crit en 1650 comme le Stylus phantasticus : &laquo; la plus libre et d&eacute;brid&eacute;e des m&eacute;thodes de compositions, tenues par rien &ndash; ni par les mots, ni par le sujet m&eacute;lodique, et organis&eacute;e en respect de l&rsquo;inventivit&eacute; manifeste, de la raison cach&eacute;e de l&rsquo;harmonie, et d&rsquo;une connexion habile et ing&eacute;nieuse de fugues et phrases harmoniques. &raquo;

Moderno e fantastico

This program is a musical journey to the Italy of early baroque composers Claudio Monteverdi, Alessandro Grandi and Dario Castello. In an era bubbling with new ideas and aesthetics, a fresh style of music emerges, rich with surprise and great contrasts. In vocal music, this modern style articulates itself around the text, with an aim to very closely follow the words in both their sound and meaning, leading to exaggerated contrasts and sudden changes in the musical discourse and texture. Chief among the many innovations of this modern style is the emergence of monody and small-scale concerted music with mandatory basso continuo played by one or more harmonic instruments. Many of the same innovations naturally find their way into instrumental writing. The absence of text however, offers even more freedom to purely instrumental music. This gives rise to the Stylus phantasticus,&nbsp;described by Athanasius Kircher in 1650, as &ldquo;the most free and unfettered method of composition, bound to nothing, neither to words, nor to a harmonious subject&rdquo; and &ldquo;organized with regard to manifest invention, the hidden reason of harmony, and an ingenious, skilled connection of harmonic phrases and fugues.&rdquo;

This programme borrows its title from the 1615 print Parnassus Musicus Ferdinand&aelig;us. This collection of motets for one to five voices by many of the most renowned Italian composers of the time, was dedicated to Archduke Ferdinand II, who four years later would become the Holy Roman Emperor. It perfect exemplifies the taste of this monarch, shared by his successors, for the works of Italian musicians, whom they recruited from other European courts, as well as directly from major Italian centers of music like Venice, Verona and Mantua. Indeed, when Ferdinand II acceded to the imperial throne in 1619 and moved his court from Graz to Vienna, he brought with him most of his musicians, including Giovanni Priuli, the Venetian leader of his court chapel. Priuli&rsquo;s deputy Giovanni Valentini, who had been poached away from the royal court of Poland in 1614 succeeded him as imperial Hofkapellmeister after his death in 1626. Unlike his father, Ferdinand III maintained the court chapel&rsquo;s leadership upon his ascension to the throne, as did his son Leopold I, and the court chapel remained in the hands of Italian musicians under their reign. In 1649, Valentini was succeeded by Antonio Bertali, a violinist originally from Verona but already employed at the Viennese court since 1624, who then held the chapel leadership for 20 years. He in turn was succeeeded in 1669 by Giovanni Felice Sances, a renowned Roman-born singer who had worked at San Marco in Venice under Monteverdi until becoming employed at the imperial court shortly before Ferdinand III&rsquo;s ascension. Although the vice-Kapellmeister Johann Heinrich Schmelzer gradually took on more and more responsibilities due to the poor health of the aging Sances, it is only upon the latter&rsquo;s death in 1679, after sixty years and four consecutive Italian Hofkapellmeister, that the chapel was finally officially led by an Austrian-born musician. Schmelzer died only months later, however, and the position was once more held by Italian musicians for a further 35 years.

Parnassus Musicus

Ce programme tire son titre de la collection Parnassus Musicus Ferdinand&aelig;us. Ce recueil publi&eacute; en 1615 rassemble des motets pour une &agrave; cinq voix de nombreux compositeurs italiens parmi les plus renomm&eacute;s de l&rsquo;&eacute;poque, et est d&eacute;di&eacute; &agrave; l&rsquo;archiduc Ferdinand II, qui deviendrait quatre ans plus tard empereur du Saint-Empire romain germanique. En soit, il illustre parfaitement le go&ucirc;t de ce monarque, partag&eacute; par ses successeurs, pour l&rsquo;&oelig;uvre de musiciens italiens, recrut&eacute;s dans d&rsquo;autres cours europ&eacute;ennes et directement dans les grands centres musicaux italiens tels que Venise, V&eacute;rone et Mantoue. En effet, lorsque Ferdinand II acc&egrave;de au tr&ocirc;ne imp&eacute;rial en 1619 et transf&egrave;re sa cour de Graz &agrave; Vienne, il emm&egrave;ne avec lui la plupart de ses musiciens, dont Giovanni Priuli, le chef v&eacute;nitien de la chapelle de sa cour. L&rsquo;adjoint de Priuli, Giovanni Valentini, recrut&eacute; depuis la cour royale de Pologne d&egrave;s 1614, lui succ&egrave;de comme Hofkapellmeister imp&eacute;rial apr&egrave;s sa mort en 1626. Contrairement &agrave; son p&egrave;re, Ferdinand III maintient la direction de la chapelle de la cour lors de son accession au tr&ocirc;ne, tout comme son fils L&eacute;opold Ier, et la chapelle demeure entre les mains de musiciens italiens sous leurs r&egrave;gnes. En 1649 succ&egrave;de &agrave; Valenti le violiniste Antonio Bertali, originaire de V&eacute;rone mais d&eacute;j&agrave; au service de la cour de Vienne depuis 1624, qui occupe ensuite cette fonction pendant vingt ans. Il est &agrave; son tour remplac&eacute; en 1669 par Giovanni Felice Sances, chanteur renomm&eacute; d&rsquo;origine romaine, qui avait travaill&eacute; &agrave; San Marco &agrave; Venise sous la direction de Monteverdi avant d&rsquo;&ecirc;tre engag&eacute; &agrave; la cour imp&eacute;riale peu avant l&rsquo;accession au tr&ocirc;ne de Ferdinand III. Bien que le vice-Kapellmeister Johann Heinrich Schmelzer assume progressivement davantage de responsabilit&eacute;s en raison de la sant&eacute; fragile d&rsquo;un Sances vieillissant, ce n&rsquo;est qu&rsquo;&agrave; la mort de ce dernier en 1679, apr&egrave;s soixante ans et quatre Hofkapellmeister italiens successifs, que la chapelle est enfin officiellement dirig&eacute;e par un musicien d&rsquo;origine autrichienne. Schmelzer meurt toutefois seulement quelques mois plus tard, et le poste est de nouveau occup&eacute; par des musiciens italiens pendant 35 ans.

Avant d&#39;&ecirc;tre nomm&eacute; organiste &agrave; la Basilique Saint-Pierre-de-Rome, Girolamo Frescobaldi a &eacute;tudi&eacute; avec le grand madrigaliste Luzzasco Luzzaschi dans sa ville natale Ferrara. Ayant voyag&eacute; dans le Nord de l&#39;Italie, il a probablement rencontr&eacute; l&#39;illustre Claudio Monteverdi &agrave; Mantoue. Il quittera temporairement son poste au Vatican pour rejoindre la cour des puissants M&eacute;dicis, &agrave; Florence, o&ugrave; il c&ocirc;toiera les plus grands musiciens d&#39;Italie, dont Francesca Caccini, qui &eacute;tait r&eacute;put&eacute;e pour sa magnifique voix et son subtil jeu de luth, et qui nous a laiss&eacute; de prodigieuses monodies. Suivez avec nous les traces d&#39;un compositeur embl&eacute;matique du d&eacute;but de la p&eacute;riode baroque en Italie.

Musica fiorita

Before being appointed organist at St. Peter&rsquo;s Basilica in Rome, Girolamo Frescobaldi studied with the great madrigalist Luzzasco Luzzaschi in his native Ferrara. During his travels through northern Italy, he likely met the renowned Claudio Monteverdi in Mantua. He later temporarily left his position at the Vatican to join the court of the powerful Medici family in Florence, where he encountered some of Italy&rsquo;s finest musicians, including Francesca Caccini, renowned for her magnificent voice and subtle lute playing, and whose remarkable monodies have come down to us. Join us as we follow in the footsteps of one of the emblematic composers of the early Baroque in Italy.

Consort laurentien

Events

Events

Parnassus Musicus

Get your tickets

Musica fiorita

Get your tickets

More ways to support us

CDs

View shop

Powered by