Capilla Flamenca & Prometheus Ensemble

In the fourteenth century, when a completely new system of musical theory was ushered in, composers and theorists spoke with befitting pride of an 'ars nova', a 'new knowledge'. In the religious repertoire, Guillaume de Machaut composed the monumental 'Messe de Nostre Dame', an irrefutable high point in the ars nova repertoire. Capilla Flamenca confronts this timeless polyphony seamlessly with instrumental chamber music from the romantic period and the twentieth century. There appears to be no link between De Machaut and Heinz Holliger, at least not on paper, but in reality it seems the Swiss Holliger was often inspired by the musical language and manner of medieval music. The Hungarian Kurtág drew his inspiration from Schumann in exactly the same manner: no stylistic tributes, but an in-depth search into the essence of a musical personality. The Prometheus Ensemble and the Capilla Flamenca alternate fourteenth-century polyphony and instrumental chamber music in a virtuoso manner, allowing a musical interweaving of deeply-layered meaning to surface.