Ensemble Polyharmonique
The Ensemble Polyharmonique is a collective of singers from the early music scene of Europe. The music of the Renaissance and the Baroque era form the core repertoire of the ensemble. Taking historical performance practice into account, Ensemble Polyharmonique combines ideas from German and Franco-Flemish vocal culture to create lively poetic interpretations.
Invitations to festivals all over Europe indicate the international appreciation of the Ensemble Polyharmonique. These include the Oude Muziek Utrecht, the Bachfest Leipzig, Meer Stemmig Gent, the Stockholm Early Music Festival, the Summer Festivities of Early Music in Prague, Les Nuits de Septembre in Liège, the Trigonale in Klagenfurt, the Thüringer Bachwochen, the Händel-Festspiele in Halle, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, the Heinrich Schütz Musikfest, the Köthener Bachfesttage, etc.
For the repertoire with instrumental accompaniment, such as the oratorios, masses and cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, Dietrich Buxtehude, Claudio Monteverdi or Georg Frideric Handel, the ensemble has gained renowned Baroque orchestras as partners, among them the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Wrocławska Orkiestra Barokowa, Freiburger Barockorchester, Holland Baroque, L’Arpa Festante, Arte dei Suonatori and the Orkiestra Historyczna.
In addition to the well-known repertoire of early music, the Ensemble Polyharmonique is dedicated to discovering unknown works of the 17th and 18th centuries. This work is accompanied by numerous CD recordings (2015: “Musicalische Seelenlust”; 2016: “Francesco Cavalli: Requiem”; 2017: “Chor-Music auff Madrigal-Manier”; 2019: “Johann Georg Künstel: Markuspassion”; 2020: “Heinrich Schütz: Geistliche Chor-Music 1648”; 2021: “Historia Nativitatis”; 2022: “Wolfgang Carl Briegel: Zwölf Madrigalische Trost-Gesänge”, “Johann David Heinichen: Dresden Vespers”, “Lambert de Sayve: Ad Vesperas” and “Bach Family”) and video productions.
Together with the music dramaturge Oliver Geisler, members of the ensemble developed the idea of interpreting Heinrich Schütz’ Auferstehungshistorie in a contemporary manner, staging it as a music film. Encouraged by Schütz’ own phrase, “das Werk für die Hand zu nehmen“ (“to take the work in hand”), they have found an entirely new approach to this Baroque masterwork: today’s viewers are confronted with the ways they deal with doubt, hope, consolation, fear and unbridled happiness.
