It’s not a sinecure to make a selection from the most extensive medieval collection of motets: embarrassment of choices! As a musical general dogsbody Viva biancaluna Biffi has taken up the challenge, presenting a programme of mainly multitextual French, Provençal and Latin motets. These very early ‘experiments’ within the motet genre amaze by their rich diversity in musical terms and by their particular, often irregular verse structures. Don’t allow yourself to be misled by the later, religious interpretation of the motet genre: these 13th-century works often have a secular text and theme, as illustrated by the motto of this concert, at once also the red thread throughout this headstrong programme: ‘Endure the sweet pangs of love, more charming people than you endure them!’

Performers
Angélique Mauillon, voice & medieval harp | Matteo Zenatti, voice & medieval harp | Giovanni Cantarini voice | Lionel Desmeules, voice | Viva Biancaluna Biffi, voice, fiddle & artistic direction

26 August, 2010 18:00 -- AMUZ

For their third and last festival concert the artists in residence of Laus Polyphoniae 2010 return to the source where it all started. The Codex Las Huelgas is the famous manuscript that Paul Van Nevel at age 24 pored over in the Spanish Cistercian monastery nearby Burgos and that furnished the name for the ensemble he founded in that same year 1970. In its earliest phase the brand new Huelgas Ensemble counted only four members, but nevertheless managed to baffle and thrill its audience. With a conductor who in the following forty years kept browsing in libraries it’s small wonder that the group is still acclaimed today as one of Europe’s most reputed ensembles for polyphony. The Hercule Poirot of early music now returns to this first subject of investigaton: Huelgas sings Huelgas!

Performers
Griet De Geyter, Sabine Lutzenberger, Petra Noskaiova, Witte Weber, Poline Renou & Michaëla Riener, voice | Bart Coen, recorder | Peter Declercq, recorder | Silke Jacobsen, flutes | An Van Laethem, fiddle | Paul Van Nevel, artistic direction

26 August, 2010 20:15 -- St.-Pauluskerk

The young Spanish musician David Catalunya is well on his way to fame in the landscape of early music. In Antwerp he has already proved several times how he can successfully exhume age-old repertoire and infuse it with new life. Not least by securing the first prize of the International Young Artist’s Presentation with Tasto Solo in 2006. With his own vocalinstrumental ensemble Canto Coronato, too, he makes quite an impact. This ensemble, which will perform for the first time in Belgium during this edition of Laus Polyphoniae, has concentrated since 2005 on the early Italian polyphonous repertoire. In other words: the Codex Squarcialupi is hand in glove for these musicians. You will hear a carefully selected and diverse sample from the manuscript.

Uitvoerders
Caroline Bardot, soprano | Pascal Bertin, countertenor | Katelijne Lanneau, recorder | Baptiste Romain, fiddle | Anna Danilevskaïa, fiddle | Michele Pasotti, lute | David Catalunya, clavisimbalum, organ & artistic direction

Programme
Jacopo da Bologna a.o.

27 August, 2010 11:00 -- AMUZ

Centuries-old books, so old that they almost fall apart, full of marvellous drawings, exciting stories and wonderful music: the music vacation for children from 6 to 12 years reveals their secrets in a creative way. The participants dance, sing, tinker and play music on the basis of hand-written scores from a distant past. The Musica team railroads everything in the right direction, due to the know-how of teachers Rozelien Nys, Marjolein Elsink, Bruno Peeters and Caroline Verbrugghe. During this public presentation the children show what they have learnt!

i.c.w. Musica, impulse centre for music

More information

27 August, 2010 14:00 -- Elzenveld

For centuries already both inhabitants of and visitors to Paris have been fascinated with the impressive Notre Dame that dominates the “Ile de la Cité”. Today the cathedral is surrounded by souvenir shops and restaurants, but long ago it was the centre of a world of its own, a complex of interconnected buildings enclosed by a city wall. In the heart of this ‘city within the city’ there was yet another island: the choir, in which masses and divine offices were celebrated. In this enclosed space the best singers of Europe could be heard. Their voices generated unique sound effects in the new dynamic architecture of the cathedral – an experience that inspired composers for a totally new musical concept! Sequentia leads you into this sanctuary and for that purpose mainly draws on the Notre-Dame Manuscript: the most important source of medieval, vocal music from Paris.

Performers
Justin Bonnet, Josep Cabré & Vincent Pislar, voice | Wolodymyr Smishkewych, voice & organistrum | Benjamin Bagby, voice, harp & artistic direction

27 August, 2010 18:00 -- AMUZ

After ten years the International Young Artist’s Presentation needed a facelift. More than ever IYAP wants to provide a launch site to young vocal and instrumental ensembles executing repertoire through 1920 (!) on period instruments. After two days of coaching behind closed doors by the American soprano Jill Feldman a selection of promising, international ensembles is presented to the public during a unique concert route along historical venues in downtown Antwerp. Allow yourself to be led by AMUZ and discover today all the big names of tomorrow! You have the choice of this concert walk with or without lunch.

i.c.w. Musica, impulse centre for music

Performers
Jill Feldman, coach

28 August, 2010 08:00 -- AMUZ