With the third edition of the Flow Midsummer Night Polyphony Festival, Dionysos Now!, in collaboration with De Grote Post, once again paid homage to polyphony in all its facets. Concerts, encounters and reflection alternated at various locations in Oostende. The festival offered no nostalgic retrospective of a musical past, but a vibrant demonstration of how relevant, versatile and inspiring this centuries-old music can still be today.
The festival opened on Friday evening in the Petrus en Pauluskerk with The Legacy of Adriaen Willaert by Dionysos Now!. Scarcely had the first notes of Willaert's Che fai alma, che pensi resounded when several powerful thunderclaps were heard above Oostende. It was as if the gates of heaven opened on heavy hinges to grant this music its rightful place in heaven. The coincidence provided an almost theatrical opening to a concert that was entirely devoted to the refined beauty of Renaissance polyphony. Dionysos Now! once again confirmed why the ensemble ranks among the absolute top internationally within this repertoire. Transparency, text expression and an impressive homogeneity of sound went hand in hand with an effortless musical significance.
On Saturday morning, the Delle Donne Consort presented a surprising programme in the Kapucijnenkerk under the title Reframed. The recorder ensemble showed how music from a distant past can still sound fresh and lively today. With technical mastery, colourful sound combinations and infectious enthusiasm, the musicians built a bridge between historical music and a contemporary audience. In doing so, they made optimal use of the special acoustics of the Kapucijnenkerk. Their sounds filled the space with remarkable naturalness, so that music and architecture seemed to form one whole.
Later that day, Hoort mi aen followed at De Grote Post, a special project by Syrian composer and musician Shalan Alhamwy in which word and music were constantly in dialogue with each other. Starting from poems from the Gruuthusehandschrift, Alhamwy went to a secondary school, where students were invited to write their own texts in response to the centuries-old verses. During the concert, the audience was taken along in the quest of one of those students, Lars, who served as a guide through the programme. Alhamwy's own compositions, music by Bach and Wannes Van de Velde, and masterfully presented poetry alternated in a performance that connected past and present in a natural way. When Lars finally brought his own poem, dressed in medieval attire, the circle came full circle beautifully. It underscored how an encounter with centuries-old texts can still release new creativity today.
On Saturday evening, the audience was brought together again for Oorlog en vrede, a collaboration between Dionysos Now! and Jef Neve. The polyphonic lines of the Renaissance and Neve's improvisations found each other in a dialogue that sounded both natural and surprising. The programme made clear that music from different centuries does not have to exclude each other, but can actually strengthen each other. The encounter between historical compositions and contemporary improvisation produced moments of great intensity and reflection. At the same time, the concert perfectly embodied the festival's ambition to not merely preserve polyphony, but also to explore new directions.
On Sunday morning, Romina Lischka presented the festival's final concert in the Kapucijnenkerk with Captain Hume's Viol. The focus was on the music of Captain Tobias Hume, an English military man who made history at the beginning of the seventeenth century as one of the first composers to publish solo works for the viola da gamba. Lischka brought this special music with great refinement and conviction. Her sense of nuance, her rich palette of sound and her ability to evoke a complete musical world with one instrument kept the audience effortlessly captivated.
The festival's conclusion followed during the Apéro Poëzie with Kurt Van Eeghem as central guest. What began as a conversation about the role of poetry and literature in his life grew into a fascinating exploration of art, culture and musical imagination. Along the way, a surprising encounter between polyphony and electronic music also took place. Synthesizer sounds by Tsar B, the project of Justine Bourgeus, were confronted with and intertwined with the centuries-old polyphony that had resounded earlier during the festival. Surprisingly, there proved to be no contradiction between both worlds. On the contrary, they reinforced each other. Old voices and modern technology flowed together into a fascinating example of how music can continually take new forms without losing its essence.
What made the Flow Midsummer Night Polyphony Festival special was precisely that open perspective. Polyphony was not presented as a closed chapter in music history, but as a living art form that continually forges new connections. By combining concerts with conversations and encounters, the festival succeeded in appealing to both connoisseurs and curious listeners.
With this edition, Dionysos Now! and De Grote Post have created a festival that not only revealed the richness of polyphony, but also its future-oriented potential. Those who were present could experience how music from the past can still open new conversations today, evoke new emotions and create new listening worlds.