Artistic Director: Jean Tubéry
First Prize at The International Early Music Competitions: Bruges, Belgium, 1990 - Malmo, Sweden, 1992
Cornet: Jean Tubéry; Cors & Trumpets: Gilles Rapin, Pierre-Yves Madeuf; Trombones: Franck Poitrineau, Jean-Jacques Herbin, Christiane Bopp.
La Fenice symbolises the influence of Italian music in Baroque Europe: it was the title of a work by Giovanni Martino Cesare, an Italian composer and cornett player who moved north of the Alps in the early 17th century. In mythology, La Fenice - the Phoenix - is a fabulous bird, which was celebrated as consuming itself in flame then rising from its ashes. Today this name has been adopted by a group of musicians whose common desire is to share their passion for the sumptuous Venetian music of that time and bring out all its extraordinary vitality.
The ensemble's repertoire nevertheless includes works by composers from all over Europe and covers more than two centuries of music; indeed, the cornett was commonly used in the early 16th century by Josquin Desprez and his contemporaries and it was still in use in J.S. Bach's time and Bach himself included it in several of his cantatas.
The cornett is to be found alongside the voice in sacred music throughout the Baroque period; it is mentioned in the registers of the Royal Chapel at Versailles until 1733. As for the sound it produces, Mersenne, tells us in his Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636) that 'it is like a ray of sunlight shining through shadows or through the darkness when it is heard among the voices in churches, cathedrals or chapels... “
Anxious to respect the original instrumentation, particularly in vocal music, where the instruments shed light on the text through their symbolical import, the ensemble adapts to fit in with each of the different programmes it performs.