Past Events - Early Music Vancouver

Live Concert – Les Plaisirs Du Louvre

Ensemble Correspondences Friday, May 6, 2022 | 7:30 pmChan Centre for the Performing Arts

The Louvre was the chief residence of the King, the epicentre of power, where the important events in the life of the court naturally took place. A ceremonial tradition was developed within its walls, which was to reach its zenith under Louis XIV. In this theatre of power, music was an object of entertainment as well as an instrument of magnificence. While laying the foundations of the future splendours of the Grand Siècle, the reign of Louis XIII represents the golden age of a galant culture, whose musical emblem, the air de cour, pervaded the whole of society and was heard in all the salons, galleries and ruelles of the capital’s aristocratic residences, and especially the most symbolic of them: the Louvre. Another key centre of sociability was the Queen’s apartment, located on the ground floor beneath the King’s apartment. It was in these different spaces that the Musique de la Reine could be heard. The echoes of these ‘pleasures’, inhabited by strange and whimsical divinities, allegorical characters or characters from the realm of galanterie, are bound to delight every listener.

This concert is generously supported by Bruce Munro Wright.

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Live Concert – Imaginario: An Imaginary Songbook of Renaissance Spanish music

María Cristina Kiehr, Soprano & Ariel Abramovich, Vihuela de mano Wednesday, April 27, 2022 | 7:30 pm Pacific Spirit United Church (formerly Ryerson Church)

Thousands of vihuelas were built and played during the sixteenth century. Still, only five or six survived and to complicate matters; there are differing opinions about whether these surviving instruments should be called vihuelas or guitars. If so many people played the vihuela in sixteenth-century Spain, why are there so few surviving instruments? Were they converted into guitars at a later date, or did they perish in the annual bonfires that took place on the feast of San Juan?

The body of surviving books of the vihuela repertoire, numbered at seven, is also very small. One reason for this is that printing materials, especially the purpose-specific type needed to print vihuela tablature, were scarce. From the surviving vihuela books and other manuscript sources, Ariel Abramovich’s has created a new imaginary songbook that provides an essential contribution to the vihuela repertoire with various instrumental and vocal combinations. Some of the composers that make up the new anthology are Mudarra, Pisador, Vásquez and Morales, and the influential madrigalists Willaert and Arcadelt. The transformation of many polyphonic madrigals into accompanied lute songs met with great success in Italy and was mirrored by vihuelists in Spain.

Imaginario offers a listening experience that blends the real and the imaginary without a discernible line of demarcation.

This concert is generously supported by Zelie & Vincent Tan.

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Online Concert – Guided by Voices with Bach’s Cello Suite no. 6

Wednesday, April 20, 2022 | 7:30PMOnline - This concert was originally recorded on July 30, 2021.

Today, the five-string cello is treated as an exotic and rarely-played cousin of the standard cello. However, in the 17th and 18th centuries it was simply one of the many instruments used in the family of bass violins and was particularly important for virtuosc sonatas and solos. This programme centres around the five-string cello’s most enduring work, Bach’s Sixth Solo Cello Suite (BWV 1012).

Each movement reveals the instrument’s incredible versatility and remarkable colours. Elinor Frey explores these qualities further through two newer works, “Guided By Voices” by Scott Godin (based on “O Vis Aeternitatis” of Hildegard von Bingen) and “With concord of sweet sounds” by Isaiah Ceccarelli.

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Live Concert – Beethoven & Liszt: A Musical Affinity

Olga Paschenko, Fortepiano Friday, April 8, 2022 | 7:30 pm Christ Church Cathedral

Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29 in Bb Major, Op. 106 is extreme in every way – tremendously long and a challenge to the limits of both piano and pianist with its wide dynamic and pitch range; virtuosic, constantly shifting musical textures; almost unbelievably fast metronome markings and tumultuous expressivity. Having become completely deaf by 1816, Beethoven also suffered frequent illness and the piece is marked by struggle throughout, exemplified in the unusual conflict between two keys a semitone apart: B-flat Major and B minor.

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Live Concert – Castille to Samarkand

Ensemble Constantinople & Accademia del Piacere Friday, April 1, 2022 | 7:30 pm Kay Meek Arts Centre - this concert will be live streamed for 48hrs from April 1, 2022 at 7:30 PM.

The 15th and 16th centuries have been described as “The Golden Age of Spanish music”, but they were also prolific periods for musicians in the Persian courts and throughout the Ottoman Empire. This journey from Castille to Samarkand brings into dialogue the music of the Spanish renaissance with Persian/Ottoman masterpieces taken from manuscripts unearthed in monasteries and palace libraries, such as Topkapi.

This concert is generously supported by Tony & Margie Knox and The RPC Family Foundation.

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Online Concert – Castille To Samarkand

Friday, April 1, 2022 | 7:30 PM Constantinople & Accademia del PiacereOnline

This concert is generously supported by Tony & Margie Knox and The RPC Family Foundation.

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Online Concert – Cozzolani Reunited

Wednesday, March 30 at 7:30 PM through Tuesday, April 5 at 5:00 PM, 2022Online I Ariadne Lih, Myriam LeBlanc & Suzie LeBlanc, sopranos I Lucas Harris, lute & director

Chiara Margarita Cozzolani has been steadily receiving recognition in recent decades as one of the most skillful and expressive of a handful of published nun composers from seventeenth-century Italy. She took her vows at age 18, adopting “Chiara” as her religious name as she entered the Benedictine monastery of Santa Radegonda, where she would serve as maestra di cappella, abbess, and prioress.

This programme focuses on her 1648 collection of twelve motets for solo soprano, Scherzi di sacra melodia. No copy of the accompanying basso continuo partbook has been found, making the collection inaccessible to performers until now. The bass part for three of the motets was composed from scratch by lutenist Lucas Harris. The concert ends with Non tema nò di morte, a trio from the sole surviving collection of another Italian nun composer, Maria Francesca Nascinbeni. Of Nascinbeni’s life we know little, though in her publication’s preface she casually mentions being only sixteen years old.

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Online Concert – Women of Note

Pacific Baroque Orchestra Wednesday, March 23, 2022 | 7:30 PM Online

This concert showcases the music of 18th-century female composers who, though forgotten or ignored by history, in their day shared the stage with and enjoyed the respect and friendship of composers we now regard as musical giants, including Haydn and Mozart. Like their male colleagues, these women were highly acclaimed both as composers and as performing musicians. They include the star singer and playwright Amélie-Julie Candeille; the stateswoman, keyboard player, and opera composer Maria Antonia, Electress of Saxony; the master violinist Maddalena Laura Sirmen, who was trained at one of Venice’s famous musical orphanages; and the virtuoso singer and pianist Marianne Anna Katharina von Martinez, a frequent duet partner of Mozart’s, an influence on his compositional style, and a member of the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna. Their music is brimming with the elegance and eloquence of the Classical era.

This concert is generously supported by Dorothy Jantzen

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Online Concert – Barbara Strozzi: From Tears To Laughter

Wednesday March 16 at 7:30 PM through Tuesday, March 22 at 5:00 PM, 2022Online I Suzie LeBlanc, Ariadne Lih & Andreanne Brisson-Paquin, sopranos I Constantinople I Kiya Tabassian, setar & director

This programme is a tribute to the Venetian composer and singer Barbara Strozzi, one of the most important composers of Italian cantatas and baroque arias. Her sensitivity to text and experimentation with form and style offered nuance and a high level of emotional sensitivity to her music. In 1638, she read both sides of a debate written by Giovanni Francesco Loredano and Matteo Dandolo about whether tears or song is the more powerful weapon in love. Not surprisingly, the song won and Strozzi ended the debate by saying: “I do not question your decision, gentlemen, in favor of song, for well I know that I would not have received the honor of your presence at our last session had I invited you to see me cry and not to hear me sing.” This concert will explore Strozzi’s lighter side as well as presenting her famous lament “Lagrime mie”. A rich mix of plucked and string instruments from Iran, Turkey, and Italy (two theorbos, baroque guitar, kanun, setar, cello, gamba, viola d’amore, and violin) complements the vocal pieces and creates some lively instrumental dances.

This concert is generously supported by Sharon E. Kahn and Johanna Shapira & John Geddes

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