The Première chamber music competition on historical instruments aims to promote young musicians who place their artistic, scientific and rhetorical approach at the forefront. It is the subtle balance between all these qualities that the competition wishes to reveal to an open and enthusiastic audience.
Early music in constant evolution, with its performance codes that change as performers read and take up historical sources. This competition is an ideal opportunity to update this, to breathe new life into it.
Première 2025
Music in the Repubblica Serenissima of Venice between 1500 and 1797
Following programming around the "Grand Tour" in 2023 and "Brussels and the Southern Netherlands" in 2024, FestiVita! 2025 proposes a programme around the Repubblica Serenissima of Venice. As part of this programme, FestiVita! also organises the third 'Première Concours' in the magnificent halls of the Cercle Royal Gaulois in the heart of Brussels.
After Lionel Meunier in 2021, Marco Beasley in 2022, Bernard Foccroulle and Frédéric de Roos in 2023, Amandine Beyer becomes the patron of the next edition. As an exceptional musician, she will share her love of Venetian music during two concerts and her talent as a speaker during a "Round Table". She will also be the patron of the Première Concours.
Candidates are selected based on three criteria
- Artistic criterion: the quality of the musical performance.
- Scientific approach: the quality of historical/cultural research, both in terms of content and choice of programme, organological integrity, respect for historical practices (partimenti, improvisation, cantare super librum, specific organology, placement of musicians, pronunciation, rhetoric, etc.).
- Rhetorical approach: the quality of communication with the audience through an oral presentation, which invites the listener to better enjoy the musical performance. This communication in French, Dutch or English can be original, creative, scripted, etc.
After a video pre-selection, five winning ensembles will be invited to participate in the final at FestiVita!25 on Saturday 22 February 2025, where they will compete for the Prix Première and/or the Prix du Public. For this performance, each participant receives a fee of 500 euros.
"Research must help us to (…) keep our eyes open to the inherently critical and revisable nature of our regulative concepts. Most importantly, it helps us overcome that deep-rooted desire to hold the most dangerous of beliefs that we have at any time got our practices absolutely right." Lydia Goehr, The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in The Philosophy of Music (Oxford: Clarendon, 1992), 284.
"Onderzoek (…) moet ons helpen onze ogen open te houden voor het intrinsiek kritische en herzienbare karakter van onze concepten. Nog belangrijker is dat het ons helpt het diepgewortelde verlangen te overwinnen om de zeer gevaarlijke overtuiging te koesteren dat we op een bepaald moment absoluut correcte praktijken hebben gevonden".
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