L'Achéron

Improvisation is a pillar of music, it has always been one of the main foundations of musical expression: Bach, Haydn, Chopin, Brahms, etc. The list of illustrious musicians who were great improvisers is long, and when we look at the Renaissance and Baroque repertoires, it becomes infinite. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, improvisation was everywhere, it was the natural essence of musical language, we improvise like we prose.

Improvisation is thus a parallel repertoire that flourishes during this period, standards appear, tunes and basses become so well known that they are played all over Europe. L'Achéron proposes to stage a "baroque big band", a team of musicians representative of the dawn of the 17th century, meeting to improvise on these standards and grounds on which so many composers have written famous works then as now. Even while respecting the stylistic codes of this music, the parallels with jazz are obvious: the musicians have choruses, they dialogue, accomplices, or provoke each other, creating an instantaneous rhetoric. The idea of the concert then takes on a whole new aspect: each performance becomes unique and the present more and more ephemeral...

5 musicians 
Maïlys de Villoutreys, soprano 
Recorder, viola da gamba, harp & lute

8 musicians
Chantal Santon-Jeffery, soprano 
Cornet à bouquin, recorder, 2 violas da gamba, harp, harpsichord & percussions

13 musicians
Chantal Santon-Jeffery, soprano 
Cornet à bouquin, recorder, trombone, bassoon, violin, 2 violas da gamba, harp, archlute, organ, harpsichord & percussion