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  Harpsichordists at the Cellar - Concert 1     Generously sponsored by Chris Guzy & Mari Csiemi  

 

Alexander Weimann:
Hungarian Flavours

György Ligeti’s “Hungarian Rock” anchors this programme of old and new keyboard music. Alexander Weimann explores his beloved mother’s roots in Hungary and the surrounding region in this ground-breaking programme.

Alexander Weimann harpsichord

Concert Details
    Tuesday evening, 25 October 2011
Order your Series Tickets on-line
Concert at 8:00 pm (come for dinner at 6:30!)
Cellar Restaurant & Jazz Club
3611 West Broadway at Dunbar, Vancouver  | directions

What makes an Early Music Vancouver event in our series Harpsichordists at the Cellar so much fun? Top flight musicians, great music and a casual yet engaging atmosphere. Audience members order dinner & drinks before the concert or at intermission, then when the bar service stops for the performance, everyone listens with a renewed intensity. Full bar service and à la carte menu available before & after the concert and during intermission. (There will be no service during the performances).

Doors open at 6:30 pm - Come for a drink, or a meal! All ages welcome. Music starts around 8:00 pm.

click here to purchase your tickets on-line via our secure web page, or call Early Music Vancouver at 604 732-1610.

There is no food or beverage service during the performances; please order meals by 7:40 pm.
The Cellar is licensed as a restaurant and is therefore open to all ages. A minimum $10 food/beverage order is in effect.

Programme
 

“Hungarian Rock”


György Sándor Ligeti (1923-2006):
Passacaglia ungherese, 1978

 

Vítězslav Novák (1870-1949):                       
From “Slovak Suite” op. 32:
Zamilovaní
U muziky

 

Béla Viktor János Bartók (1881-1945):
“Romanian Folk Dances”, 1915
I. Bot tánc (Stick Dance)
II. Brâul (Sash Dance)
III. Topogó (In One Spot)
IV. Bucsumí tánc (Horn Dance)
V. Román polka (Romanian Polka)
VI. Aprózó / Mărunţel (Fast Dance)

 

Traditional Romanian dances/songs:
Jiana
Promoroaca
Hora din câmpie
Ostropaţ
Mori shej

 

Jan Antonín Koželuh (1783-1814):
Sonata in d-minor op. 51/3
Largo
Allegro molto e agitato
Rondo – Allegretto

 

Antonín Rejcha (1770-1836):
Fugue on a theme by Domenico Scarlatti op.32, 1802

Václav Jan Dusík (1760-1812):
Variations on the Scotch Song “Anna”

 

György Sándor Ligeti (1923-2006):
Hungarian Rock, 1978

 

– programme subject to changes

Programme Notes

The programme notes will be posted here soon

The Artist

Alexander WeimannAlexander Weimann is one of the most sought-after harpsichordists, ensemble directors, soloists, and chamber music partners of his generation. He has traveled the world as a member of the ensemble Tragicomedia; as a frequent guest of ensembles such as Les Boréades, Cantus Cölln, Freiburger Barockorchester, Tafelmusik, and the Gesualdo Consort; and as musical director of Les Voix Baroques and Le Nouvel Opéra. He led the Portland Baroque Orchestra in Handel's Messiah, conducted the Pacific Baroque Orchestra on a tour of Canada and the USA, and performed Bach's Harpsichord Concertos as soloist with Les Violons du Roy. Both the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra regularly invite him to play as soloist.

After working as an assistant conductor at the Amsterdam, Basel, and Hamburg opera houses, he began directing on his own. A cross section of his opera’s include: Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona with the Handel's Orlando Furioso in Munich; Telemann's Passion oratorio Seliges Erwägen at the Europäischen Wochen (European weeks) festival at Passau; Caldara's Clodoveo (2005) and the multipart opera event Mozart à Milano (2006), both of which were Canadian-German co-productions mounted at festivals in Montreal and Vancouver, and at the Sanssouci Palace Theatre in Berlin. For the Vancouver Early Music Festival, he’s directed Handel's Resurrection (2007), Rameau's Pygmalion (2008), Purcell's The Faerie Queene (2009)and Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 (2010). As a harpsichordist he has teamed up with violinist Marc Destrubé in Early Music Vancouver's successful "Sonata Project" in recent years.

Weimann can be heard on some 100 CDs and, frequently, on the radio in many countries. He made his North American recording debut with the ensemble Tragicomedia on the CD Capritio (Harmonia Mundi USA), and won worldwide acclaim from both the public and critics for his 2001 release of Handel's Gloria (on the Canadian label Atma Classique) and has won many awards since.

Weimann was born in 1965 in Munich, where he studied the organ, church music, musicology (his M.A. thesis was on Bach's recitatives), theatre, mediæval Latin, and jazz piano. To ground himself further in the roots of western music, he became intensively involved with Gregorian chant. In 1997, his group Le Nuove Musiche won first prize at the Premio Bonporti music competition in Rovereto. Weimann has taught music theory, improvisation, and jazz at the Munich Musikhochschule.

Since 1998, he has been giving master classes in harpsichord and historical performance practice at institutions such as Lunds University in Malmö and the Bremen Musikhochschule, and also at North American universities such as Berkeley (University of California), Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, McGill in Montreal, and Mount Allison in New Brunswick. For several years, he has been teaching early music performance practice to voice and instrumental students at the Université de Montréal, as well as conducting the Baroque opera that is produced there once every two years.

Recently, Alexander Weimann has returned to jazz; he has played piano on several CDs, and in a video clip for CBC Showcase. After some years in Berlin, he now spends as much time as possible with his family — which includes three children as well as several pets — in his adopted home, Montreal, and is active in both his kitchen and his garden.