The music of Ludwig Senfl (around 1490-1543) was once the focus of attention on the Adlersberg. Back then, 14 years ago, when the festival at the gates of Regensburg was still called Stimmwercktage and was preparing to become a small jewel among the festivals for early music. In the fourth year of the Singer-Pur-Days, the focus of the three concerts and the scientific day academy is now on the songs and motets of the Munich court composer, flanked by two fabulous instrumental formations, which help to expand the repertoire with string and wind instruments, condense it and in the together with the singers to celebrate the intoxicating sound of exalted renaissance music.
The Ensemble Leones with its director Marc Lewon has already been a guest at the Singer-Pur-Days, they immerse the multi-stanzas and small-scale songs in a dazzling robe of countless scoring variants on string and plucked instruments, no verse is the same. With the fine wind instruments of the newly founded ensemble Sylvarum, they merge into a small, superb Renaissance orchestra, almost a lavish luxury in terms of the variety of sounds and richness of colour. Singer Pur is the vocal crown of the whole, and this time not only in the usual splendid sound aesthetics, but also in many moments as excellent soloists and interpreters of the Senfl songs. Everything that characterizes the ensemble of singers in terms of grace, beautiful sound and soul can be found in miniature in the solo moments.
The compositions of the Brit Gavin Bryars became the highlights of the concerts
And then there is the music of Brit Gavin Bryars as this year’s composer in residence. He tailored his vocal works to Singer Pur especially for the festival days, exclusively with texts by Francesco Petrarca. With his own dense tonal language, his compact works snuggle up to early music, reflecting the early styles in the moderate modern tonality that suits the singers of Singer Pur so much. That is why Bryar’s compositions become the highlights of the concerts, because they pull the listener out of Senfl’s complex network of sounds and allow them to pause. It gets playful when Singer Pur imitates “Gläut zu Speyer”, one of Ludwig Senfl’s best-known pieces, with wonderfully small accents and onomatopoeia. And it gets really big when the singing and the instruments respond across the length of the nave, creating seamless transitions and coming together in the mighty but noble tutti.
In its fourth year, the Singer-Pur-Days are in full bloom, drawing on unlimited resources in culturally difficult times and defying the prevailing pessimism with a festival of the highest scientific and artistic quality. Such passion is a guarantee for the future. That’s why the Singer-Pure-Days will continue to exist. On the Adlersberg. Always in August.