Tenebrae
Music for the Tenebrae service of Easter
Sunday April 10, 2.30pm
Newman College, University of Melbourne
887 Swanston Street, Parkville
Couperin - Lecons de tenebrae (excerpts)
Charpentier - Lecons de tenebrae (excerpts)
J.S. Bach - Cantata excerpts and cello suite
G.P. Telemann - Cantata excerpts
Hildegard von Bingen - chant
Steve Hodgson - New commission on aboriginal texts
Jane Sheldon - soprano (Sydney)
Louisa Hunter-Bradley - soprano/recorders
David Macfarlane - harpsichord/organ
Tenebrae is the name given to the service of Matins and Lauds sung shortly after Compline on the three days before Easter. The lighting in the church on the three days before Easter would vary, the Thursday brightly illuminated, the candles gradually extinguished on the Friday and the church in darkness on the Saturday save for one candle to read by. This Tenebrae concert will thus focus on the differentiation of light, space and music as homage to the spirituality of Easter.
La Serva Padrona
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's popular opera with newly composed interludes
Sunday June 19, 2.30pm
Newman College, University of Melbourne
887 Swanston Street, Parkville
Pergolesi - La Serva Padrona
Steve Hodgson - instrumental interludes
Stephen Grant - Uberto - bass
Louisa Hunter-Bradley - Serpina - soprano
David Macfarlane - harpsichord
Fiona Furphy - baroque cello
Born as a musical drama to be performed as an Interlude between the acts of a large-scale three-act opera, La Serva Padrona is taken from the daily life of the people, written by the 23 year old composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi in 1733. Famous throughout Italy, Paris and Germany in the eighteenth century, the humerous offerings of such interludes, often were broken into two sections to be used in both intervals of grand opera. It is an opera in two sections that we have chosen to perform this work; begun, divided and concluded with commissioned instrumental pieces.
La Musique
A recital of French Early Music
Sunday September 11, 2.30pm
Newman College, University of Melbourne
887 Swanston Street, Parkville
Michel Pignolet de Monteclair - Le Dè pit gènèreux
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier - Motet pour l’Ascension & Motet pour le Roy
Marin Marais - Trio Sonata
Steve Hodgson - New Commission on French chanson
Gary Ekkel - baroque flute/recorders
Louisa Hunter-Bradley - soprano/recorders
David Macfarlane - harpsichord/organ
Fiona Furphy - baroque cello
La Musique is a recital focussing on the beauty and refinement of the early French period; a time of nature’s forces and the influences of Kings. This concert features the eloquence of Monteclair and his cantata of justice, joy, alarm and tears. Solo vocal motets by the prolific French composer, Boismortier are spiritually significant in the ethereal surrounds of Newman College and new works are composed for the combination of duo medieval recorders and early French poetry.
Antipasto
A selection of Italian and English Early Music
Sunday November 13, 2.30pm
Newman College, University of Melbourne
887 Swanston Street, Parkville
Girolamo Frescobaldi - Dunque dovro & Cosi mi disprezzate
Henry Purcell - Mad Bess & Tell me, some pitying angel
Giulio Caccini - Belle rose porporine & Non piu Guerra pieta
Biagio Marini - O Begl’occhi, Tra bei cristalli
Johann Pepusch - English Cantata
Girolamo Kapsberger - Alla caccia & Avrilla mia
Steve Hodgson - New Commission on Shakespeare texts
George Liakatos -tenor
Louisa Hunter-Bradley - soprano/recorders
David Macfarlane - harpsichord/organ
Fiona Furphy - baroque cello
A taste of the angst and flamboyance of 16th and 17th century Italy and England. This concert runs on from the success of our Italian concert in May 2004 and shows another side of Italian & English music. The composer’s use of continuo instruments and voice at the time was at the forefront of the new style.
Affect, Passions and Emotions were the dominant interest of these composers and come across in waves of luscious dissonance and harmony. This concert also features dissonance and resolution as a focus of commissions by new composers for these ancient instruments. This concert will certainly be a delight for all of the senses.
