Repertoire

Works by GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT, SOLAGE, ALEXANDER AGRICOLA, ANTOINE BRUMEL, NICOLAS GOMBERT, CIPRIANO DE RORE and CARLO GESUALDO

Artists

Graindelavoix
Björn Schmelzer, conductor

Program

In the early 19th century, composer and music critic E.T.A. Hoffmann talked about how Beethoven’s music opens to us “the realm of the monstrous and immeasurable”. To describe more clearly how the German composer changed the way music was written, and to define this “monstrosity”, Hoffmann compared it with the works of visual artists of the late 15th century and the early 17th century, such as Bosch, Brueghel and Callot.
Hoffman believed that composers of the same period were not comparable, since the music of that time was austere and balanced, in total contrast to the works of the aforementioned artists, and also to that of Beethoven. Graindelavoix throw this idea into question in a radical and resounding way with their performance of music by composers such as Guillaume de Machaut, Solage, Alexander Agricola, Antoine Brumel, Nicolas Gombert, Cipriano De Rore, Carlo Gesualdo and other lesser-known composers. All belong to a whole host of monsters of musical art from between the late Middle Ages and the birth of Renaissance polyphony, who would have impressed the audiences of the 19th century and who will, no doubt, also impress the audiences of today.

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