This crowdfunding was launched to finance the second recording of my ensemble InAlto, dedicated to Heinrich Schütz and his best pupils/followers. I am incredibly lucky and grateful to be surrounded again by a fantastic team of musicians that I met these last years. They are all regularly invited by the leading performance practice ensembles in Europe.

For the first recording of the ensemble, I looked into the Stadpfeiffer repertoire, clearly oriented towards "ensemble playing".

You can hear/see here a extract of our first recording :

This second recording will present a quite different attitude towards music making considering it will clearly call for "soloists".

The soprano Alice Foccroulle will sing pieces in which her passion and emotions will be clearly heard.

The two sonatas a 4 from Weckmann are part of that curious collection written specifically for 4 different instruments : Cornettino, Violion, Trombone and Dulcian. Some of the passages obvisouly use the sounding combination of the instruments played together but these sonatas seel really like musical postcards presenting each instruments with great care, giving them a role in the happening drama.

I really see this as a filigrane. I am truing to present strong musical personnalities that are part of my team. More than ever, I am looking for the musician itself, the interpreter, the individual.

On the other hand, I want to present these fascinating personnalities that all crossed the path of Heinrich Schütz in their studies of travels : these are all the composers we chose.

As artists, we have all been influenced by a great master one day, during our studies or some of us even got the chance to play together, and actually make music with that master.

This somewhat magical alchemy of the transmission is definitely personnal, and Heinrich Schütz must not have only transmitted techniques, but little bits of his soul. And that is why the great majority of his disciples were that talented and also left their footprints in the history of music.

About the programm

Heinrich Schütz was remarked at an early age by Moritz von Hessen-Kassel as an extremely gifted singer and very promising musician. The Landgrave decided to personally take over his education and paid for his law studies in Marburg as well as a complete training in musical art with first Georg Otto in Kassel and then with the great Giovanni Gabrieli In Venice. Gabrieli must have considered Schütz as its spiritual son for he gave him his ring on his deathbed.

Schütz lived an extraordinary long life and spent it composing and teaching, as his duties as Kapellmeister demanded and during his numerous travels throughout Europe. Surely thankful to what happened to him, and aware of the importance of keeping a tradition alive, he passed on his mastery to many other promising composers such as Matthias Weckmann, Johann Theile, Christoph Bernhard, Vincenzo Albrici, Johann Vierdanck etc…

Maestro Schütz presents the great legacy of the master beautifully set into music by some of his best followers with world premiere performances of pieces kept in the Düben collection in Uppsala.

Our repertoire

Vincenzo Albrici – Omnia quae fecit Deus

Johann Schop – Paduana a 6

Christoph Bernhard – Aus der tiefen

Matthias Weckmann – Sonata quinta a 4

Johann Theile – Ach, dass ich hören sollte

Heinrich Schütz/Kaspar Kittel – O süsser Jesu Christ

Johann Nauwach – Tu Parti

Johann Vierdanck – Sonata a 4

Johann Schop – Nasce la pena mia

Matthias Weckmann – Sonata prima a 4

Heinrich Schütz – Eile mich Gott zu erretten

David Pohle – Domine Deus

Heinrich Schütz – Wohl dem der den Herren fürchtet

The artists of InAlto for Nachfolge

Alice Foccroulle : Soprano

Marie Rouquié, Gabriel Grosbard : Violins

Lambert Colson : Cornetto

Guy Hanssen, Olivier Dubois, Bart Vroomen : Sackbuts

Anaïs Ramage : Dulcian

Justin Glaie : Theorbo et viola da gamba

Marc Meisel : Organ

InAlto

In alto mare, in alta montagna.

En haute mer, en haute montagne.

This Italian expression applies the same adjective to sea and mountain; it evokes at the same time their physical remoteness and the risks involved when exploring them.

The cornetto is definitely one of the most important musical instruments of the 16th and 17th century. It is made of wood and covered with leather or parchment and was considered the instrument most capable of imitating the human voice. And, just like the voice, it likes to explore the higher regions. Mersenne’s encyclopedia describes the cornetto as a “ray of light going through the clouds”.

InAlto aims to explore both vocal and instrumental music, bringing them to a sort of dialogue. Famous composers of the baroque in Europe such as Monteverdi, Schütz or Praetorius left us magnificent music cultivating this taste for risk taking, this worship of the high register.

Nowadays, a real danger exists of failing to convince with music that does not feel like ours anymore. By a thorough study of the available sources and by selecting the best “historically informed” partners and collaborators, InAlto seeks to bring out the best in the repertoire they play. Eventually, historical musical intruments are musical instruments as well, InAlto considers them as modern tools of expression.

Enregistrement CD ensemble InAlto: Nachfolge, Heinrich Schütz and his legacy

The publications