Principle Tour Partner TRULY MADLY BAROQUE “For sheer technical wizardry, charismatic showmanship and expressive devilment, Red Priest is in an exhilarating class of its own.” – BBC Music Magazine Kia ora tātou I am delighted to welcome you to the first concert of the CMNZ 2019 Concert Season. Here at CMNZ it is always exciting to see the intensive planning which goes into curating a season come into life as a concert experience. We look forward to sharing that experience with you. We were thrilled when Red Priest accepted our invitation to open the 2019 Season. These extraordinary musicians showcase the extravagance of the Baroque era performing with their wonderful charisma and irreverent humour. As they travel the country, Red Priest will also be giving a family concert in Napier and education performances in Wellington and Dunedin. With a renewed interest in recorder playing across schools in Aotearoa, this is a very special opportunity for young people and families to see and hear the virtuosity of recorder player Piers Adams alongside his superb fellow musicians on violin, cello and harpsichord. Through this encounter, our musicians and audiences of tomorrow can find out just how much fun making music in a chamber group can be! Right across 2019 we will be presenting engaging and diverse music that both respects the long heritage of the genre and, like Red Priest this evening, expands the meaning of chamber music. I hope you enjoy this concert and I look forward to seeing you at the next. Ngā mihi nui, Catherine Gibson Chief Executive Chamber Music New Zealand Please respect the music, the musicians, and your fellow audience members, by switching off all cellphones, pagers and watches. Taking photographs, or sound or video recordings during the concert is strictly prohibited unless with the prior approval of Chamber Music New Zealand. “Red Priest is like no other early music instrumental ensemble you have ever heard… transforming Baroque clichés into vivid drama, often at terrific speed and with practised coordination” – Daily Telegraph Truly Madly Baroque Auckland, Napier, Palmerston North, Christchurch & Dunedin ANTONIO VIVALDI (1678-1741) Concerto in A minor (orig. B minor) RV580 Allegro – Largo – Larghetto – Allegro JOHANN PACHELBEL (1653-1706) Canon and Gigue in D major PIETRO LOCATELLI (1693-1764) Labyrinth TOMASO ALBINONI (1671-1751) Concerto in D minor op 9 No 2 Allegro e non presto – Adagio – Allegro JACOB VAN EYCK (1590-1657) The English Nightingale JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Adagio from Sonata in G minor BWV 1029 GEORG FREDERICK HANDEL (1685-1759) Passacaglia in G minor ~Interval~ JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major (BWV 1050) Allegro – Affettuoso – Allegro JOSEPH-NICOLAS-PANCRACE ROYER (1705 –1755) L’Amiable HENRY ECCLES (1670-1742) Adagio and Presto in G minor GASPAR SANZ (1640-1710) Canarios GIUSEPPE TARTINI (1692-1770) “The Devil’s Trill” Sonata Largo – Allegro – Andante/Allegro/Adagio DURATION: (First half 39 mins, second half 38 mins) *The Artists reserve the right to make changes to the programme. The Auckland concert will be recorded for live broadcast by RNZ Concert Red Priest Red Priest is the only early music group in the The group has been the subject of hour-long TV world to have been compared to the Rolling profiles for NHK (Japan) and ITV (UK) - the latter Stones, Jackson Pollock, the Marx Brothers, Spike for the prestigious South Bank Show in 2005. Jones and Cirque du Soleil.This extraordinary acoustic foursome has been described by music In 2008 Red Priest launched its own record label, critics as “visionary and heretical,” “outrageous which is now the home for all of the recordings yet compulsive,” “wholly irreverent and highly of the ensemble and its members, and has enlightened,” “completely wild and deeply attracted much attention in the music press Gramophone imaginative,” with a “red-hot wicked sense of worldwide. said of the group’s humour” and a “break-all-rules, rock-chamber ‘Handel in the Wind’ CD “Quite brilliant… some concert approach to early music.” of the most extraordinary instrumental playing you’re likely to hear”, whilst their iconic recording Founded in 1997, and named after the red- of Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ was hailed in the headed priest, Antonio Vivaldi, Red Priest has same publication as one of the four all-time best given over 1000 sell-out concerts in many of the recordings of the work. Other releases have world’s most prestigious festivals, including the included a swashbuckling collection entitled Hong Kong Arts Festival, Moscow December ‘Pirates of the Baroque’, the group’s all-Bach Nights Festival, Schwetzingen Festival, Prague blockbuster, ‘Johann, I’m Only Dancing’ and Spring Festival, Ravinia Festival, Bermuda Festival, ‘The Baroque Bohemians’, which surprised the and in most European countries, Japan, Australia, major labels by reaching No.1 in the UK Specialist and throughout North and Central America. Classical Chart in October 2017. UK Piers Adams Recorders Adam Summerhayes Violin Angela East Cello David Wright Harpsichord The Musicians Piers Adams has been Adam Summerhayes learnt heralded in the Washington first from his grandfather Post as “the reigning who studied the violin recorder virtuoso in the with Joachim’s last pupil, world today”. He has and with Adolf Brodsky, the performed in premiere violinist who premiered the concert halls throughout Tchaikovsky concerto. the world, including London’s Royal Festival, Adam then learnt from the great Yfrah Neaman. Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls, and as concerto soloist with orchestras such as the He was introduced to the Baroque violin by Philharmonia, the Academy of Ancient Music, Roy Goodman in the 1980s, initiated into period the Singapore Symphony, the Chamber instrument performance by Paul McCreesh Orchestra of Hong Kong and the BBC and studied with Micaela Comberti. He has Symphony and Concert orchestras. Piers has been highly acclaimed as a chamber musician, made several solo CDs reflecting an eclectic particularly for his recordings of previously taste, ranging from his award-winning Vivaldi unknown repertoire, including works by Aaron début disc to David Bedford’s Recorder Copland. He has also given many concerto Concerto – one of many major works written performances in Europe, Russia and the USA. for and premiered by him. Adam has recorded over 20 CDs for Harmonia Mundi, Chandos, ASV, Meridian and others. A Current projects include ‘Wild Men of the disc of his gypsy fiddle playing was described Baroque’ with Red Priest harpsichordist David as “heady stuff … thrilling virtuoso playing” Wright; an eclectic mix of classical, world, jazz (Gramophone). and folk music with pianist Howard Beach entitled ‘Flight of the Eagle’, regular festival gigs This led to a cameo appearance in Guy Ritchie’s with Adam Summerhayes’ Dodo Street Band, blockbuster movie ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game and an innovative baroque chill-out recording of Shadows’ in which a performance of one of with synth artist Larry Lush, entitled ‘Baroque his own tracks is also featured. Dream’. In addition to his work with Red Priest, Adam runs his own orchestra, and is founder and director of the Dodo Street Band, described as the last word in Celtic Gypsy Klezmer. Angela East is widely David Wright was an respected as one of the almost entirely self-taught most brilliant and dynamic musician before gaining performers in the period a scholarship to the Royal instrument world, praised in College of Music, where he The Times, London, for the won several prizes, including “elemental power” of her the International Broadwood cello playing. She has given numerous concerto Competition, and graduated with distinction. performances in London’s Queen Elizabeth and Since then he has worked with some of the Wigmore Halls, and has performed as soloist and world’s leading musicians including Emma continuo cellist with many of Europe’s leading Kirkby, James Bowman and Steven Varcoe, baroque orchestras, as well as with her own and as a soloist with many groups of ensemble, the Revolutionary Drawing Room. international renown. Among her impressive list of concert credits are He has directed numerous concerts from La Scala, Milan, Sydney Opera House, Versailles the harpsichord, including the first modern and Glyndebourne. Her disc of Bach’s Cello performance of Arne’s ‘The Blind Beggar of Suites was released on Red Priest Recordings, Bethnal Green’, and is guest conductor to together with a recital disc of popular baroque several European orchestras. cello sonatas. Much of David’s time in recent years has been Angela is very active as an educator, running devoted to performing Bach’s Goldberg workshops and training courses at home Variations, which he recorded in 2007 and has and abroad for the Suzuki Institute, as well as since toured extensively, and performed on TV running her own Alexander Technique practice and radio. from her London home. He joined Red Priest in 2011, taking over from his predecessor in a Dr. Who style regeneration event in Brighton Early Music Festival in 2010. Since that moment his life has slowly but surely started to unravel. Truly Madly Baroque The word ‘baroque’ means many different Gigue which follows is less often heard, but things: irregular, strange, bizarre, florid, over- equally appealing and well crafted. the-top, extravagant… words that sum up one of the most extraordinary periods in the Another baroque movement which has history of music. This was a time when musical transcended its context and become a rules were cast out of the window in favour popular concert piece in its own right is the of constant change and invention, leading Capriccio from Pietro Locatelli’s ‘Labyrinth’ one well known theorist at the time to state Violin Concerto in D – an extraordinary feat of “rules are what I like, and when I like it!” It is in violin pyrotechnics, and the natural precursor to this spirit that we try to reach to the true, and Paganini’s Caprices.