The Breathtaking Collective/
Visions and Dreams

The Breathtaking Collective, the Tiburtina Ensemble, and Collegium Marianum will present thoughtfully conceived programmes of music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque alongside works by contemporary composers. “We can look forward to the music of the troubadours, Palestrina, Vivaldi, or Telemann, as well as to music written especially for old instruments and voices by the composers Michal Nejtek, Jan Ryant Dřízal, Jiří Gemrot, Ivan Moody, and Calliope Tsoupaki,” says the festival’s programming director Josef Třeštík. “The dialogue between the old and the new, something that was already so resonant in the vocal works of Pärt or Reich, gives modern composers seeking a new sound the opportunity of using the silky, transparent timbres of period instruments, which offer even greater acoustical wealth and nuance than electronic instruments or large orchestras,” says Jana Semerádová, a player of the Baroque transverse flute, the artistic director of the ensemble Collegium Marianum, and a member of the Prague Spring Artistic Council.

Motets by Nicolò Corradini, Sigismondo d’India, and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina highlight the colouristic affinity of the human voice and the cornetto. In sonatas by Dario Castello and Giuseppe Scarani, they will show how instrumental music of the early Baroque was based on imitation of the human voice. Three composers, two men and a woman, were asked to write pieces that would respect the mindset of composers of the 17^th century in attempting to create a seamless blend of vocal and instrumental elements.

Ivan Moody is an English conductor, musicologist, composer, and last but not least, an Orthodox priest living and working in Lisbon. His musical language, which bears clearly discernible traces of plainchant, has captivated many ensembles and performers including the legendary Hilliard Ensemble. He composed O Archangels and Angels in 2019, and the seven-minute piece is contemplative in spirit. The words are based on an Orthodox liturgical text, and elements of almost oriental melody can be heard in places in the vocal line and the solo cornetto part.

Archangels also inspired the American composer, conductor, and keyboard player Julian Wachner who lives in New York and mainly composes liturgical works. He has said that his music spans “between the Apollonian world of sacred music and the Dionysian world of the opera stage.” A feeling for drama is also reflected in his composition The Vision of the Archangels based on a text by the English poet Rupert Brooke, famed for his anti-war poetry from the period of the First World War.

The Greek composer Calliope Tsoupaki has long resided in the Netherlands. She has several operas to her credit, but she also devotes herself to many other genres and has long been composing for historical musical instruments as well. Two of her compositions will be heard on the programme. Tsoupaki wrote Thin Air during the pandemic in 2020, and in it she expressed her compassion for the victims of the coronavirus. Mélena imí (Nigra sum, 2015) is based on a Biblical text from the Song of Songs in Byzantine Greek. “Here, Blažíková and Dickey melt together in impressive attacks at the unison and then separate to create in a dialog filled with mystery and profundity”, wrote Denis Morrier in a review for Diapason, and he concluded with a comment that could be applied to all of the activities of the ensemble Breathtaking Collective: “Better than a demonstration, it is a communion of artists.”