Phaedrus Ensemble

Music history is generally navigated and recorded as a succession of styles, composers and musicians. However, it is also important to recognise the crucial role of patrons in the creation of works of art, compositions and manuscripts that have made it to the list of absolute masterpieces today.

One of the most important patrons of the 16th century was Margaret of Austria, daughter of Maximilian I of Habsburg and governess of the Low Countries from 1506 until her death in 1530. Her library testifies to a broad interest and passion for art, literature and music, as well as a special feeling for aesthetics.

Her collection, which she kept in her palace in Mechelen, included several beautiful choir and songbooks containing Franco-Flemish polyphony. Her inventory also mentions a special title: Item, ung aultre, couvert de cuyr, qui se somme le traité du diamant et de la marguerite. Today, the content of this lost old treatise is anyone's guess. However, Ensemble Phaedrus takes up this telling title as a reflection of the music that resounded at the Habsburg-Burgundian court.

With music by anonymous composers and celebrated polyphonists like Agricola, Ockeghem and Josquin from the Augsburger Liederbuch and her renowned basse danse manuscript, the Phaedrus Ensemble creates a soundtrack of Margaretha's love of music and illuminates the early repertoires of the Renaissance transverse flute consort.

Music by Alexander Agricola, Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin des Prez and others.