JANUA premiere
18 May 2024/ France / St Guilhem-le-Désert
Janua, newest program of Ensemble Irini created in partnership with REMA Member CIMM, premiers in the Gellone Abbey !
Janua explores the unique, brief and relatively unknown period of the Council of Florence in 1439. Combining the evocative voices of the French ensemble Irini with an ensemble of medieval instruments, trumpets and trombones, this project sheds light on the momentous historical event when the Council unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate union with the Eastern Churches and save Constantinople, which instead went up in flames in 1453, leaving traces that still resonate today, more than half a millennium later.
Janua (Latin for “door”) looks both East and West through the eyes of Dufay, a first-hand witness to these events: few know the motets he composed between Greece and Italy, reflected in the polyphony of contemporary Byzantine composers: on the shores of the Mediterranean, the meeting point of different civilisations that were destined to engage in dialogue.
Janua (Latin for “door”) looks both East and West through the eyes of Dufay, a first-hand witness to these events: few know the motets he composed between Greece and Italy, reflected in the polyphony of contemporary Byzantine composers: on the shores of the Mediterranean, the meeting point of different civilisations that were destined to engage in dialogue.
