Ensemble Dialogos, Katarina Livljanic - Nexus Winchester

Clara Coutouly, vocals. Albrecht Maurer, vielles. Norbert Rodenkirchen, flutes. Ensemble Dialogos. Katarina Livljaniæ, vocals & direction. NEXUS WINCHESTER. English polyphonies around the year 1000.

Extracts from the Winchester Tropary (11th century) and the Vita Sancti Aetheluuoldi by Wulfstan of Winchester (11th-12th centuries).

Katarina Livljaniæ and her Dialogos ensemble have accustomed us to fascinating projects: far from merely revealing the music of ancient times through perfect interpretations, they contextualize it within its cultural and social environment, giving life to legendary characters.

Such is the case once again with this 'Nexus Winchester' illustrating a famous episode in the religious life of the British Isles: on February 19, 964, the famous bishop Aethelwold drove out the highly depraved canons (they even attempted to poison the bishop) from his cathedral of Winchester, replacing them with far more virtuous monks from the monastery of Abingdon.

Drawing on the Vita Sancti Aetheluuoldi written by poet Wulfstan, friend of the bishop and himself a singer at the cathedral, as well as the Winchester Tropary, Katarina Livljaniæ reconstructs this 'putsch' a thousand years later.

She gives it particular sonic dimension through hypnotic pages in which monody and polyphony intertwine.