Faenza (FR)

Marco Horvat (vocal, theorbo, baroque guitar)

Olga Pitarch (vocal)

www.faenza.fr

Artist message

The most beautiful music of the 17th century was destined for small circles of select connoisseurs and was listened to in the intimacy of a salon, where music was not the only pleasure of the evening: it was mixed with games and conversation. It is why Faenza searched for several years to find a way to reinvent the optimum setting to listen to the music of such intimate nature. It is how “The Music Salon” was conceived. A concert “a la carte” in the proper sense of the term since with the help of a deck of tarot cards, the public is invited to compose a program that the artists will discover at the same time. 11 cards drawn by chance from a total of 22 of the Major Arcana (including “The Lovers,” “The Hanged Man,” “Strength,” “The Fool”, etc) will transport the audience across time and space, from surprise to surprise, in the course of an evening, which will truly be unique.

About the project

The most beautiful music of the 17th century was destined for small circles of select connoisseurs and was listened to in the intimacy of a salon, where music was not the only pleasure of the evening: it was mixed with games and conversation. Faenza wanted to recreate these ideal conditions to understand the music they hold dear to their hearts. Far from the beaten paths of historic recreation, "Le Salon de Musique" was born of the desire to liberate artists and spectators from the purified ritual of the concert where, separated as much by the proscenium as by a series of conventions dating to the 18th and 19th centuries, we are no longer in a position to share the emotions conveyed by music and for them to be transmitted from one person to another. “To touch,” those are the key words. To touch with a “theorbo” and “a tender voice” (as written by Jean de la Fontaine), as being near is essential. The 17th century pieces that Faenza likes to interpret were designed to awaken passion: not to evoke it, but to bring it to life for the listener.

About the concert programme

The evening's programme is created randomly: neither the public nor the artists know ahead of time what it will be composed of. It is chance that conducts the game by means of a deck of cards: a very beautiful copy of the Visconti-Sforza tarot cards, dating from the 15th century. From it, the Major Arcana is used and each of these symbolic cards gives rise to a performance of instrumental music, song, and poetry. If the entire lot of these cards were to be interpreted, the show would last almost three hours! That is why the audience is asked to choose 11 cards among the 22. Not only is the content of the evening random in this way, but also the order of the pieces, the chosen cards lying face down on the table and turned over one by one by people from the audience.

According to what tarot cards are drawn at random, you might hear the music of :

Honoré d’Ambruys, Anonymes, Gabriel Bataille, Antoine Boesset, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Bellerofonte Castaldi, François Couperin, John Dowland, Charles Dufaut, Charles Hurel, Girolamo Kapsberger, Stefano Landi, Tarquinio Merula, Carlo Milanuzzi, Claudio Monteverdi, Giulio San Pietro de’ Negri, and Robert de Visée.

And the texts of :

Jean Auvray, Guillaume du Bartas, Giordano Bruno, François de Malherbe, Mathurin Régnier, and Lazare de Selve.