The Breathtaking Collective emerged from a project in which the cornettist Bruce Dickey, together with the Czech soprano Hana Blažíková and a couple of other instrumentalists (violin, viola da gamba/violone, theorbo, organ/harpsichord), celebrated in 2014 the sonic affinity between the cornetto and the human voice.
This programme bore the title Breathtaking: A Voice and a Cornetto Entwined — and the captivating interplay between Hana’s crystal-clear, effortlessly agile voice and the radiant brilliance of Bruce Dickey’s cornetto was honored with such enthusiastic acclaim from audiences and critics alike that the musicians continued to develop the concept in several further programmes, toured internationally for years, and recorded a number of CDs with the Belgian label Passacaille.
In the course of this remarkable success, the title of the programme was also transferred to the ensemble itself, and The Breathtaking Collective became an established group with a flexible instrumentation — typically comprising four to nine musicians depending on the programme — gathered around the two principal protagonists, Bruce and Hana. In this respect, it differs from the consistently soloistic chamber ensemble formation of Bruce’s other ensemble, Suspirium (formerly: Concerto Palatino).
Bruce Dickey is a musician and scholar who has devoted himself to the revival of the cornetto since 1975. For forty years, until 2017, he taught cornetto and seventeenth-century performance practice at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He is the founder and artistic director of the ensemble Suspirium (formerly Concerto Palatino). As a performer, he has produced numerous seminal recordings, both as a soloist and with his ensemble, and over the decades has collaborated regularly with most of the leading figures in early music.
Hana Blažíková was born in Prague. As a child, she sang in the children’s choir Radost Praha and played the violin. She later turned to solo singing and graduated from the Prague Conservatory in 2002. Today, she is regarded as one of the foremost specialists in the interpretation of Baroque, Renaissance, and medieval music, performing with ensembles and orchestras worldwide, including Tiburtina, Cappella Mariana Prague, Collegium Vocale Gent, Bach Collegium Japan, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, L’Arpeggiata, Gli Angeli Genève, La Fenice, Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Tafelmusik, Collegium 1704, Collegium Marianum, Musica Florea, and many others.
SONUS über The Breathtaking Collective:
The Breathtaking Collective is unique — not because there are no other ensembles featuring cornett and soprano (although such groups are indeed quite rare), but because Hana and Bruce each bring an extraordinary and distinctive sound: bright and radiant, yet at the same time warm and rounded; slender, yet endowed with power and projection; remarkably agile, with a flawless technique that permits the highest virtuosity, the most delicate pianissimi, and beautifully sustained, resonant long tones. To this is added their strikingly similar approach to music-making.
Taken together, these qualities render the ensemble’s performances and recordings into truly exceptional experiences …: It can only be described as a stroke of great fortune that their musical paths once converged!
In keeping with this fascinating sonority and technical versatility, the other musicians of the group are likewise selected, and together they pursue a finely balanced musical line that results in performances in which all play and sing in a shared spirit, complement one another perfectly, communicate, and engage in musical dialogue.
Hörproben
Maurizio Cazzati: Regina coeli
Giovanni Carissimi: Summi regis puerpera
Alessandro Scarlatti: Coronata di Laura
Tarquinio Merula: Nigra sum
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Angelus Domini Descendit De Caelo
Visit The Breathtaking Collective also on our YouTube channel!
