HERMESensemble and Capilla Flamenca joined forces to create a fascinating double concert involving the spatial placement of old and new music. Such investigations of the physical experience of the arts have intrigued musicians for centuries, with the innovator Adrian Willaert, a Fleming working in Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice, conducting experiments with spatial positioning and the development of polyphonic sound colours in the material world in the early 16th century.
Old vocal sounds and contemporary instrumental expression are blended together in this concert into an enchanting whole in which sound colour is central.
The modern Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino approaches his creations as if they were living creatures: fleeting, physical manifestations that rely on respiration, heart beat and emotion.