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Pedrini's Journey to China

18th Century Chinese Music and Pedrini's Compositions

By accompanying the tribulations of a Lazarist in China, the Menus-Plaisirs du Roy, conducted by Jean-Luc Impe, and the soprano Wu Ye invite us on an extraordinary musical journey. Teodorico Pedrini, admitted to the Congregation of the Mission in 1698, had been sent by the Pope to the Middle Kingdom in 1701… only to arrive, exhausted, at his destination ten years later! Storms, shipwrecks, pirates, illnesses… nothing was spared him. When he finally arrived in China, he was received very quickly by the emperor who charged him with the maintenance of the harpsichords and the construction of new instruments for the palace. He nevertheless found the time and resources to compose, in addition to his activities at Court, a collection of sonatas, the manuscript of which is still preserved to this day in the Beijing library. The music offered by the Menus-Plaisirs du Roy will give pride of place to Pedrini's compositions as well as to Chinese entertainments copied by another missionary working in the East: Joseph-Marie Amiot. This testimony of a musical practice of Chinese airs of the 18th century was communicated to us by the musicologist François Picard who generously entrusted us with the scores and guided us in the interpretation of the latter. A very old magic lantern, ancestor of the slide projector, will enhance the concert with its presence and will allow to accompany, we hope, the pleasure of the ear with that of the eyes.

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With the exceptional participation of Chinese soprano Wu Ye

Wu Ye: soprano

Catherine Daron: traverso and Chinese flute "Dizi"

Piet Van Steenbergen: viola da gamba

Luc Vanvaerenbergh: harpsichord

Jean-Luc Impe: lute and theorbo

Anaëlle Impe and Ysandrelle Impe: magic lantern

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