Laus Polyphoniae 2026
Voices of Europe circa 1600: continent of counterpoint
Antwerp
21 – 29 August 2026
Laus Polyphoniae is the annual summer festival organised by AMUZ (Flanders Festival Antwerp), dedicated to the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Since its inception in 1994, the festival has become the largest festival dedicated to the western heritage of polyphony following a focus on Historically Informed Performance (HIP). Following last year’s festival devoted to “Polyphony from the age of cathedral builders (1140-1440)”, this year the focus was on music of the decades around 1600 with Voices of Europe circa 1600: continent of counterpoint reflecting a period when music was at a defining moment of change as the polyphony of Palestrina gave way to the early Baroque gestures of Monteverdi. Music that would later be called Renaissance or Baroque existed in parallel, as demonstrated by the festival’s portrait of this many-voiced Europe as music printing opened the transmission of new ideas, as composers and scores migrated. Laus Polyphoniae also focuses on young up-and-coming talent through the International Young Artist’s Presentation (IYAP), reviewed here, held on the first Saturday of the Festival.
One of the key events of the London Festival of Baroque Music was final concert of the current incarnation of the European Union Baroque Orchestra, and orchestra I have been reviewing enthusiastically for many years. After extensive annual training auditions attracting around 100 applicants, aided by leading period performers, around 30 instrumentalists are selected each year to tour a series of concerts around Europe. But this concert was also, very sadly, the very last EUBO concert in its present state as a UK-managed organisation. Founded 32 years ago as a UK initiative (during the 1985 European Music Year), and managed ever since from its base near Oxford, the vote by a small percentage of the UK population to drag the UK out of the European Union means that it is no longer viable to run an EU venture from the UK. In its 32 years, EUBO has encouraged and nurtured around 1000 young musicians, giving some of the finest period instrumentalists around an early grounding in performance practice at the start of their careers. For the future, after a hiatus of a year to allow for the transfer, when there will be no auditions or orchestra , EUBO will restart from a new base, and with new management, based in the music centre AMUZ in Antwerp. 
Andrew Benson-Wilson : Early Music Reviews + 