https://oudemuziek.nl/agenda/
I plan on going for a few days in August, to see Cantica Symphonia, Diabolus in Musica, Catalina Vicens, Capella Pratensis and Graindelavoix.
If anyone knows a good place to stay please let me know, there are a few things on airbnb.
Quote from: Mandryka on May 28, 2018, 01:33:59 AM
https://oudemuziek.nl/agenda/
I plan on going for a few days in August, to see Cantica Symphonia, Diabolus in Musica, Catalina Vicens, Capella Pratensis and Graindelavoix.
If anyone knows a good place to stay please let me know, there are a few things on airbnb.
What a wonderful excursion! I would love to take advantage of the opportunity but it's too far for me at this time.
I have to admit, that I am a bit envious. But hopefully you will comment the concerts, when you afterwards are back home.
Unfortunately I can't book the tickets until 1 June, it's only open to friends at the moment. I'm rather afraid that the concerts will have sold out before the box office opens to the general public.
I have tickets for
Cantica Symphonia - Dufay's 'Missa Ave Regina Caelorum'
Graindelavoix - Bourgondische klaagzangen
Officium Ensemble - Josquins 'Missa Pange lingua'
Cantar Lontano & Capella de la Torre - Josquins Missa L'homme armé
Diabolus in Musica - Requiem: Ockeghem en De la Rue
Graindelavoix - Dufay: een Bourgondiër in Italië
Cappella Pratensis - Josquin Desprez: het imitatiespel
The Tallis Scholars - Josquin's 'Missa l'ami Baudichon'
Vox Luminis - Josquin's 'Missa l'Homme armé sexti toni'
Weser-Renaissance Bremen - Josquin's 'Missa Ave maris stella'
Tasto Solo - Le chant de Leschiquier
And I have an apartment overlooking a canal.
I also have a ticket to hear Obrecht's Missa Maria Zart in Antwerp in August, sung by Capella Pratensis.
Quote from: Mandryka on June 01, 2018, 11:15:44 AM
I have tickets for
Cantica Symphonia - Dufay's 'Missa Ave Regina Caelorum'
Graindelavoix - Bourgondische klaagzangen
Officium Ensemble - Josquins 'Missa Pange lingua'
Cantar Lontano & Capella de la Torre - Josquins Missa L'homme armé
Diabolus in Musica - Requiem: Ockeghem en De la Rue
Graindelavoix - Dufay: een Bourgondiër in Italië
Cappella Pratensis - Josquin Desprez: het imitatiespel
The Tallis Scholars - Josquin's 'Missa l'ami Baudichon'
Vox Luminis - Josquin's 'Missa l'Homme armé sexti toni'
Weser-Renaissance Bremen - Josquin's 'Missa Ave maris stella'
Tasto Solo - Le chant de Leschiquier
And I have an apartment overlooking a canal.
I also have a ticket to hear Obrecht's Missa Maria Zart in Antwerp in August, sung by Capella Pratensis.
You lucky............you!
Quote from: Mandryka on June 01, 2018, 11:15:44 AM
I have tickets for
Cantica Symphonia - Dufay's 'Missa Ave Regina Caelorum'
Graindelavoix - Bourgondische klaagzangen
Officium Ensemble - Josquins 'Missa Pange lingua'
Cantar Lontano & Capella de la Torre - Josquins Missa L'homme armé
Diabolus in Musica - Requiem: Ockeghem en De la Rue
Graindelavoix - Dufay: een Bourgondiër in Italië
Cappella Pratensis - Josquin Desprez: het imitatiespel
The Tallis Scholars - Josquin's 'Missa l'ami Baudichon'
Vox Luminis - Josquin's 'Missa l'Homme armé sexti toni'
Weser-Renaissance Bremen - Josquin's 'Missa Ave maris stella'
Tasto Solo - Le chant de Leschiquier
And I have an apartment overlooking a canal.
I also have a ticket to hear Obrecht's Missa Maria Zart in Antwerp in August, sung by Capella Pratensis.
Fantastic line up - enjoy! Everything is something to look forward to, but I've highlighted those that I consider especially noteworthy.
Quote from: Mandryka on June 01, 2018, 11:15:44 AM
I have tickets for
Cantica Symphonia - Dufay's 'Missa Ave Regina Caelorum'
Graindelavoix - Bourgondische klaagzangen
Officium Ensemble - Josquins 'Missa Pange lingua'
Cantar Lontano & Capella de la Torre - Josquins Missa L'homme armé
Diabolus in Musica - Requiem: Ockeghem en De la Rue
Graindelavoix - Dufay: een Bourgondiër in Italië
Cappella Pratensis - Josquin Desprez: het imitatiespel
The Tallis Scholars - Josquin's 'Missa l'ami Baudichon'
Vox Luminis - Josquin's 'Missa l'Homme armé sexti toni'
Weser-Renaissance Bremen - Josquin's 'Missa Ave maris stella'
Tasto Solo - Le chant de Leschiquier
And I have an apartment overlooking a canal.
I also have a ticket to hear Obrecht's Missa Maria Zart in Antwerp in August, sung by Capella Pratensis.
Congratulations, rather overwhelming.
Hope you will report.
Train journey from London was fun because I was speaking French to a bunch of Belgians.
Train delayed on the Belgian Dutch border so I only just got to the church to hear Cantica Symphonia on time. They did a Dufay mass, Ave Regina Caelorum.
Eight singers, a couple of brass, a couple of strings a little organ.
They sound wonderful, like the early recordings with Maletto. The way the textures change is impressive. The instruments sounded great. It was like a concert - they faced us, took a bow, sang an ovation, had a little break after the credo where four songers entertained us with a motet.
There was a really impressive instrumental bit in the credo, two trumpets.
The church was uncomortable. Average age of audience early 70s
Everyone speaks English!
Now in a coffee shop near to the church, then I'm off to find my apartment.
Graindelavoix at 10,30 tonight.
Quote from: Mandryka on August 25, 2018, 06:29:41 AM
The church was uncomfortable.
That's Calvinism in a nutshell, man! Enjoyment is from the Devil. ;D
Quote
Average age of audience early 70s
Hah!
Quote
Everyone speaks English!
I can attest that!
Looks like all in all you had a great time!
Totally forgot about this thread. :)
I went to the opening concertos yesterday by the Huelgas Ensemble, a triptich on Burgundian composers.
Yes, it was like an episode of "One foot in the grave".... despite my presence at the tender age of 49. :D
And the girl sitting next to me at two of the concerts must have been no older than in her late twenties...
This country is filled with well off pensioners, that kill time by going to cultural events.
Enjoy your concerts! :) And Utrecht is a beautiful city.
Q
Graindelavoix make a really distinctive sound, it shimmers. Gerald Manley Hopkins describes it well here
QuoteThe world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed
He is probably a really inspiring lrader, because they sang their heads off. Someimes it was so.moving so expressive, i had to gasp. I nearly cried.
But it was monotonous. Too much of tthe same. It was like we were being force fed a whole box of Turkish Delight - very good Turkish Delight, but still . . .
I don't know what they were singing , here's the Google translate of the blurb.
QuoteDark sounds sigh at their best when the dark surrounds us. That is why this concert focuses on the lamentation, albeit from a special point of view. John Cage's Litany for the Whale leads seamlessly to a vocal improvisation session with Marcia Bassett, Margarida Garcia and Manuel Mota - three brothers of arms of curator in residence Björn Schmelzer. From medieval Burgundy to contemporary avant-garde: here a subtle web of references is spun, with a red thread that connects centuries and traditions].
Quote from: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 06:58:22 AM
That's Calvinism in a nutshell, man! Enjoyment is from the Devil. ;D
I'm sorry to say . . . It was a cat lick cathedral. Apparently the church is about to flog it off due to lack of interest.
There were box pews and a sort of wooden rail for kneeling on I guess. They had kneeling cushions but when I looked carefully they were just thin bits of felt.
Spanish inquisition torture. Stress positions like Americans use in interrogations. Hair shirts and mortification.
Quote from: Mandryka on August 25, 2018, 10:05:24 PM
I don't know what they were singing , here's the Google translate of the blurb.
The Festival site has an English language version: click "EN" on the left top or right bottom corner.
Q
I've been to two masses today, both by Joaquin.'
Cantar Lontano & Capella de la Torre made a concert out of Josquins Missa L'homme armé. 17 singers, mostly men, a couple of brass, a couple of reeds and a little organ. Oh, and some rather patrician gentleman beating a stick. Someone made a long speech in dutch beforehand, the audience looked typical for the sort you get at an overture/concerto/symphony concert.
It was in a huge modern auditorium, badly signposted and precariously steeply raked.
It was a lie and a travesty. They sang the mass and motets in a completely professional, routine and uninspired manner. The worst was that the singing was interleaved with rubbish renaissance style cooky instrumental nonsense.
Officium Ensemble with Missa Pange lingua, in the enormous (protestant) cathedral, was better. But I don't have time to.say more now
Quote from: Florestan on August 25, 2018, 11:11:21 AM
+ 1
The ambience of utrecht is vibrant because there are so many young people.
The centre of town is specially nice because of the canals, the reflections.
But it's the people which has most impressed me. They're all so beautiful! Sexy! Healthy looking! And cheerful, friendly to boot.
Even the food and beer is good.
Tallis Scholars singing Josquin, lots of motets including the Stabat Mater and a mass, L'ami Baudichon. I don't think I've heard the mass before.
This is some of the most beautiful music- especially the last three mass movements and the Stabat Mater. The way they sing reminds me of the way Michelangeli played piano - accurate beautiful expressive and slightly too perfect to be human. Humane but transcending humanity.
There's a lot of stuff on the web about how they are dominated by their sopranos, it wasn't true this afternoon. Balance was perfect, like everything else.
What I'm starting to see is that there's a danger in high renaissance polyphony of making the complex textures sound think and lifeless. That was a problem with Capella Pratensis 's Obrecht in Antwerp a couple of weeks ago.
One of Tallis Scholars' strengths is the way they let air into the counterpoint, and they way they bring rhythmic life while remaining fuid.
It was a pleasure, and a sort of honour, to hear them. From now on, I'm their biggest fan.
Diabolus in Musica at 10 30 tonight.
Diabolus in Musica are eight men in black.
They sang two requiems- Ockeghem and De La Rue. I didn't enjoy the De La Rue, which seemed just sub-Josquin.
The Ockeghem is a great piece of music, it sounds like it was written by Martians it's so strange by later standards, even by Josquin standards. It made me think more of Machaut's motets and mass than of music by Dufay or Josquin.
Diabolus in Musica sang in a forthright, projected, loud way. They have a powerful bass. The harmonies they created with musica ficta were bold. Their rhythms were incisive.
A couple of times they produced a strange sustained vibrato effect. I'd never heard anything like it, and the other people in the concert I spoke to were also surprised by it.
The church, Pieterskerk, is a great venue - intimate and outstanding acoustics.
Vox Luminis, an ensemble led by Lionel Meurnier, performed Josquin's l'homme armé (6 tone) mass and some motets. They are 8 men and two women, in black, wearing ties, which gives them an air of seriousness and nobility.
Nobility and seriounness are also the right words for their performance style. As are expressiveness and control.
But maybe the most interesting thing to me is that they form notes in a small and introspective way - a way which, I'd wager , owes a lot to Rebecca Stewart. This is exactly the singing style I like.
This has been the best concert of the festival so far, and they are an exciting new discovery for me.
Vox Luminis is very high on my favourites list. :)
Q
Quote from: Mandryka on August 28, 2018, 10:23:45 AM
Vox Luminis, an ensemble led by Lionel Meurnier, performed Josquin's l'homme armé (6 tone) mass and some motets. They are 8 men and two women, in black, wearing ties, which gives them an air of seriousness and nobility.
Nobility and seriounness are also the right words for their performance style. As are expressiveness and control.
But maybe the most interesting thing to me is that they form notes in a small and introspective way - a way which, I'd wager , owes a lot to Rebecca Stewart. This is exactly the singing style I like.
This has been the best concert of the festival so far, and they are an exciting new discovery for me.
Looks like you have the time of your life! Although I am not that much into this kind of music I can only envy you! I wish an equivalent all-Romantic Music Festival existed, and I wish I could attend it.
More power to you! Enjoy it to the last bit!
Graindelavoix sang music by Josquin, Gombert, Peter Philips Obrecht and others, all interleaved with recitals of poems and a prose monologue by Samuel Beckett. The singers and their leader Bjorn moved in a stylised way. There was a single prop.
The singing was good, more than good. There was more variety than in the previous Schmelzer concert. There was a Gombert Agnus Dei which was really magical. He has a red head mezzo in the group who is exceptional.
The Beckett was recited by two unimpressive actresses , inexpressive. What a shame!
More of a shame was the presentation. I saw everything very well. But the old church venue is not raked, so 90% of the audience would have seen very little, and this would have seriously compromised their appreciation. Why on earth wasn't it filmed and projected real time?
Schmelzer gave a talk on Beckett before the event. No questions allowed. He said that there was a ritual element to Beckett's art which reminded him of the compline. This wasn't expanded on.
There was a lack of panache and polish - in Edinburgh and Avignon this is the sort of thing you see on the fringe. The promise was greater than the delivery.
But there is promise there, and imagination and originality. And Schmelzer inspires his singers very well. So hats off to him.
Catalina Vicens is a keyboard player who also directs a little group of vocalists and instrumentalists called Servir Antico. She has a portative organ based in some unexplained way on an alarpiece by Jan van Eyck. It sounds great! Very dissonant harmonies.
They played early music songs celebrating women. Their style reminded me of Mala Punica. But they're not as good, because the singers seemed charmless and drab. I thought I was going to die of boredom.
Anna Danilevskaia plays a vielle, which is a sort of little gamba. She is a scholar who has researched a couple of blind vielle players who worked for the court in 15th century burgundy , leaving transcriptions for voice and accompaniment of songs by Dufay, Compere , Ockeghem etc.
She has created a group called Solazzo Ensemble, two vielle players, a lutenist and three singers. They gave a morning concert today.
This was music and music making of the highest standard. One of the best concerts I've heard in Utrecht.
I've just come out of an all Dufay concert by Graindelavoix and I'm killing time before the start of a Josquin mass in a cafe.
I think I fell asleep in the Dufay.
Schmelzer makes the music like gentle wind on a pond, although there's lots of intersecting activity it's really pretty static. Furthermore the colours of his singers are like thick oil pastels, I don't like it, it's like some sort of nauseating cake, black forest gateau and strawberry chescake.
But then once or twice, a big tidal wave comes on the mill pond, everything comes to life,, everything becomes more turbulent. I like that.
But no, I think the concert was a pretty resounding flop.
Sounds like you're not a Graindelavoix/Schmelzer fan... :D
Q
Well I enjoy some things more than others - but this may be more a reflection of me and my mood.
I saw two things yesterday. Manfred Cordes' group Weser Renaissance Bremen sang Josquin motets and Missa Ave Maris Stella. I found the concert professional, capable and rather uninspiring.
And I saw a Bjorn Schmelzer film called OUTLANDISH. It was a couple of hours long but I didn't stay for the duration.
The film opened with a motet being sung over an image of a less than turbulent sea, which made me think I was onto something when I compared his style in Dufay to waves and water.
By the way, one of the distinctive things about Schmelzer is that he uses extremely big gestures when he conducts. The first time I saw it I thought it was a joke, that he was taking the piss, but no, that's his way.
I've met quite a few people since I've been here, musicians from all over Holland. They say that he always needs to put himself right at the centre of attention, hence the dramatic gestures to mark a pulse.
I always like iconoclasts, I think it's a good thing. So on the whole I feel very positive about Schmelzer.
He makes me think of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Both workaholics, both "ordinary" in manner, like ordinary kids - Schmelzer looks and speaks like someone I used to do drugs with when I was 18! And both touched by genius, full of promise. I don't think Schmelzer has made his Berlin Alexanderplatz yet, but I bet he will, and then some.
Doulce Mémoire (Denis Raison -Dadre) are a little band of recorder and viol players, and a countertenor. They gave a concert of music based on a renaissance song called De Tous Biens Playne (what does Playne mean?) It was in a splendid intimate hall called Gasthuis Leeuwenbergh - Utrecht is very well equipped for concerts.
How civilised! An hour long morning concert based on one 15th century pop song! I like the refined quietness of Doulce Mémoire very much, I like the voice of their singer and the tone of the viols (which needed tuning every 10 minutes. ) I'm prepared to tolerate the recorders!
Quote from: Mandryka on August 30, 2018, 03:42:47 AM
Doulce Mémoire (Denis Raison -Dadre) are a little band of recorder and viol players, and a countertenor. They gave a concert of music based on a renaissance song called De Tous Biens Playne (what does Playne mean?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_tous_biens_plaine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_tous_biens_plaine)
Quote from: Mandryka on August 30, 2018, 03:42:47 AM
Doulce Mémoire (Denis Raison -Dadre) are a little band of recorder and viol players, and a countertenor. They gave a concert of music based on a renaissance song called De Tous Biens Playne (what does Playne mean?)
Playne means full, I think, it is just old spelling.
De tous biens playne est ma maistresse =
something like
My lady is full of all good things (properties).
Quote from: (: premont :) on August 30, 2018, 04:41:42 AM
Playne means full, I think, it is just old spelling.
De tous biens playne est ma maistresse =
something like
My lady is full of all good things (properties).
Ah I never thought. I was thinking it might be to do with pleindre. Thanks.
Tasto Solo performed music from their CD Le chant de l'echequier in a church.
I was near the back I couldn't see them. At first I thought I'd made a mistake, and this music doesn't suit such a large venue.
But then, half way through they performed a long Binchois song which was so moving I'm sure the whole audience forgot to breathe for 10 minutes. And from then on the concert took off.
Very attractive programme of happy music by Dufay and sad music by Binchois.
Cappella Pratensis sang a series of songs and motets and mass movements either by or inspired by Ockeghem.
This was an amazing recital, unforgettable. Beautiful refined singing.
I enjoyed this more than their Obrecht mass in Antwerp a fortnight ago, may because the mass has more large scale four part two on a part music.
Today I could hear their debt to Rebecca Stewart more clearly.