Ensemble Polyharmonique - Germany

The Berlin-based Ensemble Polyharmonique, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2024, is one of the most active vocal ensembles in Germany, consistently presenting valuable rediscoveries of 17th and 18th century vocal music at a high artistic level. The basic cast consists of 6 vocal soloists a cappella or accompanied by the basso continuo and can vary depending on the programme (4-16 singers).

For the repertoire with instrumental accompaniment, such as the works by J.S. Bach, Dieterich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri, Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers or the Messiah by G.F. Händel, renowned baroque orchestras could be won as partners, among them the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, das Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Holland Baroque, Arte dei Suonatori, {oh!} Orkiestra from Katowice and the La Folia Barockorchester. 

There are already over a dozen internationally acclaimed CD recordings. Amongst others with collections of sacred vocal music by Johann David Heinichen, Wolfgang Carl Briegel, Andreas Hammerschmidt, Tobias Michael and Heinrich Schütz. 
The recording of the "Geistliche Chor-Music 1648" by Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) was awarded a Diapason d'Or in 2021.

Wolfgang Carl Briegel (1626-1712) is an important representative of German musical life in the 17th century. Trained in Nuremberg by Johann Erasmus Kindermann, among others, he worked in Gotha from 1650: first as an organist, then as court conductor and music teacher to the princely family. The Ensemble Polyharmonique is using its appearance at the GÜLDENER HERBST as an opportunity for a world premiere: Briegel's Des Königs und Propheten Davids Sieben Bußpsalmen & Bußgespräche, published in Giessen in 1692, will be performed for the first time in modern times. The vocal works, set in a ‘concertante style’, demonstrate Briegel's art of illustrating the text through music in its entirety. The concert is based on a new scholarly-critical edition of the Penitential Psalms, which will be compiled by the ensemble. Together with excerpts from his Madrigalische Trost-Gesänge, the musicians present a colourful picture of Briegel's oeuvre.

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ENSEMBLE POLYHARMONIQUE
Joowon Chung, Anna Nesyba - soprano
Alexander Schneider - alto & musical direction
Johannes Gaubitz, Christopher Renz - tenore
Tobias Ay - basso

Kinga Ujszászi, Cosimo Stawiarski - baroque violin
Martin Jantzen - violone
Matthias Spaeter - lute
Flóra Fábri - organ