Utrecht Early Music Festival 2018

[Mandryka]

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.

[San Antone]

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.

[prémont]

I have to admit, that I am a bit envious. But hopefully you will comment the concerts, when you afterwards are back home.

[Mandryka]

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.

[Mandryka]

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.

[The new erato]

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!

[San Antone]

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.

[prémont]

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.

[Mandryka]

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.

[Florestan]

The church was uncomfortable.

That's Calvinism in a nutshell, man! Enjoyment is from the Devil. 

Average age of audience early 70s

Hah!

Everyone speaks English!

I can attest that!

Looks like all in all you had a great time!

[Que]

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. 
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

[Florestan]

Utrecht is a beautiful city.

+ 1

[Mandryka]

Graindelavoix make a really distinctive sound, it shimmers. Gerald Manley  Hopkins  describes it well here

The 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.

Dark 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].

[Mandryka]

That's Calvinism in a nutshell, man! Enjoyment is from the Devil. 

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.

[Que]

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

[Mandryka]

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

[Mandryka]

+ 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.

[Mandryka]

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.

[Mandryka]

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.





 

[Mandryka]

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.