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Rencontres Musicales de Vézelay

Imagine an eternal hill with a medieval village in the middle of the French Burgundy countryside, at the end of August, surrounded by top quality world-wide known wine grapes… Listen to the sounds of the voices coming out from the huge basilica, magnificent UNESCO site… You are in Vézelay, participating in a festival offering ten programmes exclusively dedicated to the voice and church music from the Renaissance up to the present day with the best professional choirs from all over Europe.

Ce festival est un membre de L'EFA depuis 2007.

Programme de Festival

Each EFA member manages its own Calendar. In case there is no programme availabable for this year, please visit the festival's own website.

• programme 2010
• programme 2009Programme card 2009 (pdf)
• programme 2008
• programme 2007Programme card 2007 (pdf)

Plus...

L'Histoire du festival

The Rencontres Musicales de Vézelay festival is devoted to vocal music. It takes place each year at the end of August, offering ten programmes of vocal music, with or without instrumental accompaniment.

There are afternoon concerts in churches around Vézelay and evening concerts in the Basilica. The four-day festival offers the opportunity to hear the vocal and instrumental ensembles with which the choir Arsys Bourgogne works during the musical year.

The festival has a different theme each year: Bach in 2000; two millenia of sacred music in 2001; Vespers in 2002; Lux Aeterna in 2003; the eucharistic liturgy in 2004. 2005 was around David, King and musician, 200– around Mozart and his contemporaries. 2007 was around sacred music from here and there. 2008 was on the “Music in the courts and chapels in Europe”. 2009 invited GF Haendel on the "eternal hill", with his warlike and amorous passions. From 2010, the Rencontres Musicales de Vézelay will allow us to discover or rediscover sacred vocal music pieces over 6 centuries.

The festival’s artistic director is Pierre Cao, Luxemburg-born conductor and founder-conductor of the professional choir Arsys Bourgogne, which performs in two of the festival’s ten concerts, and belongs today to the best choirs in Europe.

The festival is principally devoted to vocal music from the Renaissance to the present day, the repertoire varying according to the theme chosen each year. Arsys Bourgogne has a policy of commissioning works from composers every other year, the piece receiving its world première at the festival.

Less formal “Musical Encounters” – with music and musicians - are organised by the festival in the delightful gardens or in the medieval village itself. Three free-entry concerts and six musical talks provide the perfect setting to combine the pleasures of music with those of Vézelay’s wines at a tasting organised by the local vineyards.

The audience votes with its feet and has grown steadily for the last five years, now numbering around 6000 music-lovers from all over Europe, gathered in Vézelay to enjoy four days of concerts.

The Rencontres Musicales de Vézelay festival is organised by the choir Arsys Bougogne, itself susidised by the Conseil Régional de Bourgogne and the Ministry of Culture and Communication, with the support of the Conseil Général de l’Yonne.

Rencontres Musicales de Vézelay 2009

Thursday 20th to Sunday 23rd August

These will be four exceptional days celebrating the splendours and brilliance of choral tones and a double tribute will be rendered to:
*Handel, whose greats works are, this year, being celebrated the world over.
Three extraordinary oratorios will resound under the vaults of the Saint-Marie Madeleine Basilica : the splendid and youthful Resurrezione, the moving Theodora and the virtuoso Israel in Egypt.
* the Arsys Bourgogne choir, that its founder and conductor, Pierre Cao, has hoisted to be amongst the best European ensembles in less than 10 years.

Come to find the vocal quintessence of the invited artists and ensembles, coming from London, Seville, Prague, Cologne and elsewhere.

Vézelay is hosting one of the biggest summer musical rendezvous …
An anniversary not to be missed !


The 10th Rencontres Musicales de Vézelay are at the heart of celebrations marking the classing of Vézelay as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
For more information and complete programme of manifestations (April to October 2009): www.vezelaytourisme.com


Handel on the Vézelay Hill
Warlike and Amorous Passions
10th anniversary
www.rencontresmusicalesdevezelay.com


Thursday 20th August
4 p.m. / collegiate church Avallon
10 years 10 conductors
European Sacred Music : Poulenc, Verdi, Penderecki…
Arsys Bourgogne Choir
A strong symbol for this tenth anniversary : Pierre Cao, having tirelessly trained whole generations of orchestra and choir conductors all over Europe, gives over the leadership of Arsys to the new generation for an exceptional concert.
Together they will reconstitute the great tradition of “mosaic masses”, digging into the gems of choral repertory spanning the 19th to 21st centuries. A unique experience full of challenge for these 10 young conductors coming from all over the world.


9 pm/ the basilica Vézelay
La Resurrezione by Handel
The monumental masterpiece by the young Handel
Collegium 1704 from Prague
Conducted by Vaclav Luxs

Vocal virtuosity and instrumental brilliance will come together to perform La Resurrezione, the heart of the Christian Mystery. Handel demonstrates here all his youthful fire, his extraordinary mastership and the dazzling palette of his art at the cutting edge of modernity. It is a key work for understanding the composer and his works, played exceptionally and symbolically in the basilica of Saint Marie-Madeleine, she who was to be the first witness of the Resurrection.


Friday 21st August
4 pm / Saint Père church
Warlike and Amorous Passions of the Baroque era
Cantatas, sonatas, motets : Schütz, Buxtehude, Bach …
Dorothee Mields, soprano
Ensemble Chelycus
Conducted by Adrian Rovatkay
The expression of human passions is an essential element of baroque aesthetics. From Schütz to Buxtehude, not forgetting Johann-Christoph Bach, Steffani and Handel, of course, this programme will bring together two of the passions which are most put to music : love and war. Opposite but also complementary, they paint a clear image of the society and the rich age in which they came into being.

9 pm / Vézelay Basilica
Theodora by Handel
A masterpiece of sensuality and religious introspection
Kölner Kammerchor
Collegium Cartusianum
Conducted by Peter Neumann
Homage given to Handel must include Theodora, the Christian oratorio that the composer considered as one of his best works. The masterpiece of a mature man, full of serenity and humanist affection, where his usual impressive dramatic force of expression merges in subtle fashion with joyful and youthful allusions.


Saturday 22nd August
4 pm / Asquins church
North European Marian Music
The magic of three pure voices, singing praises to the Virgin Mary
Gothic Voices
The vaults of Asquins church seem to have been made for the sounding out of mystical and intimate songs in honour of the Virgin Mary. On the road to Santiago de Compostela, we can imagine the pilgrims of the middle Ages chanting their faith, and their soft meditations, voices interlacing filling the soul and the surroundings.


9pm Vézelay basilica
Israel in Egypt by Handel
Choral apotheosis
Arsys Bourgogne Choir
Seville Baroque Orchestra
Conducted by Pierre Cao
270 years after being created, Israel in Egypt remains one of the incomparable vestiges of utmost choral virtuosity. No more less than twenty eight choruses with dazzling mass effects mingled with contrast, bring grandeur and nobility to this piece. A last concert full of brio to close this double tenth anniversary celebration– that of the Rencontres Musicales and of Arsys.

Sunday 23rd August
Arsys Bourgogne will make musical contributions to Sunday Mass
11 am / Vézelay basilica

and, as usual...
La Places des Rencontres (town square) and the free concerts at 6 pm
Musical animations in the streets mornings and afternoons
A top level choir conductor’s course



2008 : Music in the courts and chapels in Europe

« …Let’s do the same travel as done by the composers themselves, serving the biggest, either in the golden courts of princes, or from Roma to Leipzig, in the heart of the most wonderful churches…»

Cantatas BWV 84 and 202 - JS Bach, Sonatas from Goldberg, Cornelia Samuelis and Harmonie Universelle, conductor Florian Deuter
Music in the Sixtin Chapel (Allegri, Marenzio, Palestrina, …), The Sixteen, conductor Harry Christophers
Religious and popular songs of the Santiago de Compostelle ways from Vézelay to Santiago, Arianna Savall and la Fenice, conductor Jean Tubéry
Missa in G Dur BWV 236 - JS Bach, Oratorio der Tag des Gerichts - Telemann, Rheinische Kantorei and Das Kleine Konzert, conductor Hermann Max
Passion and resurrection (Morales, Victoria, Taverner, Bird, de Lassus, …), Stile Antico
Musicals splendours and celebrations in baroque Europe : cantata BWV 78 - Bach, In Convertendo - Rameau, In Deum Judicium - Telemann, Dixit Dominus - Haendel, Arsys Bourgogne Choir and Harmonie Universelle, conductor Pierre Cao

2007 : sacred music from near and far

« … Let’s put face to face famous musical structures of the western repertory with music inspired by the greatest sacred traditions of cultures far away …»

Spanish polychoral music – Arsys Bourgogne choir, conductor Pierre Cao
Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis - Czech philharmonic choir of Brno and the Lorraine National Orchestra, conductor Pierre Cao
Byzantine orthodox music - University choir of Iaşi (Roumania), conductor Adrian Sirbu
Vivaldi’s Gloria, Haendel’s Dixit Dominus - Ensemble Vocal et instrumental de Lausanne, conductor Michel Corboz
Sacred music of today, Musicatreize vocal Ensemble, conductor Roland Hayrabedian
Haendel’s Messiah – Arsys Bourgogne choir and Les Folies Françoises, conductor Pierre Cao.

2006 : Mozart and his contemporaries

« …Part of Mozart's peculiar genius lay in his ability to produce masterpieces in every musical form in which he composed.… Some unsusual contemporaries…»

Missa Sancti Hieronymi by Michael Haydn, and Missa in Bb by Georg Druschetzki, by the italian wind group Zefiro and the Arsys Bourgogne choir conducted by Alfredo
Bernardini ;
World Premiere by Philippe Schoeller : Spiritus Amadeus for a cappella choir, followed by Mozart’s Requiem, Arsys Bourgogne choir and Stradivaria ;
Italian Motets by Hasse, Galuppi, Jommelli, Traetta, by Les Paladins conducted by Jérôme Correas ;
Vespers for Sancta-Maria-Magdalena by Escaich, Connesson, Campo, Charpy, Bacri and Fénelon, for 6 soloist singers from Arsys Bourgogne choir and the Gregorian choir from Prag conducted by David Eben
Michael Haydn’s Requiem, Mozart’s Vesperae Solonnes de Confessore by the Stuttgarter Kammerchor und Orchester, conducted by Frieder Bernius ;
Boccherini’s Stabat Mater, Church sonatas and songs by Mozart, by les Folies
Françoises conducted by Patrick Cohën-Akenine ;
Salieri’s Mass in D Major, Coronation mass and motets Misericordias Domini, Ave verum Corpus, church sonata KV 329 by Mozart, by the Arsys Bourgogne choir and Stradivaria, conducted by Pierre Cao.

2005 : David, King and musician

« One of the most important person in the Jewish history, Israel’s King for 40 years, fighter for God, but mostly real man seeking for God, himself writing many psalms …»

Psalmen Davids, La Fenice, conductor Jean Tubéry
Mozart’s Davidde penitente , Arsys Bourgogne and Concerto Köln, conductor Pierre Cao
The Jewish-spanish spiritual song (from Middle Age to Renaissance), by Alia Musica
David’s Psalms, by Schütz, by Cantus Cölln, conductor Konrad Junghänel.
The Rare Fruits Council, conducted by Manfredo Krämer, « De Profundis
Clamavi », psalms for bass and instrumental music by Dietrich Buxtehude, Nicolaus Bruhns and H.I.F. Biber
Lully : grands motets and Te Deum, by Hervé Niquet and his Concert Spirituel.
Rolland Wilson and La Capella Ducale, german music of the XVIIth
Arthur Honegger’s Le Roi David, by Arsys Bourgogne, conductor Pierre Cao.

2004 : the mass

« … cependant, lorsque je me sens davantage ému par le chant que par les paroles chantées, j’avoue commettre un péché à expier, et je préfèrerais alors ne pas entendre chanter. »
St Augustin

World Premiere of the missa Joseph Carpentorum ductor de Vincent Bouchot, par Arsys Bourgogne, direction Catherine Simonpietri
World Premiere of the missa Respice in me by Bruno Gillet, Arsys Bourgogne
Missa in augustiis, also Nelsonmesse by Joseph Haydn, Rias Kammerchor and Concerto Köln, conductor Pierre Cao
The Tournai Mass (medieval polyphonies), by Trio Médiéval
Brahms ( motets opus 29 and 110), Martin (double-choir mass), Poulenc (Figure humaine) by Rias Kammerchor, conductor Daniel Reuss
Nostre Dame Mass by Guillaume de Machaut, by the ensemble Gilles Binchois, conductor Dominique Vellard
Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Litanies de la Vierge, Missa assumpta est Maria , by le Concert des Nations, conductor Jordi Savall
Music and liturgy at El Escorial in the XVIth century (Victoria, Morales, Villanueva,
Gerrero) by la Colombina
H moll Mass—J.S. Bach, by Arsys Bourgogne and Concerto Köln, conductor Pierre Cao
Malta Voce : Renaissance love songs

2003 : Lux Aeterna

« … car une lumière perpétuelle brillera pour vous durant l’éternité du temps. »
« Fuyez l’ombre de ce monde. »
« Et lux perpetua luceat eis »

Le Poème Harmonique, conductor Vincent Dumestre : de Lalande (Tenebrae, leçons de ténèbres, psaumes), de Brossard (Miserere mei Deus)
Mozart’s Grabmusik , Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze - J. Haydn, by Arsys Bourgogne and Concerto Köln, conductor Daniel Reuss
Pergolèse’s Stabat Mater, Lamentatio secunda de Fiocco, by Kontraste Köln
Schütz’s Trauermusik , music in Salzbourg cathedral - Biber, by Arsys Bourgogne, conductor Pierre Cao
Rappresentatione della Gloriosa Passione di Christo, L’Arpeggiata, conductor Christina Pluhar
Poulenc’s Motets, Ligeti’s Lux aeterna, Tavener, Howells, Nystedt, Gorecki by the Nederlands Kamerkoor, conductor Stephen Layton.
Les neuf repons des ténèbres - Charpentier by la Fenice, conductor Jean Tubéry.
Der Tod Jesu, J.M. Kraus, Mozart’s Requiem, by Arsys Bourgogne and Concerto Köln, conductor Pierre Cao
Ensemble Clément Janequin

2002 : vespers

« Au moment où les ténèbres s’épaississent et où les lampes sont allumées pour cet office solennel, l’ombre et la lumière se conjuguent pour l’action de grâce de la fin du jour… Etoile Vesper… »

World Premiere of the Vespers for Sancta Maria-Magdalena of Vézelay (Vesperae in festo sanctae Mariae Magdalenae) ordered to 6 French composers(Escaich, Charpy, Bacri, Fenelon, Connesson, Campo), by Arsys Bourgogne and the Prag Schola Gregoriensis, conductor Pierre Cao.
Vêpres du Confesseur - Marc-Antoine Charpentier, by the Maîtrise de
Versailles  conductor Olivier Schneebeli
Restitution des Vêpres sous Charles VI à la chapelle impériale de Vienne :
Sances, Fux, Reinhardt, Galdara, Zächer, by Arsys Bourgogne, conductor Pierre Cao
Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespro Solenn, Cantus Cölln, conductor Konrad
Junghaenel
Vespers for the Virgin by the Prag Schola Gregoriensis, conductor David Eben
El Misteri d’Elx : la Vespra (drame sacré pour l’assomption de la Vierge) by the Capella reial de Catalunya, conductor Jordi Savall
Vêpres pour la Vierge dans les Espagnes du XVIème siècle, by la Colombina, conductor Josep Cabre
Vivaldi’s Vespro della Risurrezione, by Arsys Bourgogne and Il Fondamento, conductor Pierre Cao.

2001 : 2000 years of sacred music
« Les plus belles pages du répertoire de la musique vocale sacrée, hors des sentiers battus… »

Huelgas Ensemble, conducted by Paul van Nevel, Jean Richafort’s Requiem, Alexander Agricola’s Mass
Arsys Bourgogne and the Basses Réunies (Bruno Cocset) : Bach’s motets
Ensemble Sarband (Vladimir Ivanov) : Western and Eastern music of the IVth and Vth centuries
La Fenice (Jean Tubéry) : la Morte Delusa - Giovanni Battista Bassani
Stuttgarter Kammerchor, conducted by Frieder Bernius : Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger, Peter Cornelius, Giuseppe Verdi.
Rias Kammerchor of Berlin, conducted by Marcus Creed : Olivier Messiaen, György Ligeti, Arvo Pärt, Gustav Mahler, …
Les Jeunes Solistes conducted by Rachid Safir : Michaël Finnissy, Missa Brevis de Jonathan Harvey
Obsidienne et Compagnie : les Chantres de l’école Notre-Dame de Paris
Concerto Köln and the Rias Kammerchor, conductor Marcus Creed : Ignaz Holzbauer Mass in ut

2000 : Johann Sebastian Bach
At the occasion of the 250th death day of the composer :
« L’œuvre de Bach, toute science suffisamment cachée, demeure le modèle accompli et inégalé d’un art qui répond toujours en offrant de nouvelles
émotions. »

Jean-Sébastien Bach and other German composers: Andreas Staier (Böhm, Froberger, Fischer, Pachelbel, Muffat, Johann Sebastian Bach)
Bach and his sons, Ensemble Baroque de Limoges, Christophe Coin (Carl Philipp, Johann Sebastian, Wilhelm Friedemann, Johann Christoph Friedrich, Johann Christian)
Bach in the café Zimmermann, Concerto Köln (concertos brandebourgeois).
Bach family before Johann Sebastian, Arsys Bourgogne and la Fenice-Jean
Tubery (motets by Johann, Johann Christoph, Johann Michael, Johann Sebastian Bach)
Johann Sebastian Bach : Cello suites, Christophe Coin.
Johann Sebastian Bach’s contemporaries, Concerto Köln (Concertos by
Sammartini, Telemann, Dall’Abaco).
France during Johann Sebastian Bach, Pierre Hantaï (Jean-Sébastien Bach, Jean-Philippe Rameau)
Concerto Köln (Concertos brandebourgeois, Psalm 51)
Bach’s Ex libris , La Fenice (Frescobaldi, Johann Michael Bach, Pachelbel, Weckmann, Rosenmüller, Dieupart, Buxtehude, …)
Arsys Bourgogne et Concerto Köln (Cantata 147, Magnificat)

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