‘Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew’
Past event
Cancelled
Postponed
24 Nov.'22
- 20:00
Monteverdi, from Profane to Sacred
Under the direction of Paul Agnew, Les Arts Florissants plunge into their favourite repertoire, the madrigal. Or let’s say instead “contrafacta” ("forgeries"), meaning the reworking of secular madrigals - taken from the fourth and fifth books of madrigals by Monteverdi - into sacred pieces. The music is unchanged, but the poetic treatment is of the highest interest; instead of replacing the secular texts with liturgical ones, Coppini, in an astonishing exercise of rhetoric, has shaped the sacred texts to bend them to the accents, rhythms and sounds of the original secular texts, whose frankly erotic content is a striking translation of religious ecstasy. This passage from the profane to the sacred is an opportunity to admire the extraordinary pliability of Monteverdi's writing, which allows two very different interpretations of the same music.
O Jesu mia vita (Madrigali, libro IV)
Cantemus laeti quae Deus efficit (Madrigali, libro IV)
Maria quid ploras ad monumentum (Madrigali, Libro V)
Toccata settima (Libro secondo)
O gloriose martyr (Madrigali, libro IV)
Jesu dum te contemplor (Madrigali, libro IV)
O stellae coruscantes (Madrigali, Libro IV)
Toccata settima (Libro secondo)
Rutilante in nocte exultant (Madrigali, Libro IV)
Luce serena lucent (Madrigali, Libro IV)
Sancta Maria quae Christum peperisti (Madrigali, libro V)
Qui laudes tuas cantat (Madrigali, libro IV)
Stabat Virgo Maria (Madrigali, Libro V)
Pulchrae sunt genae tuae (Madrigali, Libro V)
Toccata e Recercar (Fiori musicali di diverse compositioni)
Felle amaro me potavit populus (Madrigali, Libro V)
Practical information
Dates
Location
Church of St. James on Coudenberg
Place Royale 1000 Brussels