Interview
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Young TalentsPassiSparsi, the Morescas and a Black Cat at the Window
PassiSparsi are Italian and unapologetically unconventional. This vocal quartet has chosen a little-known Renaissance polyphonic repertoire: the morescas, irreverent secular songs that composer Orlando di Lasso wrote following a stay in Naples. Discover the mystery of PassiSparsi’s black cat in this many-voiced interview.
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Les Épopées & Stéphane FugetQueen Dido Returns to Tunis
On May 14 and 15, Les Épopées and Stéphane Fuget bring Queen Dido back to the Tunis Opera House in her homeland, since, according to Purcell’s opera—based on Virgil’s Aeneid—she was the one who founded the nearby city of Carthage. This new production is distinctive in combining the ensemble’s historically informed performance practice with Middle Eastern music and dance.
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Baroque MastersPaul Van Nevel: the importance of silence (2/2)
From silence as a prerequisite for music to a questioning of authenticity, Paul Van Nevel, at the age of 80, continues his rigorous exploration of early music, while his leading tenor, Achim Schulz, is gradually taking the helm of the Huelgas Ensemble, in a process of succession that is still unfolding.
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Young TalentsContre le Temps: Reclaiming the Middle Ages
Created in Basel (Switzerland), in the vibrant atmosphere of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the female vocal quartet Contre le Temps brings medieval music to life in a renewed form. Four singers—two French, two American—and four individual paths converging in a shared sound, always in search of itself.
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Young TalentsLillian Gordis: the harpsichord from Bach to contemporary repertoire
A Franco-American harpsichordist born in Berkeley and based in Paris since adolescence, Lillian Gordis has established herself as a leading figure of her generation on the international stage. Acclaimed for the expressive power of her playing and her intellectual engagement, the “Martha Argerich of the harpsichord” is regularly invited to major festivals across Europe and the United States, while also pursuing a highly regarded recording career.
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Vincent Dumestre & Le Poème HarmoniqueMolière Revisited, Kraków in Sight
Between a twenty-date tour in France of L’Avare (“The Miser”), an intermezzo on Molière’s famous play composed in 1720 by the Italian Francesco Gasparini, and preparations for the next edition of the Misteria Paschalia festival in Kraków, for which he serves as musical director for the 2024–2026 period, spring promises to be busy for Vincent Dumestre and his ensemble Le Poème Harmonique.
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Ottavio Dantone & Accademia BizantinaLiberating Baroque Music Through Knowledge
In the landscape of European Baroque ensembles, Accademia Bizantina and its director, Ottavio Dantone, stand out for their originality and their sense of communication. “The Exciting Sound of Baroque Music” is their motto, and their concerts are guided by the watchword “Liberate the music”! As for the Brandenburg Concertos, they are recording them on their own label, HDB Sonus, in a series entitled Baroque Anatomy.
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Elsa Frank & Jérémie PapasergioAfter Denis Raisin Dadre: Continuing Doulce Mémoire
The French ensemble Doulce Mémoire, specializing in Renaissance music, pays tribute to its founder Denis Raisin Dadre, who passed away last October, and opens a new chapter under the leadership of Elsa Frank and Jérémie Papasergio, long-standing collaborators of the founder. A concert at the Opéra de Tours on March 17 will mark both this tribute and the rebirth of the ensemble.
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MA Festival de Bruges & SollazzoThe Double Life of Anna Danilevskaia
She has been the new artistic director of the Bruges Early Music Festival (Belgium) since January 1, and is the founder of the Sollazzo ensemble. She’s 38. While Bruges is embarking on a new chapter, Sollazzo is taking a decisive step forward with La Flamboyance, a medieval project for twenty musicians to be released on CD in May.
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Young TalentsThe BanXhies: Baroque, Celtic and (soon) Viennese!
They are four: Roxana and Yaoré on violins, Suzanne on cello and Louise on harpsichord. Behind the Celtic myth of the “banshee”, they reinvent the concert experience with a freedom shaped as much by Baroque aesthetics as by the spirit of an Irish pub. Their album, to be released in September on Alpha Classics, will explore Venetian and Viennese repertoire.
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“Atys” — 2026 RevivalThe investigation that dislodges Lully’s orchestra
A mythical opera of the baroque revival in the 1980s, Lully’s Atys returns in 2026 in a radically new version, the result of four years of work by the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. Notably, it completely reorganizes the orchestra. Benoît Dratwicki, the centre’s artistic director, tells us the story of this adventure.
