Whoever says Portuguese music, says fado! There is no evidence that fate strikes more often in Portugal than elsewhere, but unlike other nations the Portuguese have built a whole tradition on it. A tradition that mightily impressed Paul Van Nevel. During nocturnal field work in the precincts of Lisbon, Van Nevel managed to penetrate into the authentic fado milieu: small eating-places in the shadow of the big tourist attractions. There he discovered Célia Leiria and António Rocha: thoroughbred artists who don’t sing fado, but are fado. Better than anybody else these leading ‘fadistas’ enable you to get steeped in the ‘saudade’ during this concert: the devastating yearning for an impossible love, the destiny of solitude, the painful rejection, but also the hymn to Lisbon. In this programme the fado will be confronted with 16th-century polyphony. From this confrontation it transpires that the fado feel, albeit with other musical means, had its precursors in the renaissance. An exciting combination of two traditions giving free rein to emotions!

Performers
António Rocha, fado | Célia Leiria, fado | Paul Van Nevel, artistic direction

24 August, 2011 20:15 -- Zuiderpershuis

The received image of 16th- and 17th-century Portugal is often that of an isolated and subjected territory, stubbornly clinging in the musical field to the traditions of the renaissance. A country that let the new musical trends from Italy completely pass by. However, recent musical research has proved that careful differentiation is in order. The Ludovice Ensemble meets the challenge to sketch a total picture of Portuguese music practice during the late renaissance and early baroque. The link with Flanders plays a central role in this project. On the programme pride of place is given to the seven ‘symphonies’ of the Jewish-Portuguese composer Leonora Duarte, born in Antwerp. The house of her influential family of jewellers was only half a kilometre away from the Plantin printing office, where many other Portuguese composers had their music published as well.

Performers
Hilde Van Ruymbeke, soprano | NN, soprano | Bojan Cicic, violin | Míriam Macaia, violin | Nick Milne, viol | Sofia Diniz, viol | Daniel Otero, viol | Fernando Miguel Jalôto, harpsichord, organ & artistic direction

25 August, 2011 11:00 -- AMUZ

Mateo Romero, aka Matthieu Rosmarin, was a composer of Flemish extraction who already as a youngster found himself at the Spanish court. His extraordinary musical qualities earned him the nickname Maestro Capitán and resulted in distribution of his work as far as Italy and even the New World. King João IV of Portugal was a fan, too: he appointed Romero at his court and collected a vast amount of his works in the royal library in Lisbon. Entirely unfairly the composer passed into oblivion after his death, but today music aficionados cherish him again. Small wonder, for Romero’s music has a distinctly modern feel. His strong, varied rhythms are close to flamenco or Argentine zamba, his melodies sound at times like if they were written for a contemporary audience. Cappella Mediterranea & Ensemble Clematis surprised with one of the revelations of 2010 with their CD recording of Romero’s profane music. Their performance is sensitive, lively and fiery, thus fitting hand in glove with this thoroughly Iberian repertoire.

Performers
Mariana Flores, soprano | Capucine Keller, soprano | Fabían Schofrin, counter tenor | Fernando Guimarães, tenor | Stéphanie de Failly, viool | Rodrigo Calveyra, cornett & recorder | François Joubert-Caillet, viol | Jérôme Lejeune, viol | Guito Gato, vihuela | Marie Bournisien, harp | Thierry Gomar, percussion | Léonardo García Alarcón, organ & artistic direction
 

25 August, 2011 18:00 -- AMUZ

Rebelo’s vespers and lamentations have already been scheduled before in this edition of Laus Polyphoniae, by the Huelgas Ensemble. This time it’s the turn of Cantar Lontano to interpret the instrumental and vocal oeuvre of the Portuguese composer. From Rebelo’s religious repertoire they have chosen lamentations and antiphons – verses sung as an introduction and a conclusion to a psalm. Thus they bring a reconstruction of the complines on Sunday, alternating polyphony and Gregorian plainsong. Cantar Lontano borrow their name from the 17th-century practice of ‘chanter loin’ (singing faraway), spatializing and musical exploration of space being crucial. That’s why St James church has been chosen as the perfect venue, based on the try-out of its acoustics by Cantar Lontano at Laus Polyphoniae 2009. They were then one of the festival’s revelations!

Performers
Marco Mencoboni, artistic direction

25 August, 2011 20:15 -- St.-Jacobskerk

On the Iberian peninsula some exceptionally valuable song books from the renaissance have been preserved. The music contained in them is, due to its lucid tone palette and its sophisticated poetry, qualitatively outstanding and a blessing for musicians of today. This certainly holds true for the Elvas song book, a 16th-century manuscript in which besides 49 Spanish songs also 16 Portuguese songs are to be found. The duo vihuela players of El Canto del Caballero and the young Portuguese soprano Orlanda Velez Isidro bring for the first time the complete corpus of Portuguese works from the Cancioneiro de Elvas. This promises to be an intimate and sensitive concert, the subtle and introspective character of the vihuela guaranteeing a performance steeped in pure poetry.

Performers
Orlanda Velez Isidro, soprano | Alfred Fernández, vihuela | Alfonso Marín, lute & vihuela

26 August, 2011 11:00 -- AMUZ

Singing, dancing, tinkering, and playing music: the yearly music holidays during Laus Polyphoniae are a hit that creative kids just love! This year kids between 6 and 12 discover Portuguese culture for a whole week. They can familiarize themselves with fado, the most popular song of the Portuguese, and learn some Portuguese words. Musica teachers Charlotte Dewindt, Marjolein Elsink, Caroline Verbrugghe and Bruno Peeters channel everything into the right direction. During this presentation moment the children show what they have learnt!

I.s.m. Musica, Impulscentrum voor Muziek

Teachers
Charlotte Dewindt, Marjolein Elsink, Caroline Verbrugghe & Bruno Peeters

26 August, 2011 14:00 -- Elzenveld