the violinist Amandine Beyer and her ensemble at the opening of the festival upset the public with Corelli, Handel and Vivaldi

Again. The Gli Incogniti ensemble, led by the fiery violinist and conductor Amandine Beyer, made an impression by closing the festival last year, during its first visit to Ambronay. This Friday, September 15, he opened the 44th edition of the famous baroque and early music festival, to a standing ovation from the public. It must be said that everything was there: the brilliance, the vivacity, the raw talent of the musician of Aix origin – since settled in Spain – and an intriguing program, associating Handel and Corelli with Vivaldi, universes and composers for the less different.

“It’s good for the ears and the soul”

At the request of the festival, Vivaldi was added to the initial program entitled The Bread of Life : “Corelli and Handel are the quintessence of the repertoire for string orchestra, which nourishes our musical practice, our daily bread”Amandine Beyer explains to us a few hours before the concert. “It’s fascinating how this repertoire remains foundational. Especially Corelli”, she gets animated. “He invented 80% of the harmonies and the way of playing! He is one of those composers like Couperin who are important for the musicians themselves but remain less mainstream than others. When we play Corelli, it feels amazing good for the instrument, for the instrumentalist, it’s good for the ears and the soul!”

And it is with Corelli that the evening begins, the first of the “Concertos da chiesa” (church concertos), from the famous opus 6. The principle of these concertos so typical of Italian baroque? The soloists, here Amandine Beyer, another violinist and a cellist, dialogue with the “ripieno”, the rest of the orchestra, in a permanent game of questions and answers. The charm works little by little. But it is with Vivaldi and his Violin Concerto in E minor RV 278 that the Ambronay audience is immediately carried away by the breath of Amandine Beyer. The “Allegro molto” is energetic, exuberant, a dazzlingness that the violinist’s bow masters wonderfully, joined by a tutti (the orchestra of Incogniti, remarkable) of great force. And what about the poignant “Largo”, admirably carried by the basso continuo?

musical chiaroscuro

Shortly after, Handel did no less than Vivaldi to an already very heated audience. The violinist had warned us before the concert: Handel, who was inspired by Corelli, brought the theatrical side that his elder brother did not have: “He still has this knowledge of Italian violinism, which he captures with a way of spatializing the music and perhaps even the feelings, which gives his music a more dramatic dimension.” Her Concerto grosso in A major is overwhelming. The “Andante larghetto e staccato” is majestic, the perfect playground for a dialogue between the soloists – here Amandine Beyer and Vadym Makarenko – and the tutti of great finesse.

But Corelli has not said his last word. The secret weapon of his church concertos: his very brief movements alternating in just a few seconds, sometimes opposing atmospheres – and therefore feelings, from virtuoso allegros to profound adagios, a bit like Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro . So for example the Concerto for the notes of Natale (for Christmas Eve), the most famous of opus 6, follows an extremely fast “Allegro”, a poignant, sometimes solemn “Pastorale”, ending on a very moving pianissimo. And very applauded.

Or the Concerto No. 3 where time seems to stand still during the disturbingly beautiful “Largo” before suddenly giving way to the “Allegro”. Finally, the last church concerto given, No. 4 in D minor, offers an almost disturbing “Adagio” which upsets the audience, followed by a “Vivace” carried admirably by Amandine Beyer and Katia Viel, a symbol of lightness and carelessness.

Inhabited by music

The violinist impresses with her ease as much as with her appearance and bearing, inhabited as she is by music. His body is constantly in motion and displays an infectious joy. “It is often said that baroque music is a music of affects, of passions, and you have to move to feel”she explained to us. “My baroque training went through that and made me emphasize what makes music touch us, what makes it expressive.” The Ambronay Festival definitively adopted the violinist and her ensemble, receiving a standing ovation at the end of the concert. And the number of spectators encountered at the exit signifies the rarity of such a performance.

Often verbose during her concerts, Amandine Beyer decided this Friday evening to only let the music speak. However, in the middle of the show, between two pieces, she says she had a “flashback”, playing Corelli here. “It was thirty years ago”, she remembers. “I was driving towards Basel to follow the Schola Cantorum where I had been selected to follow Chiara Bianchini’s baroque violin lessons, when I heard her on the radio in a concert broadcast from the Ambronay Festival with her Ensemble 415. I said to myself: but how beautiful it is, I would love to get close to that! Here I am with you today and I dedicate this concert to him.”

Amandine Beyer and the Gli Incogniti ensemble have just published “Mystery Sonatas” by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber at Harmonia Mundi