Our vision

Musica Poetica 2015(To download high res photos click on photo.)

„Musica Poetica is that discipline of music which teaches how to compose a musical composition […] in order to sway the hearts and spirits of individuals into various dispositions.“ (Joachim Burmeister, 1606).

The ‘Early Music’ or ‘Historical Performance Practice’ movement strives for a historically appropriate style of performance on the basis of surviving scores, treatises, instruments and other contemporary evidence. While, to begin with, it mainly concentrated on performing repertoire from Renaissance and Baroque, today the movement has spread to include Classical and Romantic repertoires. Although, initially, the movement was small and clearly distinct from the conventional classical music scene, some early-music conventions have been widely accepted and absorbed by the mainstream classical music market during the last two decades. However, in the same process musicians have lost interest in research and experiment and formed a mainstream of historically informed performance practice, which heavily relies on established clichés of ‘historical’ practices.

The ensemble Musica Poetica swims against this tide and strives to renew the radicalism of the movement’s first decades.

Boysen is convinced that the best possible understanding of the music from this time and its different styles, as well as a high technical standard of playing, will lead to convincing and stirring performances. Thus, he combines results from his own research and experiments with interesting repertoire and a distinct musicality.
Audience response during and after live performances, and the number of very positive reviews of Musica Poetica’s work seem to confirm Boysen’s belief that critical research of historical sources, analysis of the works and adequate rehearsal periods are not simply boring theory exercises, but rather help to communicate with the audience.

The group is composed of musicians from all over the world who specialise in Early Music, having completed their studies in the conservatories of the Netherlands. They share an interest in performing music from the 17th and 18th centuries from an historically informed perspective, using instruments from that period and informed by historical sources. The size of the group is flexible and depends on the chosen programme. It performes as a chamber group as well as an orchestra including choir.

In 2015, Musica Poetica started her own concert series at the Koninklijke Schouwburg (Royal Theatre) in Den Haag. This series was so successful that the musicians were invited to continue the series in season 16-17 with a twofold amount of performances.

The group’s performance schedule so far has included concerts and live radio broadcasts in Germany, France, Spain, Czech Republic and the Netherlands. Musica Poetica performs regularly in festivals and concerts around Europe such as the Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Festival Mitte Europa, International Buxtehude Festival Lübeck, Itinéraire Baroque and the Holland Festival Oude Muziek.
The group also appeared in theater productions of the O.T. Opera Rotterdam (Orfeo Intermezzi, 2005), the Utrechtse Spelen (Molière’s/Charpentier’s Imaginary Invalid, 2009 and 2011) and Opéra Mosset in France.

Musica Poetica has recorded several CDs with music from the Düben Collection, works by Christian Flor and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.

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Musica Poetica