Adriano 4 Dionysos Now

• Adriaen Willaert (1490 - 1562): Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem:
• 1 Willaert: Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem 49:29
• Ecce lignum crucis - Crux fidelis:
• 2 Willaert: Ecce lignum crucis - Crux fidelis 05:38
• Tristis est anima mea:
• 3 Willaert: Tristis est anima mea 03:25
• Infelix ego:
• 4 Willaert: Infelix ego 06:44
• Flete oculi:
• 5 Willaert: Flete oculi 04:11
• Dulces exuviae:
• 6 Willaert: Dulces exuviae 03:49
• Da pacem Domine:
• 7 Willaert: Da pacem Domine 02:23
• Total Runtime 01:15:39

Info for Adriano 4

"It’s a great pleasure and honour for me to invite you into a journey in the live and work of Adriaen Willaert (1490–1562), the great master of Flemish polyphony from Rumbeke near Roeselare.

Willaert was maestro di cappella of the San Marco Basilica in Venice for 35 years until his death and was known as the best composer and pedagogue of his time. His music quickly spread beyond Italy — thanks in part to advances in printing technology — and was performed at many of Europe’s grandest courts and cathedrals, even at the Vatican. At the same time, numerous composers were coming in the opposite direction from places like Flanders, France, and Germany into Italy to study with ‘Maestro Adriano’ in ‘La Serenissima’ or to become acquainted with his new compositional techniques.

It has been more than 500 years since Willaert’s music could be heard every day somewhere in Europe in a church or chapel. For centuries, it has been (too) silent around the beautifully decorated choirbooks where his masses and motets occupy an eminent place and the printed partbooks that bear witness to the most beautiful madrigals and chansons of that time.

With my new ensemble Dionysos Now!, I want to literally take Adriaen Willaert’s music out of Europe’s libraries and let it sound again.

With Dionysos Now!, I wish to show that Renaissance vocal polyphony is wonderfully captivating music that deserves to be heard by a wider audience. We want to build cathedrals out of sounds, letting you experience the music as though you were flying far above those cathedrals with a drone. The individual bricks are all there, but they seem to merge together with the whole, into the gestalt: the radiant music generates much more effervescent energy than the sum of its tones, and the music's contagious flow is sought and captured, like a surfer who seems to have found the perfect wave and seizes his chance to ride it before it again ebbs away...

It is my uttermost pleasure to combine music from the renaissance with contemporary art as in the work of Honoré d’O for the first album and by the famous Belgian painter Leon Spilliaert for the second album. Ancient music but contemporary performances.

Dionysos Now
Tore Tom Denys, tenor

Dionysos Now
I would like to show you that vocal polyphony of the Renaissance is very captivating music, and deserves to be heard by a wider audience.

Dionysos Now! wants to create cathedrals from sounds, in which you perceive the music as if you were flattering the cathedrals with a drone from far above. The brick stones are overall but they seem to merge into the whole, into the 'gestalt', where the radiant music generates much more effervescent energy than the sum of the tones, the contagious flow in the music is sought and captured, like a surfer who seems to have found the perfect wave and seizes his chance to float on it before it goes away again.

With the wise words of Winston Churchill in mind "Never waste a good crisis", I started studying the scores of my fellow townsman Adriaen Willaert during the lockdown and so I rediscovered the wonderful music of this Venetian chapel master over the past few months. A new initiative was born: Dionysos Now! Vienna is a brand new project that aims to spread the magnificent heritage of Adriaen Willaert. With Dionysos Now!, I would like to demonstrate that Renaissance vocal polyphony is very captivating music that deserves to be appreciated by a wider audience.

Tore Tom Denys, founder Dionysos Now! Vienna

Anyone who reads the name Dionysos Now! correctly will discover the reference to Denys: Tore Tom Denys is the founder and artistic director of the ensemble.

Dionysos Now! is also in Greek mythology the growth force of the earth and human civilisation, zeal and enthusiasm, god of wine (construction) and fruit growing, poetry, theatre and music. As god of peace he brings people together and as victor over death he is god of the underworld. In various ways he had an important influence on the life, thought and work of the Greeks and Romans.

An ideal figurehead, therefore, from a great recognition for Willaert's work, to want to share this oeuvre with a large audience in the most diverse forms with great enthusiasm. It is Tore Tom Denys' ambition to map out the work of his "fellow townsman" by means of concerts and original CD recordings and to give him the fame he deserves.

The ensemble works and rehearses from Vienna but has an international base and unites top soloists in polyphony. Tore Tom Denys has his own clear vision on how he wants to perform Willaert's oeuvre with care for the original manuscripts and scores.

Ensemble Dionysos Now! is a flexible project in which the basis consists of 6 voices which, depending on the programme, can be extended to polyphonic or supplemented with an instrumental ensemble. To this end, a permanent collaboration will be set up with various internationally renowned ensembles.

Tore Tom Denys
has worked and lived in Vienna for over 20 years but was born and raised in Roeselare.

Tenor Tore Tom Denys joined the vocal core of the Capilla Flamenca in 2006. He studied trumpet at the Conservatory of Antwerp and could be heard worldwide as a concert and solo trumpet player. From 1994 to 1998, as a member of the 'World Youth Choir', he visited all continents, where his interest in early music and the art of singing grew steadily and he changed the trumpet for singing. He was a member of the vocal ensemble Currende with whom he recorded several CD's and was co-founder of the Goeyvaerts Consort. etc...

In 1998 Tore Tom Denys moved to Vienna and studied singing at the "Konservatorium der Stadt Wien". He was admitted to the "Arnold Schönberg Chor" (conducted by Erwin Ortner) and went on various tours as a soloist with this choir. Since 1999 he has been a member of the choir of the Vienna State Opera and has performed with it at the "Salzburger Festspiele" in productions by L. Maazel, R. Muti, Gjergiev W. Sawallisch. Besides his performances at various festivals in Austria and abroad, he is a permanent soloist with the ensembles "Nova", "Armonico Tributo Austria", "Cinquecento" and "Clemencic Consort". He is also founder and singer of the ensemble "Vivante", an ensemble for early music, which mainly performs music from the Italian Early Baroque and Ensemble Dionysos Now!, with a focus on polyphony. He is also a much sought-after soloist by Philippe Herreweghe with Collegium Vocale Gent for the specific polyphony music.

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