PYTHIA / JORDI SAVALL / EFFEA TOUR
15 July 2024/ France / Fontfroide
This program in mixt quintet (mezzo, contralto, ténor, deux basses) conserves the two musical poles of Ensemble Irini that are: Catholic Western- Orthodox Eastern. Those two poles are put in resonance here around the topic of Christian Mysticism. O Sidera explores the mysteries and limits of human conception of the divine, and how those strange frontiers are transcripted in Music. The Western part of the program is embodied by Orlando di Lasso's mystical Prophetiae Sibyllarum, composed circa 1553-55, while History loses the track of the great composer for two years.
The style of this unique opus is absolutely breathtaking by its modernity, with its chromatisms wovenning the language of the intangible. The texts are those of the Antic Sibyls (Delphes, Perse, Libye..), reshaped by christian scholars to announce the arrival of the Messiah. The Byzantine part presents liturgical songs of Constantinopolis such as the virtuoso Cheruvikon, the Agni Parthene, the Polyeleos or the Acathiste to the Theotokon, all touching to the mystery of the divine, singing of the humble place of Mankind regarding the "Great beyond" as poet Rabindranath Tagore writes.
The style of this unique opus is absolutely breathtaking by its modernity, with its chromatisms wovenning the language of the intangible. The texts are those of the Antic Sibyls (Delphes, Perse, Libye..), reshaped by christian scholars to announce the arrival of the Messiah. The Byzantine part presents liturgical songs of Constantinopolis such as the virtuoso Cheruvikon, the Agni Parthene, the Polyeleos or the Acathiste to the Theotokon, all touching to the mystery of the divine, singing of the humble place of Mankind regarding the "Great beyond" as poet Rabindranath Tagore writes.
