Pygmalion - Vertigo

Vertigo Pygmalion - choir and orchestra Raphaël Pichon, conductor Works by Monteverdi, Schütz, Gabrieli, Prætorius…

Vertigo Pygmalion - choir and orchestra

Raphaël Pichon, conductor

Works by Monteverdi, Schütz, Gabrieli, Prætorius…

At the turn of the seventeenth century, German composers were all seeking to return to the Italian source. Venice, its sonic architectures and spatial daring, the cori spezzati and the triumph of polychoral writing radiated as far as Lutheran lands. But the Thirty Years' War shattered this momentum. Their expression became more intimate: these were the kleine geistliche Konzerte, heirs to the Italian motets for solo voice and continuo. Constructed as a grand ecumenical Lutheran vespers service, this programme brings together the great German and Italian masters: Praetorius, Schütz, Scheidt, Monteverdi and Cavalli answer one another in a play of echoes and alternations, where polychoral writing becomes jubilation, vital overflow, sensual outpouring – a celebration of a fusion that shaped European music.