The vocal ensemble Intrada was founded in 2006 on the initiative of Yekaterina Antonenko, who became its Music Director. The ensemble specialises in performing early music and appears with such conductors as Vladimir Jurowski, Alexei Utkin, Alexander Rudin, Christopher Moulds, Peter Phillips, Federico Maria Sardelli, Peter Neumann and Frieder Bernius. In September 2015 the ensemble represented Russia at an arts festival in Dresden. The ensemble has also taken part in Moscow’s Christmas Festival, the festivals December Evenings of Sviatoslav Richter, Early Music, Ambassadors’ Gifts and The Return.
The ensemble Intrada regularly collaborates with leading Russian orchestras. Together with the State Academic Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra of Russia under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski the musicians have performed highlights from Purcell’s opera The Fairy Queen and Mendelssohn’s incidental music for the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while together with the Russian National Orchestra it has performed Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Mozart’s Requiem.
The ensemble has also participated in a concert performance of Handel’s opera Hercules together with Ann Hallenberg and Lucy Crowe (conducted by Christopher Moulds, 2013), the 1771 Paris version of Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice together with Colin Lee and Deborah York (conducted by William Lacey, 2014) and Handel’s opera Alcina together with Inga Kalna, Vivica Genaux, Patricia Bardon and Benjamin Hulett (conducted by Federico Maria Sardelli, 2015).
During the exchange year of culture of Great Britain and Russia the Intrada ensemble and Peter Phillips launched the Festival in Memory of John Tavener. The festival concerts took place in September 2014 at the Rachmaninoff and Great Halls of the Moscow Conservatoire together with the ensemble Tallis Scholars and soprano Julia Lezhneva. In June 2015 the ensemble performed every motet by Bach under the baton of Frieder Bernius at the Rachmaninoff Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire.
The ensemble Intrada has also presented the Russian premieres of the works So You Want to Write a Fugue by Glenn Gould, Four2 by John Cage, Lied by Andrei Volkonsky and the Russian premiere of David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion.
Recordings of concerts by the Intrada ensemble have been broadcast by Kultura TV, Radio Russia, Orpheus, Svoboda Radio, Moscow Talking and Voice of Russia.
Founded in 1998, Le Poème Harmonique is a music ensemble directed by Vincent Dumestre. Specialising in the music of the 17th and early 18th centuries, right from its earliest days it has been renowned for its team work and involvement with other artistic disciplines.
Actors, dancers, acrobats and puppeteers have performed alongside singers and musicians in its acclaimed productions of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Lully and Molière; Stage Director: Benjamin Lazar), Le Carnaval baroque (Stage Director: Cécile Roussat) and To Be or not to Be (Stage Director: Vincent Huguet). Le Poème Harmonique revolutionised approaches to baroque opera aesthetics in Cadmus et Hermione by Lully and Egisto by Cavalli (Stage Director: Benjamin Lazar), while also keeping its fingers on the contemporary scene, as revealed by the success of Dido and Aeneas (Stage Directors: Cécile Roussat and Julien Lubek). In 2018, its 20th anniversary year, the ensemble will return to Lully for a new production at the Perm Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Russia.
Its recordings of popular and little-known repertoires, including the Aux Marches du palais albums devoted to traditional French songs and Nova Metamorfosi, have reached a wide audience. However, its performances of major works from the baroque repertoire, such as Monteverdi’s madrigals and the Leçons de ténèbres by Couperin, have also set a standard in musical excellence. Le Poème Harmonique increasingly performs as an orchestra in programmes with large choral sections. In 2017 it will release the album Son of England, bringing together the Odes of Purcell and Jeremiah Clarke and a recording of Michel-Richard de Lalande’s Grands Motets at the Chapelle Royale in the Château de Versailles.
On its tour of the USA, Canada, Mexico, China and Japan, Le Poème Harmonique will soon perform at some of the world’s leading concert halls. The ensemble has already appeared at such prestigious venues as the Philharmonie de Paris, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Opéra-Comique and the Opéra Royal de Versailles, at festivals in Beaune, Ambronay and Sablé, at Wigmore Hall in London, the Forbidden City Hall in Beijing, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Oji Hall (Tokyo), Columbia University in New York, the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome and the St Petersburg Philharmonic as well as at the BBC Proms.
Le Poème Harmonique records exclusively on the Alpha label and has received top press awards in France, including the Diapason d’or de l’année, the Choc de Classica, ffff de Télérama and the Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros, in addition to international prizes including the Prelude Classical Award, the Caecilia Press Award and the Cini Foundation Award.
Based in Normandy, Le Poème Harmonique enjoys close ties with its region, where it performs throughout the year. In residence at the Opéra de Rouen, since February 2016 it has also run Baroque Seasons, a series of concerts and cultural events directed by Vincent Dumestre at the Chapelle Corneille.
