Our concert programmes are very carefully prepared in many ways: musically, historically and rhetorically. The presentation of the pieces and the interaction with the audience are crucial for us; we would like the listener to listen actively, to become a part of the music itself. We understand the performance as a journey through emotions, giving it unity from the first to the last note.
Here you can see an overview of our main programmes with the full ensemble. Please don not hesitate to contact us to know more about our programming.
MUSIC OF THRONES
Traverso, 2 violins, viola & continuo
Works by Bach, Lully, Boccherini, Frederick the Great… and some compositions capable of scaring the greatest kings of Europe.
The music of Music of Thrones is music with a history behind that touches the real life of Kings and Emperors of Europe. Pieces that really moved Kings. Musical pieces that were loved by kings and rulers, and some music sometimes feared by them.
TELEMANN. CHAMBER MUSIC MASTERPIECES OF THE CABINET II
Rarely performed chamber masterpieces by Telemann
Traverso, 2 violins, viola, violoncello and harpsichord
Georg Philipp Telemann was one of the most famous and renowned composers of his time. His fame and works were spread all around Europe as one of the most appreciated living composers of his era and he could count among his friends the crème de la crème of the culture and musical high society: Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach, Georg Friederich Handel, Georg Pisendel or Johann Joachim Quantz were just a few of his friends.
In addition, Telemann is considered one of the most prolific composers in history and his works are cataloged in the so-called Telemann-Werke-Verzeichnis (Telemann Works Catalogue), abbreviated as TWV. Today the list of these TWV’s comprises more than 6000 works. Still we are rediscovering new works by Telemann and a number of his masterpieces remain silent waiting to sound again after hundreds of years. To rediscover some of the most beautiful and yet unperformed instrumental works by Telemann, we travelled to Dresden and to the collection found in the so-called Schrank II (Cabinet II, in reference to its original shelf in the library of the Dresden Court Orchestra) where an incredible amount of scores are waiting to be dusted.
TURCARIA
European musical images of the Orient in the baroque
Traverso, 2 violins, viola, continuo & percussions
Love, hate, fascination, rejection, curiosity… visions of the Islamic world by European composers during the XVII and XVIII centuries. A journey through the eyes of the Europeans looking at the Orient, the discovery of a vision that maybe did not change as much as we think.
The programme had earned the acclamation of the critic in the past Ambronay Festival 2013. Includes some pieces that are not played since XVIII century and a blues at the end!
TRANSFIGURATIONS
Traverso, 2 violins, viola & continuo
Transfigurations is a new concert proposal by Les Esprits Animaux. A fresh, original and deeply historical informed concert that offers to the audience an original and kaleidoscopic approach to the world of variations, metamorphoses, transformations and transfigurations in baroque music: How a few notes can be used to build a work of art or how a simple song can be transformed through time and space. canons, fugues, variations, grounds, folk songs that become classical, and classical melodies that make their way into popular music, and much more!
À PARIS!
Recorder, traverso, 2 violins, viola & continuo
Music for the city of the lights from 1710 to 1750… Music for a city, for its palaces and streets, from the nobility to the common people who lived in one of the most important cities in Europe. A travel through time and space to the musical life of Paris in the baroque. With this program the ensemble was selected as “Promising ensemble 2011” in the International Young Artists Platform in Antwerp.
TELEMANN, A JOURNEY THROUGH LITERATURE
Recorder, traverso, 2 violins, viola & continuo
A programme focused on G.P. Telemann, literature and affects. Love, madness, braveness, travels, real and fictional stories all together to build an original and fascinating program celebrated by both critics and audience. Recorded for Ambronay Éditions (Harmonia Mundi) in 2011 in the first CD of Les Esprits Animaux.
B A BA BAROQUE!
Didactic concert introducing baroque music for all the family!
Works by Bach, Boismortier, Rameau, Telemann and traditional baroque music with a healthy amount of improvisation. Basso continuo, counterpoint, rhetoric, ornamentation, gut strings… the lively musicians of Les Esprits Animaux take a unique look full of humour and simplicity at the vocabulary and techniques of the repertory defended by them with zeal.
After this gratifying concert, Baroque music will have no secrets for you and your children! A show prepared and built during their residence in Centre Culturel de Rencontre d’Ambronay in the summer of 2014 together with the specialist and stage director JeanMichel Fournereau.
– N.B. The show is presented in French. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for other languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese in preparation!)