Christ Chuch Cathedral, Vancouver
Blessed Echoes: Elizabethan Lute Songs
Works by: Dowland, Jones, Ferrabosco, & Cavendish
Artists: Ensemble “Près de votre oreille” directed by Robin Pharo
Pre-Concert Chat: 7pm with Robin Pharo hosted by David Gordon Duke
Robin Pharo and the Ensemble Près de votre oreille (“Close to your ear”) offer a fascinating dive into the English lute song during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
“Blessed Echoes” brings to light other treasures of Elizabethan and Jacobean song in one, two, three or four voices, which still remain unknown or poorly known, composed by famous poets and composers like Thomas Campion or Philipp Rosseter. The intimate setting of eight musicians and a typical instrumentarium of late 16th century England (lyra-viols, cittern, renaissance lute, virginal and four vocalists) allows us to savor the poetry of these works.
Generously sponsored by the RPC Family Foundation.
PROGRAMME
Alfonso Ferrabosco II (c. 1575-1628) – Ayres (1609)
Like Hermit poore
Robert Jones (1577-1617) – A Musicall Dreame (1609)
Lie down poor heart
Thomas Ford (1580-16478) – Musicke of Sundrie Kindes (1607)
A Pavin, Sir Richard Westons delight
Robert Jones (1577-1617) – A Musicall Dreame (1609)
If in this Flesh
Michael Cavendish (c. 1565-1628) – Ayres in Tabletorie to the lute (1598)
Wandring in this place
John Dowland (1563-1626) – The First booke of songes or Ayres (1597)
Go Crystal teares
Alfonso Ferrabosco II (c. 1575-1628)
Almain II
Thomas Ford (1580-16478) – Musicke of Sundrie Kindes (1607)
How shall I then discribe my love
John Dowland
Farewell fantaisie
Alfonso Ferrabosco II (c. 1575-1628)
Coranto I
Philipp Rosseter – A book of ayres (1601)
When Laura Smiles
Robert Jones (1577-1617) – The first booke of Songes (1600)
What if I seeke for love
Thomas Ford (1580-16478) – Musicke of Sundrie Kindes (1607)
Not full twelve yeeres twice tolde
John Dowland (1563-1626) – The First booke of songes or Ayres (1597)
Can she excuse my wrongs
Robert Jones (1577-1617) – A Musicall Dreame (1609)
Once did I serve a cruel heart
Thomas Ford (1580-16478) – Musicke of Sundrie Kindes (1607)
A Pavin, M Maines Choice
Thomas Campion (1567- 1620) – The first booke of airs (1613)
Never wether-beaten saile
Robin Pharo
Réversibilité
Chanson pour 4 voix et guitare sur un poème de Charles Baudelaire
Robin Pharo, viola da gamba & direction
Robin Pharo studied the viola da gamba with Jean-Louis Charbonnier, Caroline Howald, Ariane Maurette and Christophe Coin, at the Music and Dance’s National Conservatory of Paris. He is a founder member of the Quartet Nevermind with whom he won the third prize and the special festival prize at the Van Wassenaer competition in Utrecht. In 2017, Nevermind has been invited to play all over Europe, in Russia, in Iceland, Australia, Asia and USA and has recorded tree discs, Conversations (2016), Quatuors Parisiens (2017) and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (2021) with Alpha Classic Label.
He works presently with contemporary composers such as Fabien Touchard or Philippe Hersant, wich who he creatd Hypnos and La Harpe de David as well as Rika Suzuki, Yassen Vodenitcharov and Jean-Marc Chouvel (with whom he creates Les Trois ailes du papillon). He had been playing at the Hyperweekend festival at France Radio and created the project Phonographie, imaginated by the group Code (Jérémie Arcache and Léonardo Ortega), together with the electronic musician Superpoze, with who he created a new piece in tribute to Marin Marais.
Ensemble Près de votre orielle
In 2017, Robin Pharo officially created the ensemble Près de votre oreille on the occasion of the Festival of Early Music in Timisoara, Romania, around a program devoted to the work for two viols by Marin Marais and Descent of Orpheus to the Underworld by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.
Près de votre oreille – Close to your ear – is a concept that is particularly close to his heart. By its strangeness and its poetry, it has imposed itself as the singular identity of a young ensemble which wishes to share the curiosity of unusual antique jewellery. Following an original passion, the ensemble strives to create projects related to the history of the viola da gamba, which allows its artistic director to share both his love of the solo repertoire and that of chamber music. Since its creation, the activities of the ensemble focus on contemporary music and the exploration of European vocal and instrumental repertoires of the Renaissance and the Baroque period (especially those of the golden age of the Tudors, which offers an incredible field of discovery). The musical aesthetic of the Renaissance, in which the ensemble Près de votre oreille draws part of its identity and an inexhaustible source of beauty, as well as the passion to rediscover a niche repertoire in order to arouse the curiosity of uncommon jewels, represent a wonderful challenge for an ensemble immersed in a contemporary society in which the research for splendors and sweetness can only be providential.
In 2023, Près de votre oreille had been in residence at La Cité de la Voix in Vézelay for the creation of a chamber opera, Les vies ordinaires d’Anaïs, based on an original text by author Milena Scergo and composed by Fabien Touchard. In 2024, the Près de votre oreille ensemble will record for Scala Music Label his album Lighten mine eies, and will be structured in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, in the Limousin, in order to lead cultural actions and a residence at the Villefavard farm in Limousin for the creation of the project Mes amours durent en tout temps, dedicated to the art of Renaissance song and the Franco-Flemish school.
The association Près de votre oreille has produced five discs, L’Anonyme Parisien (Paraty, 2016), Come Sorrow (Paraty, 2019), Suite d’un Goût Etranger (Château de Versailles Spectacles, 2021), Blessed Echoes (Paraty, 2023) and The Waves (Scala Music, 2023), in duet with Anaïs Bertrand, devoted to a cycle for viola da gamba and voice entitled composed by Fabien Touchard, works by Philippe Hersant and Robin Pharo as well as new arrangements of melodies composed by Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré and Nadia Boulanger.
