O Sidera - les chants des sybilles

"A female version of the prophet, the figure of the Sybil inspired Roland de
Lassus to write a collection of songs of striking depth and sensitivity.


Based on enigmatic texts announcing the coming of the Saviour, the
composer shows himself to be just as prophetic in his writing, whose originality and strange character fascinated his first listeners, first and foremost Duke Albert V of Bavaria. The latter became fascinated
with this music, which he had published in the form of richly decorated manuscripts
and with its composer, whose services he immediately engaged, keeping him at his side
for many years.
Many mysteries still remain as to the date and place of composition of these
pages, which were probably written around 1555. The female oracles
of antiquity fascinated Renaissance artists at the time. While
Michelangelo celebrated the sybils in his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel,
Roland de Lassus chose twelve of these prophetesses whose verses had been
collected between the second century BC and the seventh century of
. Ten years earlier, a Latin translation of this collection had appeared in Basel
entitled Oracula Sibyllina.
The Irini ensemble offers us a dreamy and bewitching interpretation of these
songs, set against liturgical pieces from Constantinople. This
O Sidera programme is perfectly in line with the approach of this
vocal ensemble, founded in 2015 by Lila Hajosi, which is committed to "creating links that liberate"
between the European and Byzantine repertoires, between the Middle Ages and creation.
Here he invites us to take the paths of dreams and look up to the heavens.
"There is a deep link between humanity, its journey, and what the sky offers to
its gaze in the primordial night where all the questions, all the chasms,
the vertigo melt in a twist of the neck upwards" says Lila
Hajosi. 

Florence Petros