Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi is an annual music festival under the artistic direction of Philippe Herreweghe in the beautiful region of the Crete Senesi in Tuscany.

In 1970, Philippe Herreweghe founded the Ghent choir Collegium Vocale Gent. They were one of the first ensembles to use new ideas about baroque performance practice in vocal music. Authenticity is the core concept on which Collegium Vocale measures the value of music.
About this historical execution practice, Bert Schreurs, general director of the company, writes

What we can do is to try to rid musical tradition of the ‘noise’ that inevitably arises in the transfer from one generation of musicians to the next, with utmost care and precision. This basic attitude is of essential importance and is embedded in the concept of authenticity. Accordingly, authenticity in its original sense of ‘made with one’s own hands’ (…).

The program for 2019 looks as promising as always. The festival opens with a lively party in Asciano. As usual, the Poggibonsi fanfare blows the Festival on its way and treats the festival with a festive glass of prosecco on the terrace of Piazza Garibaldi / Bar Hervé. Beautiful musicians provide a varied evening: Ensemble Masques, soprano Eleanor Lyons and pianist Stanislav Solovev, the ensemble Mala Punica led by Pedro Memelsdorff and Philippe Thuriot as a closing.

There are also famous musicians as pianist Nelson Goerner, cellist Andreas Brantelid and lead singer Christoph Prégardien. Members of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam play a chamber music concert on Monday and Friday, respectively. The Edding Quartet will play an intimate late-night concert on Wednesday evening, and accordionist Philippe Thuriot will end the day with a free improvisation concert on the outdoor stage at Bar Hervé on Monday and Thursday evening.

In 2019 the Collegium Vocale Gent guarantees two refined evenings full of music and poetry. On 30 July, the magnificent O Primavera by Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) is on the program. The soloists of Collegium Vocale Gent conclude the festival on Friday evening, August 2 at the Monasterio Sant'Anna in Camprena with the Psalms Davids by Heinrich Schütz.

Read the full program here on the website of the Music Festival Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi.
You can also order tickets or a subscription.

Stefan Hertmans wrote very beautifully about authenticity for the occasion of Philippe Herreweghe’s 70th birthday in his text Omzichtige Radicaliteit (Prudent Radicalness’):

‘what is authentic is the attention to detail in the score, to understand what is on the page – not so much all the vague idealistic notions about what the intention can be, but what is concretely expected of the performer from measure to measure. Of course, this also assumes context – cultural context, historical context, an understanding of the framework in which a given musical idea developed – but its core remains an ascetic interest in the concrete, or even more so: an interest that refuses to appropriate the historicizing intentions of the music …. It assumes subservience and sovereignty in one.'[2]

Collegium Vocale Ghent

 

Collegium Vocale Gent, choir and orchestra, 1 februari 2015 [1]

The soloists of Collegium Vocale Gent conclude the 2019 festival on Friday evening, August 2 at the Monasterio Sant'Anna in Camprena with the Psalms Davids by Heinrich Schütz. Another special event is the performance of Heinrich Schütz’s O primavera, gioventù de l'anno (Italienische Madrigale) by Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe Herreweghe on Tuesday, in the marvelous setting of the Sant’Anna in Camprena monastery. Look for the beautiful frescos by Giovanni Antonio Bazzi (Il Sodoma) in its Refectory.

Before each evening concert, a free drink is offered in the square at the entrance of each concert venue. After each evening concert you can subscribe to a dinner. 

Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi is an organization of Collegium Vocale Gent.