Le Concert Spirituel
Polyphony x40
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Livestream from Utrecht, TivoliVredenburg / Grote Zaal on 28 August 2026 at 20:00
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About this concert
When two voices sing their own melodies simultaneously, we are already seeing the birth of the miracle that is polyphony. As people in the Renaissance knew, richness grows with every additional voice – a third, a fourth, a fifth, even a sixth. But what happens when that principle is pushed to the extreme? What if forty voices sound at the same time, each following its own path, and yet merge into one breathtaking, perfectly balanced soundscape?
Around 1566, commissioned by the Medici in Florence, Alessandro Striggio embarked on this daring experiment. His Mass for forty voices grew into a monument of Renaissance extravagance: music that left listeners breathless. Striggio took the work on tour through the European courts, where it became a true sensation and inspired numerous fellow composers. Afterward, a silence fell around the Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno for centuries, until the piece was rediscovered in 2005.
Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel bring this colossal vocal edifice out of obscurity, with both singers and instruments. Music by contemporaries such as Orazio Benevolo, Francesco Corteccia, and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina deepens the perspective on this polyphony of extremes—a sound world that remains just as overwhelming five hundred years later.
Also live on www.emtv.online.
With an introduction by Annelies Andries (19:15 hrs, in Dutch) and a Q&A session (after the concert, in English), both taking place in the Fentener van Vlissingen Foyer (limited capacity)
Programme
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Plainchant
Procession: Beata viscera
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Orazio Benevoli
Laetatus sum
Miserere1505-1572 -
Francesco Corteccia
Bonum est confiteri
Gloria Patri1502-1571 -
Alessandro Striggio
Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno
Kyriec636/37-1592 -
Domenico Massenzio
Ave Regina caelorum
1586-1657 -
Alessandro Striggio
Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno
Gloria -
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Peccavimus instrumental
1525/26-1594 -
Francesco Corteccia
Alleluia
-
Alessandro Striggio
Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno
Credo -
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Beata est Virgo Maria instrumental
-
Orazio Benevoli
Magnificat
-
Alessandro Striggio
Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno
Sanctus
Benedictus -
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Pater noster instrumental
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Domenico Massenzio
Filiae Jerusalem
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Alessandro Striggio
Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno
Agnus Dei I – II – III -
Francesco Corteccia
Tu puer prophetas altissimi
-
Alessandro Striggio
Ecce beatam lucem
Programme subject to change
Musicians
- Choir I
- Marie-Pierre Wattiez soprano
- Julia Beaumier canto
- Gabriel-Ange Brusson alto
- Edmond Hurtrait, Gauthier Fenoy tenor
- Louis-Pierre Patron baritone
- Emmanuel Vistoky, Geoffroy Buffière bass
- Choir II
- Alice Glaie soprano
- Agathe Boudet canto
- Charles Barbier, Damien Ferrante alto
- Camille Leblond, Cyril Tassin tenor
- Jérôme Collet, Aymeric Biesemans baritone
- Choir III
- Laurence Pouderoux soprano
- Marie Favier canto
- Alice Habellion alto
- Michael Loughlin Smith, Théo Jugie tenor
- Samuel Guibal, David Turcotte baritone
- Léo Zanne bass
- Choir IV
- Alice Kamenezky, Edwige Parat soprano
- Léo Fernique, Benoît Porcherot alto
- Noé Rollet, Pierre Perny tenor
- Martin Barigault baritone
- Lucien Moissonier-Benert bass
- Choir V
- Aude Fenoy soprano
- Lucia Nigohossian canto
- Brice Claviez-Homberg alto
- Léo Guillou-Keredan, Nicolas Maire tenor
- François Joron, Jordann Moreau baritone
- Valentin Janssen bass
- Adrien Mabire cornetto
- Alexis Lahens, Stéphane Muller, Franck Poitrineau sackbut
- Elsa Frank, Nicolas André, Philippe Canguilhem, Jérémie Papasergio dulcian
- Tormod Dalen cello
- Luc Devanne double bass
- Yoann Moulin, François Saint-Yves, Loris Barrucan, François Guerrier keyboards
- Hervé Niquet musical direction
About the performers
Hervé Niquet founded Le Concert Spirituel in 1987 with the aim of breathing new life into the French grand motet. Thirty-five years later, he has made a name for himself as one of the very best experts in the interpretation of Baroque music, rediscovering both known and unknown works by European composers. In addition to Le Concert Spirituel, Hervé Niquet also conducts several orchestras and at opera houses around the world. From 2011 to 2019, Niquet was musical director of the Flemish Radio Choir and first guest conductor of the Brussels Philharmonic. Together with soprano Véronique Gens, he received numerous awards for their album Visions. In 2019, he received the honorary prize of the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics’ Award) for the quality and diversity of his recordings.