Ensemble Dialogos, Katarina Livljanic - Nexus Winchester

Clara Coutouly, voiceAlbrecht Maurer, vielleNorbert Rodenkirchen, flutesEnsemble DialogosKatarina Livljaniæ, vocals & direction NEXUS WINCHESTEREnglish polyphony around the year 1000Extracts from the Tropaire de Winchester (11th century) and the Vita Sancti Aetheluuoldi by Wulfstan of Winchester (11th–12th centuries).

Katarina Livljaniæ and her ensemble Dialogos have accustomed us to fascinating projects: far from content to reveal the music of earlier centuries through flawless performances, they place it in its cultural and social setting, bringing legendary characters to life.

This is once again the case with “Nexus Winchester”, which illustrates a famous episode from the religious life of the British Isles: on 19 February 964, the renowned Bishop Aethelwold expelled the notoriously depraved canons (who even tried to poison the bishop) from his cathedral in Winchester, replacing them with far more virtuous monks from the monastery of Abingdon.

Drawing on the Vita Sancti Aetheluuoldi written by the poet Wulfstan, the bishop's friend and himself a chanter at the cathedral, as well as on the Tropaire de Winchester, Katarina Livljaniæ reconstructs this “putsch” a thousand years later.

In particular, she gives it a sonic dimension through hypnotic pieces in which monody and polyphony intertwine.