Bel Ayre speaks directly to the heart

(© Tom Roelofs)

Lute, baroque guitar, theorbo, viola da gamba, and a svelte mezzo-soprano: you won’t find any more refined sounds to wake up to next Sunday morning, when the young Belgian ensemble Bel Ayre will perform Italian Renaissance and baroque music. Bozarsundays is laying on breakfast and childcare.

So how did this brand new ensemble come to find itself onstage at the prestigious Centre for Fine Arts? “I got to know my colleagues in Bel Ayre at a whole series of early-music courses for young musicians,” recalls Pieter Theuns. “Two years ago we set up our ensemble. With our first programme, of English baroque music, we appeared on a sort of open stage for young groups during the Early Music Festival in Utrecht. By chance, we caught the eye of a man from the Venetian Centre for Baroque Music. We were invited to Venice and after that one thing led to another.”

Does the name of your ensemble say something about the repertoire you play?
Pieter Theuns: Both for ourselves and for our listeners, we seek out music that speaks directly to the heart. The Italian baroque music we will be playing in the Centre for Fine arts is an ideal example of that. Most of the songs are about love and the whole range of feelings that go with it.

So the subject of your concert is extremely topical. But does that early music still speak to people today?
Theuns: In terms of mood, those songs are surprisingly close to what singer-songwriters are doing today. The early baroque repertoire for solo voice and accompanying instruments was extraordinarily innovative at the start of the 17^th century; but even today it still feels fresh. Moreover, we perform this music in a way that we think works for twenty-first century people. All three of us have been through a solid conservatory training, but our emotions and our intuition are at least as important as our qualifications. Of course we follow what’s in the score, but we also allow ourselves the freedom we need.

What kind of freedom?
Theuns: A great many of the songs are made up of different strophes. Even though it’s not there in the score, we know that in practice the performers made sure that there was some variation. So sometimes, in a particular song, we have the viola da gamba, which is normally played with a bow, picked for an entire strophe. That soon gives you a jazzy result. I wouldn’t dare to claim that that was done in the past too, but it certainly works for us.

Are the old instruments that you play not too quiet for the big Henry Le Boeuf Hall?
Theuns: When I go to hear a recital by a lutenist or a guitarist in a large concert hall, I too sometimes find myself thinking at the start of the concert, “Have I paid €30 in order to be hardly able to hear anything?” But then I realise that my ears always adjust very quickly. Our baroque instruments might sound quiet, but once listeners adapt, they can hear a whole array of subtle, warm, and rich tones. Things don’t always have to be loud, surely?

BOZARSUNDAYS: BEL AYRE • 13/1, 11.00 (breakfast: 10.00), €11, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten/Palais des Beaux-Arts, rue Ravensteinstraat 23, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-507.82.00, www.bozar.be