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Qvinta Essençia (ES)

5.5.2026

Quinta Essençia was founded in 2016with the aim of offering a renewed vision of vocal polyphony, exploring its expressive possibilities beyond strictly historicist approaches. Its artistic concept is based on placing the text and musical rhetoric at the center of interpretation, through detailed work on color, tuning, and the interaction between voices. The ensemble conceives each program as a space for dialogue between repertoires, styles, and historical contexts, primarily spanning the 16th to the 18th centuries. Its programming combines musicological rigor with interpretative creativity, integrating both emblematic works and lesser-known repertoire, with the goal of offering coherent, vibrant, and emotionally meaningful musical experiences.

 

FOCUS

  • Historically Informed Performance Practice (HIPP) applied to vocal polyphony

  • Vocal repertoire from the 16th to the 18th centuries (Renaissance and Baroque)

  • Specialisation in Spanish polyphony and Italian madrigals

  • Expressive approach focused on textual rhetoric and vocal colour

  • Concept-driven programmes combining musicological rigour and interpretative creativity

 

CONCERTS (10 most important from the last 4 years)

  • (2026) Soria, Festival de música antigua de Soria

  • (2026) Santander, Ciclo de música antigua Caja Cantabria

  • (2026) Salamanca, Pontificia sonora

  • (2026) Sevilla, Festival de música antigua de Sevilla

  • (2026) Betanzos, Música en Betanzos

  • (2026) Terrassa, Auditori de Terrassa

  • (2025) Madrid, Museo del Prado

  • (2025) Orense, Pórtico do paraiso

  • (2025) Murcia, Murcia sacra

  • (2025) Barcelona, Barcelona obertura

 

PROJECTS (the most important from the last 4 years)

  • (2026) El cant de la Sibil·la (Ayuntamiento de Salardú)

  • (2026) A la caza de los sentidos (Festival de música antigua de Soria / Festival de música antigua de Tiana)

  • (2025) Música en tiempos de Veronese (Museo del Prado)

 

DISCOGRAPHY

  • (2025) Esmerarte (Teresa)

  • (2025) La Tendresa (Maria Magdalene)

  • (2023) La ma de Guido (El sentir de mi sentido)

  • (2019) La ma de Guido (Marenzio madrigals)

 

REVIEWS

  • … they take text and music and twist them, turning them inside out and back to front. They strip them bare. They squeeze them, and everything is used: pulp, juice, seed. They know well that, although it may seem contradictory, the marrow of any work of art has nothing pure or clean about it, and that art, like life, is synonymous with diversity, with blood and with mud. Living nature in four voices. A realm of refinement and passion. The quintessential madrigal. (Joan Magrané, El temps de les arts, 9.5.2019)

  • A recording as meticulous as it is moving, reaching the very essence of musical poetics. ... Their interpretation captivates through its intensity, careful intonation, fine sonic balance, fluid phrasing, clear diction, and imaginative ornamentation. (Santi Riu, Revista Musical Catalana, 2.9.2019)

  • at the highest technical level, the recording conceived by Qvinta Essençia radiates a sense of complicity ... sustained ensemble work over time, commitment to each work, and the individual abilities of these four voices offer us an impeccable interpretation of these fifteen jewels of the Italian Renaissance. (Pablo F. Cantalapiedra, Melómano Digital, 29.8.2019)

 

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