Le Combat des Chef.fes

Two instruments from different families went head-to-head in the 17th century: the cornet, a wind instrument, and the violin, a string instrument. The violin came out on top, but let's take a look back to the 1660s...

Faustocopi, a Venetian composer at the height of his powers, was accused by a violinist of saying that the cornet "surpassed all other instruments", and by a cornetist of saying that the violin was "an instrument without equal". Whom to believe? It would seem simple to ask the maestro himself, but alas, he has been plunged into complete aphasia ever since a tenor struck him in the occiput with a candlestick...

Based on countless archive documents and sonatas from that dazzling period, this show brings to life a controversy where the sublime rubs shoulders with the petty. Love, virtuosity, rivalry: cornet à bouquin versus violin, the story finally revealed!

writing and narration Vincent Bouchot, cornet à bouquin Judith Pacquier, baroque violin Alice Julien-Laferrière, harpsichord & organ Laurent Stewart, cello & viola da gamba Maguelonne Carnus