When one turns back Father Time in search of ancestral links between Europe and the New World, several key figures emerge. Does anyone still remember that a prince of the Kingdom of Portugal was born in 1394, destined to be nicknamed ‘Henry the Navigator’ twenty years later? This was the auspicious beginning of the Portuguese colonial empire’s golden age: Vasco da Gama reached India via the Cape of Good Hope in 1498, and in 1500 Pedro Alvarez Cabral landed on the beaches of what we now call Brazil. But Henry the Navigator did not witness these discoveries during his lifetime.
Six hundred years later, in 1994, the precocious young Brazilian harpsichordist Bruno Procopio arrived in France to refine his instrumental skills, continuing an apprenticeship begun in Rio de Janeiro. His youth was steeped in the distinctive repertoire that we now call colonial Brazilian music.
Make no mistake: the term ‘colonial’ in this context does not infer that the music of colonial Brazil was but a picturesque derivative of the great European canon. Although there was an initial frenetic rush to appropriate the vast gold reserves and precious timber of the new colony, a multifaceted and complex cultural exchange quickly ensued. The proliferation of Portuguese Baroque architecture in the churches of Minas Gerais (a state the size of France) is among the most striking monuments to this unique cultural fusion. In the eighteenth century an opus of sacred music emerged that complemented the architectural splendour of the region. This oeuvre was the singular heir to the masters of Lisbon.
In order to bear witness to these musical riches, Bruno Procopio founded the “Solistes du Palais Royal” in 2004 with the support of several distinguished Brazilian musicologists. Besides its privileged relationship with the colonial style, the ensemble is also fluent in the European music of the same period. The ensemble crafts its programmes: it juxtaposes European composers who contributed to the plurality of the Portuguese court music with their offspring from the New World.
Today, the Sans-Pareil, a flagship dreamed up by Louis XV that never saw the light of day, is reincarnated. A musical ship casts off its moorings and sets sail from the Palais Royal in Paris towards the open sea. In a distant homage to Dom Henrique, Bruno Procopio leads his Musiciens Navigateurs as they set their coordinates for Brazil. Their bags are packed with a wealth of musical experience and they are eager to encounter the musical treasures waiting on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Henry the Navigator wishes them smooth sails.
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