At the end of the year Saint Louis (2014), a concert at the Poissy theater celebrated the 25th anniversary of the three ensembles (about twenty artists on stage) gathered for the occasion.
This program, set in space, offers all the diversity of the vocal and instrumental colors, sacred, secular or popular, of Paris of the 13th century. During the reign of Louis IX the city indeed confirms its place as a true European cultural capital around the construction of Notre-Dame Cathedral, begun at the end of the previous century and still under construction, and the influence of its University, under the impulse of Robert de Sorbon.
The great musical forms of the time are represented, circulating between the spaces of the church, the palace, or in the street: motets, organums, songs, rondeaux, conduits, estampies and royal dances.
The solo voices and the vocal ensemble are in the company of the "low" instruments (soft): fiddles, recorders, lutes, harp, bells, horn, chalemie; or "high" instruments (strong): bombarde, trumpets, chalemies, percussion, bagpipes ...
The Alla francesca Discantus and Alta ensembles have each started in the second half of 1989. Some concerts in the early 90's preceded the first recordings of Opus 111: Landini (Alla francesca, 1992), Codex Las Huelgas (Discantus, 1993), Johannes Ciconia (Alla francesca & Alta, 1993), all awarded by the press.
Direction and conception: Brigitte Lesne, Pierre Boragno, Pierre Hamon
Staging: Alain Carré