Echoes of Venice

Opening Concert

Hardly any composer has had such a profound impact on the history of music as Giovanni Gabrieli. Although he lived during the transition from the 16th to the 17th century, as a composer he remained essentially rooted in the 16th-century prima prattica. Famous students such as Heinrich Schütz and Hans Leo Hassler, as well as colleagues like Giovanni Valentini, were strongly influenced by Gabrieli’s work and, through their travels across the Alps, brought it to Northern Europe, where the triumphant rise of magnificent polychoral music in Gabrieli’s style took hold.

LES CORNETS NOIRS (Switzerland):

Frithjof Smith, Gebhard David & Josue Melendez Pelaez – cornetti

Simen Van Mechelen & Julia Fischer – sackbuts

Jeremie Papasergio – dulcian

Joost Swinkels – bass sackbut

Johannes Strobl - organ

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The ensemble Les Cornets Noirs was founded in 1997 by Gebhard David and Bork-Frithjof Smith.

The ensemble's principal focus is the solo and ensemble repertoire for the instrument from which it takes its name: the cornett (Italian cornetto, French cornet). Because of its leather covering, the instrument is also known as the "black cornett" (schwarzer Zink). It flourished from the mid-sixteenth to the late seventeenth century, particularly in Italy and Germany. Within this historical and geographical framework, the ensemble explores a fascinating repertoire, much of which remains little known.

In 2000, Les Cornets Noirs won the Concours Musica Antiqua at the Festival van Vlaanderen Brugge. Since then, the ensemble has performed throughout Switzerland, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Portugal, presenting its own programmes as well as collaborating with distinguished conductors and vocal ensembles.

A particular artistic focus is the large-scale sacred repertoire of the early and high Baroque by Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz, Johann Stadlmayr, Antonio Bertali, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Georg Muffat. In the field of sacred and chamber music, the ensemble regularly develops innovative projects with internationally acclaimed vocal soloists including Nuria Rial, Miriam Feuersinger, Ulrike Hofbauer, Hans Jörg Mammel and Wolf Matthias Friedrich.

The ensemble's debut recording, “O dilectissime Jesu” (motets and sonatas by Giovanni Legrenzi, with Monika Mauch; Edition Alte Musik ORF, 2004), received enthusiastic acclaim from audiences and critics alike. It was followed by the equally successful Echo & Risposta (audite, 2009), featuring seventeenth-century polychoral instrumental music recorded in the Abbey Church of Muri on the historic 1743 Bossart organs, and Schätze aus Uppsala (Raumklang, 2012), devoted to music from the Düben Collection with Wolf Matthias Friedrich.

The SACD Polychoral Splendour, recorded together with the vocal ensemble Cappella Murensis, featuring polychoral psalms by Heinrich Schütz and canzonas by Giovanni Gabrieli performed from the four galleries of the Abbey Church of Muri, received the International Classical Music Awards 2013.

In 2016, the two ensembles released two further recordings on the audite label: Paradisi gloria, dedicated to the sacred music of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, and a recording featuring Georg Muffat's monumental 24-part Missa in labore requies together with church sonatas by his contemporaries.