2.30 p.m. in italian/3 p.m in french/3.30 in english
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Festival Antiquity, mythology and Romanticism
Greatness and decline
Concert program
Antonio SALIERILes Danaïdes, ouverture
Jean-Baptiste LEMOYNE
Phèdre, air of Phèdre: « Hyppolite succombe… Et c’est moi »
Christoph Willibald GLUCK
Orphée et Eurydice, Menuet des Ombres heureuses et air de Furie
Rodolphe KREUTZER
Ipsiboé, aria ‘Anciens maîtres de la Provence’ (Ipsiboé)
Johann Christian BACH
Amadis de Gaule, aria ‘Bientôt l’ennemi qui m’outrage’ (Arcabonne)
Interval
Juan Crisòstomo de ARRIAGA
Symphony in D major
Gaspare SPONTINI
Olympie, aria ‘Ô déplorable mère’ (Statira)
CONCERT PROGRAM
Interpreters
LES AGRÉMENSGuy Van Waas, conductor
Jennifer Borghi, mezzo-soprano
From Gluck (Iphigénie) to Spontini (La Vestale), many composers turned to the noble subjects of ancient Greece and Rome.
But in those days of pre-Romanticism, they intensified the fury and the doubts of heroines such as Phaedra, Proserpine and Medea.Les Agrémens
The ensemble Les Agrémens was formed in 1995 by the Centre d’Art Vocal et de Musique Ancienne (CAV&MA) to accompany the Namur Chamber Choir in its productions of Baroque music. The ensemble has appeared under conductors including Frieder Bernius, Pierre Cao, Françoise Lasserre, Florian Heyerick, Wieland Kuijken, Guy Van Waas, John Tubéry and Leonardo García Alarcón. In 2001 Guy Van Waas became its principal conductor and artistic director. The orchestra has taken part in several opera productions, both on stage and in concert. Its CD recordings, for Ricercar, include Pachelbel, Bach, Charpentier, Haydn, and Walloon composers who were well known in Paris in the late eighteenth century, including Francois-Joseph Gossec and André-Modeste Grétry. Its repertoire stretches from the late seventeenth century to the symphonies of Beethoven.
Les Agrémens are supported by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (department of music and dance), the Loterie Nationale, the City and Province of Namur.
Guy Van Waas, conductor
Brussels-born Guy Van Waas’s musical practices are wide-ranging, from the early clarinet to the organ, and including the harpsichord and the fortepiano, as well as conducting. After studying at the Brussels and Mons Conservatories, then at the Salzburg Mozarteum, he was engaged as a soloist (clarinet) with the Orchestra du Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels, then with the RTBF Symphony Orchestra, before deciding to devote himself to the early clarinet, of which he is a renowned exponent. The privileged moments in his life as a musician include chamber music and playing with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century (Frans Brüggen). Guy Van Waas has conducted many European orchestras. In 2001 he became principal conductor of Les Agrémens, with which he has made several recordings, all of them highly acclaimed by the critics. In 2009 Arte Live Web televised from the Opéra Royal at Versailles Grétry’s Céphale et Procris conducted by Guy Van Waas. He is particularly interested in works of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Guy Van Waas is professor of chamber music at the Mons Royal Conservatory.
Jennifer Borghi, mezzo-soprano
Jennifer Borghi began her vocal studies with Ronald Cappon at Princeton University, USA, and then was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Mannheim, Germany, in 2002. After earning high distinctions in many international singing competitions, including the Maria Callas Grand Prix (2009), she made her début with the National Opera in Athens in 2009 as the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos; her performance was highly acclaimed by the critics. She works with Christophe Rousset, Sébastien d’Hérin, Guy Van Waas, and ensembles including Le Concert Spirituel and Les Agrémens, and appears at major international venues, such as the Opéra Royal, Versailles, the Theater an der Wien and the La Cité de la Musique in Paris.
But in those days of pre-Romanticism, they intensified the fury and the doubts of heroines such as Phaedra, Proserpine and Medea.Les Agrémens
The ensemble Les Agrémens was formed in 1995 by the Centre d’Art Vocal et de Musique Ancienne (CAV&MA) to accompany the Namur Chamber Choir in its productions of Baroque music. The ensemble has appeared under conductors including Frieder Bernius, Pierre Cao, Françoise Lasserre, Florian Heyerick, Wieland Kuijken, Guy Van Waas, John Tubéry and Leonardo García Alarcón. In 2001 Guy Van Waas became its principal conductor and artistic director. The orchestra has taken part in several opera productions, both on stage and in concert. Its CD recordings, for Ricercar, include Pachelbel, Bach, Charpentier, Haydn, and Walloon composers who were well known in Paris in the late eighteenth century, including Francois-Joseph Gossec and André-Modeste Grétry. Its repertoire stretches from the late seventeenth century to the symphonies of Beethoven.
Les Agrémens are supported by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (department of music and dance), the Loterie Nationale, the City and Province of Namur.
Guy Van Waas, conductor
Brussels-born Guy Van Waas’s musical practices are wide-ranging, from the early clarinet to the organ, and including the harpsichord and the fortepiano, as well as conducting. After studying at the Brussels and Mons Conservatories, then at the Salzburg Mozarteum, he was engaged as a soloist (clarinet) with the Orchestra du Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels, then with the RTBF Symphony Orchestra, before deciding to devote himself to the early clarinet, of which he is a renowned exponent. The privileged moments in his life as a musician include chamber music and playing with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century (Frans Brüggen). Guy Van Waas has conducted many European orchestras. In 2001 he became principal conductor of Les Agrémens, with which he has made several recordings, all of them highly acclaimed by the critics. In 2009 Arte Live Web televised from the Opéra Royal at Versailles Grétry’s Céphale et Procris conducted by Guy Van Waas. He is particularly interested in works of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Guy Van Waas is professor of chamber music at the Mons Royal Conservatory.
Jennifer Borghi, mezzo-soprano
Jennifer Borghi began her vocal studies with Ronald Cappon at Princeton University, USA, and then was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Mannheim, Germany, in 2002. After earning high distinctions in many international singing competitions, including the Maria Callas Grand Prix (2009), she made her début with the National Opera in Athens in 2009 as the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos; her performance was highly acclaimed by the critics. She works with Christophe Rousset, Sébastien d’Hérin, Guy Van Waas, and ensembles including Le Concert Spirituel and Les Agrémens, and appears at major international venues, such as the Opéra Royal, Versailles, the Theater an der Wien and the La Cité de la Musique in Paris.
Coproduzione Palazzetto Bru Zane / CAV&MA / Festival de Namur.
