Cal Performances Presents Program

Friday, February 27, 2009, 8pm Charles Avison (1709–1770) IX in Seven Parts, done from the First Congregational Church Lessons by Largo — Con Spirito — Siciliana — Allegro Le Concert des Nations Antonio Rodriguez de Hita (1725–1787) Música Sinfonica para los Ministriles (1751) Despacio cantable — Andante — Les Goûts Réunis (1670–1780) Pastoral — Allegro

Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805) La Musica notturna di Madrid (1780) PROGRAM Le campane di l’Ave Maria — Il tamburo dei Soldati

Minuetto dei Ciechi “con mala grazia” Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687) Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme Suite Il Rosario Largo assai — Allegro — Marche pour la Cérémonie des Turcs Largo come prima 1st Air des Espagnols — 2nd Air des Espagnols Passa calle Allegro vivo — Il tamburo — Canarie Ritirata Maestoso L’entrée des Scaramouches des Scaramouches

Le Concert des Nations Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644–1704) Battalia à 10 Das liederliche Schwärmen, Mars, die Schlacht, Manfredo Kraemer concertino undt Lamento der Verwundten, mit Arien Riccardo Minasi violin I imitirt und Baccho dedieirt Mauro Lopez violin II Isabel Serrano, Alba Roca violins Sonata Laura Johnson violin & Die liederliche Gesellschaft von allerley Humor Angelo Bartoletti, Gianni da Rosa Presto — Der Mars — Presto viola da gamba — Die Schlacht Balasz Mate, Antoine Ladrette Lamento der Verwundten Musquetirer Xavier Puertas Enrique Solinis guitar & theorb0 Luca Guglielmi harpsichord (1653–1713) Concerto IV in Re maggiore (1712) David Mayoral percussion Adagio — Allegro Adagio — Vivace Jordi Savall, director Allegro — Allegro

North American representation for Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations: INTERMISSION Jon Aaron, Aaron Concert Artists, Inc., New York, New York, www.aaronconcert.com.

The work of Jordi Savall, Le Concert des Nations, Hespèrion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya is supported in North America by the Friends of Hespèrion XXI. For more information, write to [email protected].

Cal Performances’ 2008–2009 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank.

34 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 35 Program Notes Program Notes

Tastes of the Musical Galant from Quinault. These epic works were the opposite of liederliche Gesellschaft von allerley Humor (“disso- collection that capitalized both on the grand con- Lully to Boccherini galant, with their mythic-heroic themes, grandiose company of humors of all kinds”) is one of the certo and on another Italian musical sensation that scaling, and carefully choreographed homages to most astonishing movements in music: was sweeping England at that time. The incredible the Sun King. In 1664, however, Lully began a col- each instrument plays a different tune, all in mis- popularity in England of Scarlatti’s keyboard mu- Les goûts réunis—“the tastes united,” the theme of laboration with Molière that produced theatrical matching keys and rhythms, representing the utter sic led Charles Burney (A General , tonight’s program—appeared first as the title of music of a more lighthearted ilk. Lully’s music for cacophony of the soldiers’ drunken singing. In Der 1776–1789) to write of a “Scarlatti sect” who played François Couperin’s second collection of cham- Le bourgeois gentilhomme (1670) was not a setting Mars (“the march”), one violin and one violone almost nothing else. The two fast movements of ber music, published in 1724, in which Couperin of Molière’s comedy to music, but rather a series imitate the sounds of fife and drum; the two sur- the present concerto (Con spirito and Allegro) are strove to combine the best elements of the French picturesque entrées or tableaux: most remain sepa- rounding Presto movements recreate the training of arranged from sonatas by Scarlatti; Avison may and Italian musical styles of his time. The final rate from the action of the plot, though some com- the infantry (duple meter) and cavalry (triple me- have composed the Largo and Siciliana to go with piece in the volume—an Italian-style plement it (like the buoyant gavotte of the tailors’ ter). During the actual engagement (Die Schlacht), them, or they may be based on works by Scarlatti entitled Le Parnasse, ou l’Apothéose de Corelli— apprentices who re-dress the hero, M. Jourdain, in the snap their strings against the sound- that no longer survive. memorialized the Italian composer-virtuoso whose the clothes of a nobleman). Several of these are na- board (so-called “Bartók pizzicato”) to imitate ar- National Spanish styles and pan-European gal- archetypal sonatas and all Europe strove tionally themed, giving an impression of musical tillery fire—“and loud!,” Biber directs. Yet for all ant styles coexist in the work of Antonio Rodríguez to imitate. sounds of nations beyond while remaining his clever sound effects, Biber is not insensitive to de Hita (1724–1787), maestro di capilla at the cathe- This joining of musical tastes was a central firmly grounded in French musical practice. The the tragedies of war: his musical battle concludes dral in Palencia (1744–1765) and at the Monasterio ideal of the galant musical style of the 18th cen- raucous Marche pour la Cérémonie des Turcs— not with a triumphant march but with a plaintive de la Encarnación in Madrid (1765–1787). He is tury. The connotations of the term galant were perhaps Lully’s best known single movement—be- “lament for the wounded musketeers,” in which best known as composer of zarzuelas, humorous manifold, from “chivalrous” to “elegant” and even came a model of the strident, percussive “Turkish” the repeated notes of the concitato style are trans- musical dramas that combined sung and spoken “sexy” (fêtes galantes, scenes of lovers engaging in musical style that gained popularity in the follow- formed into the sobs and sighs of the survivors. text, and is credited with reintroducing national- idle pleasantries, were a favorite subject of contem- ing century. Two Airs des Espagnols, danced by The next two works on tonight’s program are istic, specifically Spanish elements into that genre porary art). In music, galant style privileged the two Spaniards who sing in their native language Italian-style concerti grossi, contrasting a small (Diccionario de la zarzuela, 2003). His sacred and whims and impressions of the ear over the compo- of the trials of love, borrow the triple meter and group of soloists (concertino, usually two violins instrumental music from the Palencia period, sitional rules of the past. Daniel Heartz (Music in off-beat entrances of Spanish zarabandas. Finally, and ) with the sound of the full (ripi- however, are purely in the popular galant styles of European Capitals, 2003) has pointed out parallels the Chaconne des Scaramouches—in contrast to the eno). Through much of the 18th century, Italian his time, imported from and Vienna; sacred between the galant style and the style of vi- lofty and passecailles that crown many a music was held up as a standard of excellence for music, both in Latin and the vernacular, makes sual art: just as the rococo reacted against the “clas- tragédie lyrique—is Lully’s impression of the light- serious music throughout Europe—and most up by far the bulk of his output. The four pieces sical” strictness of Louis XIV’s reign (1661–1715), er, freer Italian ciaccona long associated with the composers who imitated Italian music were imitat- on tonight’s program are taken from his Escala emphasizing elegance, grace, lightness, and color commedia dell’arte. ing the Roman violin virtuoso Arcangelo Corelli diatónico-cromático-enarmónica (1751), a collec- on a small scale, was lighter and less Meanwhile, on the other side of Europe, the (1653–1713). After retiring in 1708 from a brilliant tion of 77 individual movements, for three to five contrapuntally complex than the “learned” music renowned violin virtuoso Heinrich Ignaz Franz performing career, Corelli began to busy himself instruments, for use by the cathedral’s ministriles of previous generations. This freer style opened the von Biber (1644–1704) was writing a different with the composition of concerti; his 12 concerti (i.e., players of wind instruments) “as processionals way not only to a blending of national “tastes,” but kind of music for a different kind of court. In his grossi, Opus 6 (1714), were considered the arche- or other interludes” (en las funciones de Procesiones also to music that took sound itself as its subject, more than 30 years as violinist and Kapellmeister at typal models of the genre even in his day, spawning y de otros intermedios). The three-part works—to imitating the sounds of the street, the battlefield, the archiepiscopal court of Salzburg, he produced numerous similar publications in the generations which tonight’s pieces belong—are scored for two and everyday life. Tonight’s program, spanning a staggering variety of compositions, including following, both in Italy and abroad. The clearest al- treble instruments and one bass instrument in the from the 1670s to the 1770s, brings together mu- his famous violin sonatas in scordatura, grandi- ternation between ripieno and concerto can be heard manner of the Italian trio sonata. True to the lib- sic from all over Europe in a sampler of the many ose sacred works for 4 to 53 voices, and pictorial in the central Vivace and the final Allegro, which eral attitude toward dissonance treatment outlined tastes of the galant. compositions imitating birds, bells, night watch- borrow the rhythms of the and in his Diapasón instructivo (1757), Rodríguez fre- men’s calls and peasants on their way to church. Even as far away as England, the Corellian quently introduces his own harmonic idiosyncra- 2 His Battalia à 10 (1673) belongs to a longstanding —also called the “grand concerto”— sies, such as sudden dissonances or switches to uni- tradition of pieces that mimic the sounds of battle, quickly became the most popular genre of orches- son texture (both of which abound in the Pastoral). We begin during the reign of Louis XIV, with his from Janequin’s La guerre (1528) to Monteverdi’s tral music. It found one of its most prolific com- Originally intended for the and of most preeminent court composer. Jean-Baptiste madrigali guerrieri (1638) and the organ batallas posers outside of Italy in Charles Avison (1709– the cathedral’s wind band, the parts are taken by Lully (1632–1687), though born Giovanni Battista of Iberia. Like these, Biber’s Battalia makes ex- 1770), who published over 60 grand concertos strings in tonight’s performance. Lulli in Florence, was the creator of a genre of tensive use of what Monteverdi had called the stile in his lifetime. The Concerto IX in Seven Parts is Though (1743–1805) spent musical theater that was quintessentially French: concitato (“agitated style”), characterized by rapid from Avison’s Twelve Concertos…Done from the more than half of his life in , very few of his the tragédie en musique, with libretti by Philippe repeated notes and trumpet-like harmonies. Die Harpsichord Lessons of Domenico Scarlatti (1744), a musical works are in specifically Spanish styles.

36 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 37 Program Notes Cal Performances Presents

Those that are seamlessly weave local musical in- Il Rosario, depicting the locals’ chanting of the Saturday, February 28, 2009, 8pm fluences together with thegalant style, in a manner Rosary: first a plaintive tune in the treble register First Congregational Church that Elisabeth Le Guin (Boccherini’s Body, 2006) accompanied in parallel thirds by the fist violin, has likened to the formation of a musical pidgin. then a florid bass line “on the third string, in imi- Among these is the evocative Quintettino in C ma- tation of the .” Yet 18th-century jor, Opus 30, No. 6, subtitled La musica notturna resurfaces in the final Ritirata, a cheerful march to Le Concert des Nations della strade di Madrid (“night music of the streets the accompaniment of tremolo drum-rolls, whose of Madrid”). Composed during Boccherini’s most long final decrescendo imitates the gradual retreat productive period in Spain, while serving as com- of the garrison for the night. Boccherini had been positore e virtuoso di camera to the Infante Don Luis reluctant to publish this work, fearing its more The Stage Music in the Plays of Borbón y Farnesio (1727–1785), La musica nottur- Spanish elements would be “totally useless and na hearkens back to the extravagant programmatic even ridiculous outside Spain,” as he wrote to his William Shakespeare music of Biber’s era. As in Biber, tunefulness some- publisher in 1797. Despite this, La musica notturna times give way to sheer mimesis: the piece opens has become one of Boccherini’s best-loved and with pizzicato open fifths imitating the ringing most famous compositions—and, like the famous of the evening Angelus, followed by strident string E major Minuet of Ladykillers (1955) fame, has PROGRAM tremolos representing the distant drums of soldiers even had its turn on the silver screen (Master and beating the retreat. In the lurching Minuetto dei Commander: The Far Side of the World, 2003). Ciechi (“minuet of the blind [beggars]”), the cel- Robert Johnson (ca. 1583–1633) Jacobean Masque & Stage Music (1600–1612): lists are to hold their instruments on their laps and The Masque of Oberon, The Winter’s Tale and strum them “as one plays a guitar,” giving even the Esther Criscuola de Laix The Witch performers a chance to “act out” the scene created The Nobleman — Courant by the music. Some of Boccherini’s most beautiful Esther Criscuola de Laix is a Ph.D. candidate in the The Satyrs’ Dance cello writing can be found in the central movement, UC Berkeley Department of Music. Volta The Pilgrim’s Dance — Galliard A Scottish Dance The Witches’ Dance

Matthiew Locke (1621–1677) Music for The Tempest (1674)

Introduction — Galliard Sightlines Gavot — Saraband Lilk Les Concert des Nations Curtain Tune Saturday, February 28, 2009, 7–7:30pm Rustick Air First Congregational Church Minoit — Corant A Martial Jigge Pre-performance discussion with Jordi Savall and Professor Kate The Conclusion: A Canon 4 in 2 van Orden, UC Berkeley Department of Music. This Sightlines event is free to all event ticket holders.

INTERMISSION

38 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 39 Program Program Notes

Henry Purcell (ca. 1658–1695) The Fairy Queen (1692): Masques, Minoits and Midsummer: musicians who served Prince Henry, James’s eldest Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Music for Shakespeare, 1611–1693 son, who died in 1612 at the age of 18. Over the course of his career he composed music for some First Music: Prelude — Hornpipe 15 masques and plays, along with a large number Second Music: Aire — Rondeau “If music be the food of love, play on.” The famous works for lute. First Act Tune: Jig — A Prelude first line ofTwelfth Night belies the manifold uses of The Stuart-era masque combined music, dance, Fairies’ Dance — Dance for the Followers of Night music and song in Shakespeare’s plays. More than drama and elaborate staging into extravagant royal Second Act Tune — Air just the “food of love,” music served as a restorer of entertainments, pooling the talents of the best Overture: Symphony While the Swans order, a calmer of troubled spirits, a sublimation of composers, writers and visual artists at court. They Come Forward spiritual torment, and an emanation of supernatu- were staged once, and once only, in celebration Dance for the Fairies — Dance for the Green Men ral power. Songs abound in Shakespeare’s plays, of important state occasions—political promo- Dance for the Haymakers — Third Act Tune: and run the gamut of human emotion from the tions, courtly weddings, visits of dignitaries—or Hornpipe desperate outpourings of Ophelia and Desdemona as entertainments at holiday seasons, especially Fourth Act Tune: Air — Prelude to the færie incantations of Puck and Ariel—and Christmastime, Twelfth Night and Shrovetide. Entry Dance — Monkeys’ Dance — uncountable “hey nonny nonnys” to boot. Nor is One distinctive fingerprint of masques was a blur- Birds’ Prelude music limited to the vocal, for Shakespeare’s stage ring of the boundaries between players and audi- Chaconne: Dance for the Chinese Man directions include numerous cues for dances, fan- ence, between courtly reality and the mythic world and Woman fares and masques. Tonight’s program presents in- of the stage. The noble patrons they honored often strumental music for Shakespeare plays by three of performed in them themselves, and in the final the foremost court composers of the Jacobean and “measures” and “revels” at the end of the masque, Restoration eras, the two golden ages of theater the masquers invited members of the audience to Le Concert des Nations music in England. All three were active composers join in dancing with them. for the theater as well as for the court—though, as Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and Ben Manfredo Kraemer concertino we shall see, the two worlds sometimes converged. Jonson’s masque Oberon both premiered in 1611. Riccardo Minasi violin I Different theatrical productions had different Though Jonson’s masque featured the Fairy Mauro Lopez violin II musical requirements. Some called for a song here, King made famous in A Midsummer Night’s Isabel Serrano, Alba Roca violins a dance there; others required two or more of elab- Dream (1593–1594), it was not an adaptation of Laura Johnson violin & viola orate musical scenes. Often several composers split Shakespeare’s play but an all-new masque text writ- Angelo Bartoletti, Gianni da Rosa viols the musical responsibilities among themselves. The ten to honor Prince Henry, who had been created Jordi Savall viola da gamba resulting mixtures of music and spoken drama Prince of Wales the previous year. Prince Henry, to Balasz Mate, Antoine Ladrette cellos eventually came to be known as “” to the all accounts an excellent dancer, played the part of Xavier Puertas violone theater-goers of the Restoration (the term “semi- Oberon—an apt tribute to his own new princely Enrique Solinis guitar & theorb0 ” was an invention of the 1720s). As odd as role. Since masque music was a collaborative effort Luca Guglielmi harpsichord such a designation may seem to us in this post-Don involving many court musicians, Johnson’s exact David Mayoral percussion Giovanni, post-Madame Butterfly era, it acknowl- musical contribution to these three productions edged the primacy of music in the 17th-century is unclear. In Oberon, for example, he seems to Jordi Savall, director English theater—and the fact that many people have been responsible for most of the instrumental went to the theater specifically to hear the music. dances and interludes, while the interspersed songs were composed by Alfonso Ferrabosco, music tutor North American representation for Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations: 2 to Prince Henry. Tonight’s program offers a diverse Jon Aaron, Aaron Concert Artists, Inc., New York, New York, www.aaronconcert.com. sampling of Johnson’s theatrical dances, running Robert Johnson (1583–1633), lutenist at the court the gamut from the courtly grace of The Nobleman The work of Jordi Savall, Le Concert des Nations, Hespèrion XXI and La Capella of James I, was one of the foremost composers of to earthier frolics for satyrs, witches and Scots. Reial de Catalunya is supported in North America by the Friends of Hespèrion XXI. music for the Jacobean masque. His main patron Matthiew Locke (1621–1677) was the foremost For more information, write to [email protected]. at court, Sir John Carey, was also that of the King’s English composer in the generation before Purcell, Men players, and helped start him in theatrical and a pioneer of Restoration-era dramatic music. Cal Performances’ 2008–2009 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank. composition in about 1607. Between 1610 and In 1660, at the Restoration of the English monar- 1612, he held a second court appointment with the chy in 1660, Charles II made Locke the composer-

40 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 41 Program Notes Program Notes in-ordinary for his Private Musick at Whitehall; astonishing Curtain Tune (overture) stands alone with (culturally incongruous) cameos by Juno and revels of the fairies are interrupted by the appear- Locke also served as organist in the Catholic chapel in Restoration theater music for its sheer evocative Hymen, in which both fairies and mortals join to ance of wild “green men” who dance a grotesque, of Charles’s queen, Catherine of Braganza. Locke’s power, moving through several evocative dynamic celebrate the triumph of true love. dissonant dance of their own, while the Monkeys’ compositions for the theater had great influence on levels (“soft,” “lowder by degrees,” “Violent”) to Purcell’s instrumental preludes, interludes and Dance in the fifth-act Chinese masque recall the those of Purcell and other composers of the later depict the brewing of a storm at sea. Finally, the dances frame these scenes and complement their graceful capers of these animals in period chinoi- Restoration era. His earliest contributions—main- Canon 4 in 2 (that is, a double canon for four in- mood. The First and Second Music were played serie decoration. Even the strict double canon of ly individual dances or songs performed alongside struments, two playing one canon and two play- as the audience arrived and took their places—so the Dance for the Followers of Night—perhaps music by other composers’ music—date from the ing another) seems an oddly ominous conclusion popular were Purcell’s “operas” that people had to an homage to the concluding Canon in Locke’s 1650s and 1660s and are mostly lost; they included to Shakespeare’s comedy, owing its plentiful dis- arrive quite early in order to get a seat (though sto- music for The Tempest—conveys an impression of music for adapted versions of Henry VIII (1663) and sonant moments to its strict canonic form—yet ries are told of music lovers who arrived to hear the soporific endlessness. The concluding Chaconne of Macbeth (1664). Locke’s theatrical career reached its perhaps it is the canonic form itself that represents First and Second Music and then left). The “Act the Chinese masquers, though it makes no attempt peak in the mid–1670s with his music for Elkanah the restored order of the comic ending. Tunes” were played as the curtain went down at to sound “Chinese” or otherwise exotic, follows in Settle’s The Empress of Morocco (1673), The Tempest In his own time, (1659–1695) the end of acts, and sometimes comment musi- a long tradition of theatrical chaconnes that cel- (1674) and Thomas Shadwell’s Psyche (1675). This was hailed as the champion of a uniquely English cally on the preceding action; the Third Act Tune, ebrate happy endings. version of The Tempest, adapted from Shakespeare style of opera, in which music was an adornment for example, is an exuberant hornpipe, well suited by Sir William Davenant and John Dryden, had to the central spoken text of the drama—as op- to the amorous hurly-burly between Titania and been performed without music in 1667 and pub- posed to Italian and French operas that were sung Bottom in the preceding act. It is the dance move- Esther Criscuola de Laix lished in 1667. The 1674 version, probably adapted throughout. (As one journalist of the period wrote, ments of The Fairy Queen, however, which contain by Shadwell, retained Ariel’s songs as its musical “our English genius will not relish that perpetual some of Purcell’s most colorful, character-filled Esther Criscuola de Laix is a Ph.D. candidate in the core, but modified the plot somewhat to allow for singing.”) Alongside his posts as court composer music. In the third act masque, for example, the UC Berkeley Department of Music. the addition of two extra musical scenes on super- and organist, Purcell worked at London’s Drury natural themes: a masque of demons to torment Lane Theatre from 1683 to his death, where he Caliban, and a final masque featuring Neptune supplied incidental music for plays by Congreve, and other sea deities, who calm the seas for the Dryden, Behn and—of course—Shakespeare. lovers’ journey home. The songs and vocal music Purcell’s theater music achieved vast popularity, for the 1674 production were contributed by John and much of it was published posthumously for Banister, Pelham Humfrey and several other court the benefit of skilled amateurs: the complete in- musicians; Giovanni Battista Draghi composed strumental music in A Collection of Ayres, Compos’d dances, now lost; and Locke provided the intro- for the Theatre (1697), and the best-loved songs in ductory music and the “act music,” instrumental Orpheus Britannicus (1698). interludes between acts. (TheTempest music attrib- TheFairy Queen is one of Purcell’s finest theat- uted to Purcell is highly doubtful, and is probably rical works, and by far the largest. Premiered in May a composite from the 1720s.) 1692 and revived in 1693, it was a heavily adapted Most of Locke’s movements are in contem- version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, though porary dance forms, though the juxtaposition of the adapter is unknown. Several scenes were cut a “Corant” and a “Minoit” (minuet) with a gal- or altered to make room for five elaborate masques liard testifies to the contemporary debate between that complement (if only tangentially) the action of English and Continental styles—a debate in which the play: a comic interlude between the fairies and Locke himself had participated with great relish. a stuttering, drunken poet (to amuse the Indian Locke’s music is remarkable for its combination boy over whom Titania and Oberon have been of daring harmonic language and rhythmic com- quarreling); a masque of Night, Sleep and their plexity; the triple meter movements in particular train (to lull Titania to sleep); a burlesque anti- (notably the Galliard, the Corant and the Rustick masque of nymphs and haymakers (to entertain Air) feature strong syncopations. The Lilk is a fiery the donkey-headed Bottom at Titania’s behest); hornpipe whose irregular seven-bar phrases termi- a pageant of Phoebus and the Four Seasons (her- nate on the weak half of their final beat. (The term alding the return of order after the human lovers does not appear elsewhere, and any connection to are reunited and the fairy rulers reconciled); and, the Frisian word lilk, “angry,” is unknown). The finally, a masque in a Chinese garden, complete

42 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 43 About the Artists About the Artists

Don Quijote de la Mancha, Romances y Músicas won Vivaldi, Boccherini and Mozart, all released by Christie, Marc Minkowski, Frans Brüggen, René him a prize in the “” category, and it Alia Vox, Jordi Savall’s own label, a label that has Jacobs and Gabriel Garrido, among others, and was also selected as “2006 Record of the Year” by been awarded many distinctions and prizes. collaborated with such important ensembles as Les Gramophone. That CD was among the five nomi- With Una Cosa Rara by Martín y Soler, Le Arts Florissants, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Anima nees for the 2006 Grammy Awards. Concert des Nations made its opera debut in 1992, Eterna and Cantus Cölln. He was also a founding Jordi Savall has been appointed Intercultural and continued in that line with Monteverdi’s member of Les Cyclopes, Musica ad Rhenum and Ambassador as part of the European Year of Orfeo (first performed in 1993 and put on again Capriccio Stravagante. The groups’ performances Intercultural Dialogue 2008 which has as its slo- in 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2007 in the opera houses were recognized worldwide. In 2004, BBC Music gan “Together in diversity” as well as an “Artist for Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro Real Magazine named Mr. Kraemer as one of the most Peace” in the good will Ambassador’s program of in Madrid, and in Beaune, Vienna, Metz, Brussels important baroque violinists of our time. His disco-

Vico Chamla the UNESCO. and Bordeaux). In 1995, another opera by Martín graphy contains more than 40 titles. As a soloist, he y Soler, Il Burbero di Buon Cuore, was staged in regularly visits Canada, Mexico, Spain, Australia, Jordi Savall is an exceptional figure in today’s Taking its cue from François Couperin’s work Les Montpellier, and in 2000 came Celos aun del Ayre Brazil, and all of Europe and the United States. music world. For more than 30 years, he has been Nations, which represented the coming together matan by Juan Hidalgo with a libretto based on He collaborates with Jordi Savall in his chamber devoted to the rediscovery and performance of ne- of “tastes” as well as looking forward to an artistic the play by Calderón de la Barca, which was staged group, Hespèrion XXI, and is the concertino in glected musical treasures as a soloist and director Europe, centuries old, that bears the stamp of the in Salamanca and put on in a concert version in Mr. Savall’s orchestra, Le Concert des Nations. of his three ensembles. He has restored an essential , Le Concert des Nations Barcelona and Vienna. The group’s most recent Since 2004, Mr. Kraemer has been professor of repertoire to all those with ears to hear it. Except came into being in 1989 as the youngest of the productions are Farnace by Vivaldi, first performed at the Escuela Superior de Música de for the “happy few” who already revere it, the vi- groups directed by Jordi Savall. It emerged out in Madrid’sTeatro de la Zarzuela (2001) and taken Catalunya in Barcelona, and teaches at universities ola da gamba, is an instrument so refined that it of the preparations for the projected performance up again in Bordeaux (2003), Vienna (2005) and and conservatories across Europe and America. takes us to the very brink of silence. Through three of Canticum Beatæ Virgine by M. A. Charpentier, Paris (2007), and released on CD by Alia Vox. In 2004, he founded, with Pablo Valetti, Balázs ensembles—Hespèrion XXI, La Capella Reial de the new ensemble answering the need for an or- Monteverdi’s Orfeo was recorded on DVD for Máté and Alessandro de Marci, the Rare Fruits Catalunya and Le Concert des Nations, all found- chestra using period instruments and able to play BBC/Opus Arte (2002), as was Die Sieben letzten Council. The group’s performances have attracted ed together with —Jordi Savall the orchestral and symphonic repertoire from the Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze by F. J. Haydn the attention of both public and critics alike, and has explored and fashioned a universe of emotions Baroque to the Romantic periods (1600–1850). Le (2007) in a co-production by Element Productions its recordings have received the most important in- and beauty, presenting it to audiences everywhere Concert des Nations is the first orchestra of its kind and Alia Vox (2007). ternational awards. and to millions of music lovers, and thus bring- made up of musicians mostly from Latin countries He coordinates his international activities with ing recognition to the viola da gamba and to music (Spain, Latin America, Italy, , France, etc., Manfredo Kraemer was born in and local projects. As impresario and director from its from here and elsewhere that had fallen into ob- though without excluding musicians from other began his muscial training in Córdoba. Interested inception in 2000 of the Festival Camino de las livion, all of which has earned him a place as one of countries), all prominent specialists in perform- in the violin repertoire of the 17th and 18th cen- Estancias in Córdoba (Argentina), an international the foremost champions of early music. ing on original instruments. The impact made by turies, he emigrated in 1984 to , where festival of , he assembled one of the One of the most multifariously gifted musi- their recordings and by their concerts in the major he studied at the Musikhochschule Köln. In 1985, first and most famous original instrument orches- cians of his generation, his career as a concert venues and early-music festivals over the years have he and other musicians founded the orchestra tras in Argentina. performer, teacher, researcher and creator of new built up its reputation as one of the finest period- Concerto Köln. Mr. Kraemer’s baroque violin interpreta- projects, both musical and cultural, make him one instrument today, capable of tackling In 1986, he was invited to become a member tions have been acclaimed by the press all over of the principal architects of the current revalua- a wide-ranging and varied repertoire embracing of Musica Antiqua Köln, under the direction of the world. His recordings of Biber’s Harmonia- tion of historical music. With his key contribution everything from the earliest works for orchestra Reinhard Goebel, with which he performed many Artificioso-Ariosa and Sonatæ tam Aris quam Aulis to Alain Corneau’s film Tous les Matins du Monde (L’Orchestre de Louis XIII, 1600–1650) to works by concerts over a period of five years as soloist as well servientes with the Rare Fruits Council have won (winner of a César best-soundtrack award), his busy Romantic masters, taking in the key composers of as conductor, giving near 100 concert per year the Diapason d’Or, the 10 de Répertoire and the concert life (over 140 concerts a year) and record- the Baroque and Classical periods on the way. across Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. Grand Prix de l’Academie du Disque, and were ing schedule (six recordings a year), and with the The orchestra’s mission of bringing a high- With this ensemble, he made numerous recordings highly praised as the reference recordings of these creation of his own record label, Alia Vox, he is quality historical repertoire to audiences every- for the Archiv label of Deutsche Grammophon, as works. His other recordings include the world pre- demonstrating that early music does not have to where through performances that are both his- well as many radio and television appearances. miere of Speelstukken by the virtuoso violinist and be elitist: It can arouse interest in everyone, its torically sound and also revitalising was made In 1991, Mr. Kraemer began a career as a free- composer David Petersen and, more recently, the audience being ever younger and ever stronger clear in their first recordings: Charpentier, J. S. lancer under the direction of conductors William Trio Sonatas of J. S. Bach (10 de Répertoire). in numbers. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Handel, Marais, Arriaga, Mr. Savall has recorded over 170 CDs. He has Beethoven, Purcell, Dumanoir, Lully and Biber. won many awards, most recently his double-CD Recent productions include works by J. S. Bach,

44 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 45