Flores Musicae Festival
Programme
Among the performers at the 2017 festival, there were the vocal French-Swiss ensemble Le Chant sur le Livre with a presentation of improvised vocal polyphony from the Renaissance times; Rolf Lislevand and Bor Zuljan; guitarist Dušan Bogdanović; and ensemble Musica Cubicularis.
There were also many accompanying events: among others a master-class for lute, guitar, harp and harpsichord. Namely, the improvisation was a widespread practice among Renaissance musicians: as the singers improvised contrapunctus songs, musicians on polyphonic musical instruments, such as lutes, harps and keyboard instruments, developed techniques that allowed improvisation in the musical forms. The participants of the festival's master-class had the opportunity to experiment with these musical forms under the mentorship of specialized experts in this field (Rolf Lislevand, Dušan Bogdanović, Jean-Yves Haymoz, Bor Zuljan). In the end, the participants presented themselves at the concert.
In 2018, the opening concert featured Slovene group Makalonca performing the oldest songs of the Slovene music tradition. The German ensemble Per-Sonat, which consists of a singer Sabine Lutzenberger and traverso player Norbert Rodenkirchen, presented revived medieval mystical songs of maestro Frauenlob. The last two concerts were dedicated to Italian music from 1500: La Lyra ensemble presented a repertoire of North Italian popular songs, called frottola, whereas the ensemble Ricercare Antico performed their liturgical versions, called laude. As part of the festival, a lecture was held on the Slovene music tradition and instruments that have been used in the past centuries.
Venues
The festival takes place in the Goriška region: at the Kromberk Castle, Kostanjevica Monastery, Church of the Holy Cross in Kojsko, Dobrovo Castle, Villa Vipolže, and Nova Gorica Music School.