ABOUT ENSEMBLE GLORIOSUS
Pure and emotional expressions from a brand-new professional baroque ensemble, which stands for purification, textual rhetoric, depth and connection both vocally and instrumentally. That is the DNA of Ensemble Gloriosus, which lives up to its name through in experiential and glorious concerts.
Adding luster to a wedding on September 11, 2021 was the spark that led to a strong motivation and ambition to develop a new project. Professionally trained singers such as Veerle Van Roosbroeck, Pieter De Praetere, Pieter Coene, Bart Uvyn and Jonathan De Ceuster joined by refined and passionate musicians such as Ortwin Lowyk, Jan Devlieger and Joren Elsen experienced the same intense feeling of togetherness.
The next public performance, the first under the name “Ensemble Gloriosus”, was part of a new two-day music festival, La Joyeuse Entrée, in the Burgundy region of France. Ensemble Gloriosus and artistic director Patrick Debrabandere performed the vespers service of Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, as well as a programme with unknown baroque gems by Telemann, Durante and Händel. These composers with different nationalities share some common threads in music characteristics, illustrating illustrated the compositional connection between Germany, Italy and England. Ensemble Gloriosus wants to make similar programmes and musical choices their trademark and quality label, with the programmes they develope as an illustration.
Their latest production Baroque Voices in the Southern Netherlands; melodious baroque music from the 17th and 18th centuries in our regions, Ensemble Gloriosus shows their performance practice from a different angle. The programme sketches a picture of the musical developments of sacred music by baroque figures from “our regions”. We would like to bring new life to these pieces from the 17th and first half of the 18th century in the authentic setting of the baroque church of the rustic Begijnhof. We pay a tribute to compositions that have been forgotten with music that can easily withstand comparison with foreign contemporaries. We proudly let our own “Flemish” composers such as Hollanders, Hacquaert, Bréhy, Du Mont, De Croes and the Ghent Krafft resound. The production illustrates the musical development in the transition from baroque composing style to the more gallant style. Their music moreover reflects the characteristics we see throughout the European musical context.
In addition to the CD recording with Fischer's music realized in February 2024, the next concert is a double-choir project Alleluia! Lobet den Herren what will be performed on October 5, 2024. During the second half of the 16th century, the music scene was characterized by a search for forms of expression and instrumentation. In this programme, we look for compositional and instrumental trends, but above all the characteristics within the European musical context of that century, and how long that influence remains noticeable. Each work in itself forms a unique pearl, which, with the right context with contemporaries, acquire a connecting, explanatory function.
The main composers of the programme are Heinrich Schütz, who was mainly active in Dresden, and in the first part Joan Cererols, one of the most important composers of the Spanish Montserrat. The resulting Catalan traditions can be seen in the compositions by Lopez and Valls as well. The broader framework, from which composers got their inspiration, can be found in their generation’s teachers in Italy, such as Monteverdi and Gabrieli. We illustrate the later compositional evolution with a motet by Welter, whose work still uses the same set of instruments. Compositions that are rarely performed and that completely fit the time frame in terms of text-painting treatment and narrative instrumentation.
On September 3rd, 2022, Ensemble Gloriosus presented itself in the beautiful baroque setting of the Church of Our Lady of the Presentation of the Klein Begijnhof in Ghent.
On our You Tube channel you can relive a number of concert fragments from Fischer's vespers service, which will be released on CD in 2024 for the German label CPO, together with a compilation of the anthem O Praise the Lord with One Consent by G. F. Handel
ABOUT PATRICK DEBRABANDERE, INSPIRER OF GLORIOSUS
Patrick Debrabandere has breathed music since his childhood. He took piano and organ lessons at the Music Academy of Community Education in Ghent and gained his first choral experience at the Schola Cantorum of St Bavo's Cathedral.
He later went on to study at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven, where in 1999, he obtained the Master of Music diploma, music pedagogy qualification and in 2001, the choral conducting qualification with Erik van Nevel.
His predilection for choral music led to the foundation of the Ensemble Soratea in 1993. With this, Patrick focused on lesser-known music, to which he gave a new and fresh interpretation and which was translated into a number of CD recordings. This is an approach that would become the common thread throughout his career.
Patrick is a tenor and studied singing with Jan Caals. Until 2009 he was a vocal soloist with the ensemble Currende and the Currende Consort. From the outset, his preference was for baroque music, and with his rhetorical narrative power, he always brought an expressive interpretation of the repertoire, such as the St John and St Matthew Passion by JS Bach.
Because he believes strongly in direct communication between making and receiving sound, he looked for a space to experience chamber music to the fullest extent. With the project Kunststudio Living Art, which saw the light of day in March 2016, he brings musicians and the public closer together. It is the ideal meeting point for small-scale, intimate concerts that are also distributed on social media and via Stingray BRAVA-TV. In the MuziTaal project, Patrick, in collaboration with Jorien Saelens, makes the link between music and the Dutch language. They share the belief that language acquisition can be promoted by combining it with other stimuli, such as singing, making music and soaking up the Ghent culture. Patrick Debrabandere's most recent initiative, the founding of his baroque ensemble Gloriosus in 2022, also has its home in the inviting setting of the City of Ghent.
Finally, Patrick regularly cooperates as guest conductor with various ensembles. He is also involved in quality guidance for choirs through the Flemish Federation for Young Choirs (Koor en Stem - Ghent). He is known for his enthusiastic working atmosphere and a stylish, refreshing interpretation with attention to a balanced balance among the performers. He teaches at the Academy for Music, Word and Dance of the Community Education in Ghent, where his passion for choral singing resulted in the founding of the concert choir Vox Mago.
REVIEWS
'Patrick Debrabandere visibly gets into the music and from his feeling/experience he “models” the orchestra and the choir.
His inspiration spreads to the whole and although he (always) has his back to the audience, you feel his mimicry and his charisma in its entirety.'
Netherlands, Johan L. Rodenhuis, conductor and choir coach
'Magnifique travail vocale avec une orchestration qui élève la virtuosité de chaque interprète verse le Grand Art si propre au baroque et si exigeant ..! Merci à tous pour ce moment unique! '
Concertganger 14 augustus 2022 , Montréal
Your new ensemble sounds very good and the sacred music of Fischer is interesting indeed.
Germany, Burkhard Schmilgun, CPO, Director A & R (www.cpo.de)
'Your new ensemble sounds very good and the sacred music of Fischer is interesting indeed.'
Germany, Burkhard Schmilgun, CPO, Director A & R (www.cpo.de)
Barokmarathon met Gloriosus
'De muziek kwam intertekstueel tot leven, waardoor ook de stemmen effectief beter uit de verf kwamen […] Het publiek werd al te zeer verwend […] Zeer de moeite en voldaan van zoveel energetische kracht putten we tevredenheid uit deze muzikale triomf van de barok dicht bij ons.'
nav concert 7 oktober 2023, Kerk en Leven, Bart Alexander