Lilium angelicum
Medieval and Renaissance Poetry
in the Work of Adrian Willaert (1490–1562)
Vyšehradská 49/320, Praha 1 – Nové Město, 128 00
Artists
Terry Wey – countertenor
Bernd Oliver Fröhlich – tenor
Julian Podger – tenor
Tim Scott Whiteley – baritone
Joachim Höchbauer – bass
Programme
Adrian Willaert (1490–1562)
Missa Mittit ad Virginem
Madrigals and motets:
Quando di rose d’oro
O gloriosa Domina
Mittit ad virginem
A quand’haveva
Passa la nave
Ave Maria
Andrea Gabrieli (1532/1533–1585)
Sassi, Palae, sabbion
Gregorian chant
Audi filia
Tota pulchra es
Ave maris stella
Beatam me dicent
Gaudeamus omnes
Assumpta es Maria
Annotation
Adrian Willaert, one of the most remarkable composers of his time, was born near the West Flemish town of Roeselare. From the same town comes Tore Tom Denys, founder and artistic director of the ensemble Dionysos Now! It is no coincidence then, that this concert will be a tribute to the Flemish musician who served as chapelmaster at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice for a commendable 35 years.
The thematic axis of the concert will be Marian symbolism. The evening will open with a choral sequence relating to the moment when the angel Gabriel, holding a white lily, announced to the Virgin Mary the Incarnation of the Son of God. The choral melodies will be replaced by translucent, contrapuntally elaborate polyphonic mass and motets and melodically lush madrigals. May Willaert’s music, admired and imitated by contemporaries and successors alike, speak with the same intensity at the opening concert of the Summer Festivities of Early Music!
We offer a ticket to the concert for 100 CZK for students! For more information click here.
Venue
Vyšehradská 49/320, Praha 1 – Nové Město, 128 00
Show on mapPartners of the concert
With the kind support of the Government of Flanders.
Artists
Dionysos Now!
Tore Tom Denys started to explore the scores of his fellow townsman Adrian Willaert (1490–1562) during the first Covid-19 lockdown. He realised that it was truly fantastic music, but far too rarely performed. So he decided to start a new project and Dionysos Now! was born. The ensemble works and rehearses in Vienna but has an international base and unites top vocal soloists in polyphony.
Dionysos Now! performs with great respect for the original manuscripts and scores and creates cathedrals of sounds, in which the listeners perceive the music as if they were experiencing a cathedral via a drone from far above. The single brick stones of the walls and arches seem to merge into a whole where the radiant music generates effervescent energy and the contagious flow in the music is sought and captured, like a surfer who seems to have found the perfect wave and seizes the chance to ride on it before it goes away again.
Tore Tom Denys
tenor, artistic director
Tore Tom Denys was born in Roeselare, Belgium, but now lives in Vienna. He studied trumpet at the Universiteit Antwerpen and was a member of the World Youth Choir. This led him to a love for early music so he decided to switch from the trumpet to singing, which he studied with Wicus Slabbert in Vienna.
He is a co-founder of the ensembles Cinquecento and Vivante. For the last 10 years he has been the tenor of Capilla Flamenca. His solo career has seen him perform at a variety of festivals in Austria and abroad (Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, Flanders Festival Ghent, Holland Festival, Prague Spring, Oude Muziek Utrecht, Rheingau Musik Festival, RheinVokal, Ravenna Festival, or York Early Music Festival).
Tore has collaborated with a variety of conductors and artists (Arvo Pärt, Leonard Slatkin, Tonu Kaljuste, Philippe Herreweghe, Heinz Karl Gruber, Otto Zykan, Frieder Bernius, Joshua Rifkin, Vittorio Ghielmi).
