Past Events

Marc Destrubé and the three Dutch masters of the period instrument revival who will join him for this recital of chamber music by Telemann and C.P.E. Bach have been at the forefront of the international early music movement for over 30 years. All former instructors of our long-running Summer Baroque Instrumental Course at UBC, these four great artists have played pivotal roles in inspiring and teaching the next generation of Early Music artists. They have also individually enjoyed long and illustrious careers as soloists, chamber musicians and musical leaders all over the world – we could not imagine programming EMV’s 50th anniversary without them. This programme will feature a selection of highly expressive chamber music from the late 18th century repertoire known as the Style Galant.

An intense experience awaits us as we journey to medieval France to witness the trial of Joan of Arc: a silent movie classic, accompanied by intricately beautiful live choral music from The Orlando Consort. Condemned unseen in France on its release, vilified by the Catholic authorities and even banned outright in England, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s film, La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928), is widely recognised as a masterpiece. The award-winning Orlando Consort have crafted a stunning soundtrack to transport us back to the 15th century.

For this intense new program, vocalist and harper Benjamin Bagby will be joined by his Sequentia colleagues Norbert Rodenkirchen, Hanna Marti and Stef Conner, for a program of riddles, charms and elegies of their medieval ancestors, the Anglo-Saxons and the Germanic tribes of the European Northlands.

These are songs of magic, healing, exile, of the uncertainty of fate, of a wandering poet/singer searching for a patron, funeral songs and celebrations of life-giving magic herbs. Their sources are varied: the Old English Beowulf epic, the Old Icelandic poetic Edda, and the few poems surviving in ancient songbooks such as The Exeter Book. Each of these songs is a glimpse into another time far from ours, and into the souls of poets, warriors, valkyries and seeresses, bards and philosophers, whose creations were the first to be written down in English and other Germanic languages. In addition to songs in English, there will be Old High German and Old Icelandic songs of conjuring, magic, and lament as well. The world of the pagan medieval north, just turning to Christianity, will be explored, using the oldest sources known to us today. The featured instruments will include 6-string Germanic harps, triangular harps, wooden flutes and a swan-bone flute.

By his twenties, Antonius “Ton” Koopman was already carving a musical niche for himself in which he would rise to become one of the world’s most prominent performers in the early music movement. He founded his first Baroque orchestra in 1966, followed by an exuberant career (40 years and counting) of performance, conducting, and scholarship. He is widely regarded as one the finest organists, harpsichordists and conductors of our time. A frequent guest on EMV’s series over the years, for this recital he will play on a harpsichord by Vancouver-based maker Craig Tomlinson.

Star British lutenist Nigel North joins Canada’s now-legendary viol consort, Les Voix Humaines, for a performance of John Dowland’s 1604 Lachrimae. This iconic collection of passionate pavans, galiards, and almands is replete with musical effects, dissonances and suspensions that powerfully evoke the melancholic subjects that re-appear throughout Dowland’s compositions: the agonies of the soul, night, and darkness.