Visions of Hildegard von Bingen

September 16, 19:00 | St. Francis of Assisi (Bernardine) Roman Catholic Church

Original medieval music and improvisations

Ensemble Mandel (Austria, Hungary)

• Judit Andrejszki – voice, clavisimbalum
• Andrea Molnar – flutes
• Zsolt Szabó – vielle
• Robert Mandel – organistrum and direction
• Zsolt Kaltenecker – synthesizers

Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179) was one of the most influential women of her time. At the age of only fourteen, she entered the Disibodenberg monastery, where she would later become the prioress. In 1150, she founded her own convent in Rupertsberg near Bingen. Her intelligence, knowledge and many talents enabled her to excel in many areas. She wrote on medicine, science and religion, and corresponded with important political and spiritual leaders of her time, including popes and emperors. She recorded her visions in the book Scivias and collected her texts on natural sciences and medicine between 1150 and 1160 in Physica and Causa et cure. Her beautiful music can be found in two books, the Riesencodex that is kept in Wiesbaden and a manuscript in possession of Dendermonde Abbey.

The Ensemble Mandel aims to introduce and compare diverse periods of music history and musical instruments, juxtaposing analogue modular synthesizers with unique and rarely heard medieval instruments, such as the clavisimbalum, organistrum, viéle, and the fidel. It performs original works, as well as works specifically composed for the ensemble that mix contemporary music with old and new musical elements that enhance each other in order to create a new musical “sound direction”.

Free admission

Concert is sponsored by the Embassy of Hungary in Lithuania