Castle concerts

The golden age of the cornetto

For its 2021 season of early music, the Castle of Gruyères is inviting an unusual ensemble: Capella Itineris. Passionate about 16th- and 17th-century compositions, the musicians have been putting all their energy into recreating forgotten sounds and composing original programmes based on early wind instruments, such as their project Stadtpfeiffer, Piffari musique à cinq souffleurs, created in 2020.

The Capella Itineris ensemble was born of a challenge taken up by musicians from the prestigious Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. After finishing their exams in 2016, the friends set off on foot from Basel to French-speaking Switzerland. Following in the tradition of the travelling musicians of the Renaissance, who often travelled on foot to various European cities to further their musical education, they continued their musical research along the way.

In Gruyères, the ensemble presents an astonishing program devoted to the cornetto. The wind instrument was particularly popular with Italian and German composers between the end of the 16th century and the middle of the 17th century, who built up a fine repertoire for it. Capella Itineris invites us to discover it through works by Roland de Lasses, Giovanni Battista Fontana and Jakob Van Eyck, among others.

With:
Josquin Piguet, cornetto
Marc Pauchard, cornetto and flute
Adrien Pièce, organ