On Her Majesty’s Service

The kings and queens of the 18th century – one might think – did not lack for anything. But if you were a woman promised to a foreign ruler in marriage, you had to be prepared for possibly a lot of sadness and most of all loneliness. This is what Queen Charlotte may have experienced when she moved to England as the German wife of King George III – without speaking a single word of English. But as Queen she soon found ways and means to deal with her homesickness and founded the Queen’s Chamber Band, a chamber music ensemble at the English court whose members had one thing in common above all: they were German.

For our Artist-in-Residence project we put together a duo programme with works from the sphere of Queen Charlotte. The spinet switches roles, from basso continuo to obligato accompaniment or solo playing with accompanying flute. In a virtuoso competition, works by the Queen’s most important musical acquaintances will be heard. This music not only helped Charlotte to alleviate her homesickness, but also to get closer to her husband. For it was mainly their love of music and playing music together that was the bond between them. This happiness was not to be  long-lived, though: after a few years of marriage – without Charlotte initially getting to know about it – there first signs of the King’s mental illness began to appear, an illness which was to weigh deeply on her in the years to come.

The works in our programme – written in happier days when Charlotte and George pursued their joint passion for music together – tell of a vibrant music scene, of historic encounters, of successful concert series, and of a Queen and her destiny.

Concert Programme

Works by Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782), John Stanley (1712-1786), Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787) and Johann Christian Fischer (1733-1800).

Website Cicerone Ensemble

From the project description of La Tabatière – un petit orchestre historique

EDINBURGH CALLING
A Journey in the Footsteps of the Edinburgh Musical Society

Towards the end of the 17th century, Edinburgh’s social and cultural life awakened to new splendour. Several elements contributed to this positive development: the increasing wealth of Edinburgh as a trading centre; the spread of jurisprudence, medicine and good schools; the increasing annoyance of the upper classes at the censorship imposed by the church on their social entertainments; the Europe-wide enthusiasm for the new Italian and French Baroque music which could be experienced by Scottish travellers in relatively close proximity, in places such as London, Paris, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg; and finally, Freemasonry – a secret religious movement which at that time was spreading all over Europe and was taken up by many Scots. Freemasonry was based on a belief in the innate goodness of human beings and in the possibility of overcoming  barriers between Protestants and Catholics and between the upper and lower classes. So in the early 18th century, in Edinburgh, there was a series of concerts as well as a club influenced by Masonic thought where aristocratic musical amateurs met up with professional musicians from humbler classes, discussing and playing music together on an equal footing. In 1728, this club was officially established as Edinburgh Musical Society. It offered musicians well-paid employment and a meeting point for art music which had been lacking in Scotland since the departure of James VI (five generations before). At the same time, the club attracted foreign musicians to Edinburgh, many of them known or becoming known as first-class artists.

With its unusual, very special and entertaining programme, our ensemble La Tabatière – un petit orchestre historique – would like to achieve three main goals:

First we would like to refreshing the splendour of and interest in  music composed or performed in Edinburgh in the 18th century, at the turn of the late Baroque to the classical period, and in works which were most popular at the cultural and social events organised by the Edinburgh Musical Society.

Secondly we aim to enhance the status of the anonymous spinet (albeit signed by Neil Stewart), by imagining his music workshop as the point of reference for our (time) travel to Edinburgh. We will walk towards South Bridge and his shop, just a stone’s throw from St Cecilia’s Hall (where from 1763 the Society’s official events were held) and purchase sheet music and other scores by well-known musicians of the past, as well as some by composers who in those days were innovative and fashionable. We will get together and play these pieces on our instruments and on the spinet from Stewart’s own workshop which most probably graced the elegant salon of an aristocratic Scottish music enthusiast of the time. And finally we will share our experiences with our beloved audiences, in a small, very exclusive house concert by La Tabatière, our very own small, but exclusive Musical Society.

The third goal is simply to celebrate the birthday of our popular composer, Carl Friedrich Abel (born on 22 December 1723 in Köthen), who, of course, from his London base was continuously in touch with the Society and even played a small part in its artistic development … A nice quartet by him will also feature in the concert programme.

Concert Programme
Works by Francesco Barsanti (1690 – 1775), William McGibbon (1690 – 1756), Francesco Geminiani (1687 – 1762), Carl Friedrich Abel (1723 – 1787), Johann Georg Christoph Schetky (1737 – 1824) and Domenico Corri (1746 – 1825)

LA TABATIÈRE - un petit orchestre historique

From Duo Alter Ego’s project description:

An Italian Gallery

In the mid-18th century, Great Britain was one of the world’s most important cultural centres: major cities attracted numerous foreign musicians who often settled and worked there. Just think of Handel, Hasse or Porpora, for example, who could assert themselves as first-rate opera composers in London, thanks to support by the Opera of the Nobility or the Royal Academy of Music.

Among those international artists,  Italians were a very well-represented national group: many Italian virtuosos found enthusiastic audiences in Britain with their brilliant playing, and accordingly numerous collections of chamber music were created in the British Isles.

Our project therefore looks at music for traverso and keyboard instrument (be it as continuo or obligato instrument) by Italian composers who were active in Great Britain in the so-called late Baroque period. This is repertoire you could even imagine to have ideally been performed by our line-up in the times of Neil Stewart’s original spinet. It is mainly galant music: repertoire rich in contrast and colours in which a spinet and a traverso feel very much at home.

The influence of the violin and its music is clearly visible in this music, of course, and it had been Italy where an extremely important tradition had begun with Corelli and his pupils.

The rarely performed flute repertoire from that time often came from violinists or consisted partly of adaptations and arrangements of violin music. We have been intensively involved with this approach to the violin: we regularly play music scored for the violin, not only in historical arrangements (we recently recorded Corelli’s sonatas in their historical arrangement), but also in our own arrangements inspired by historical sources, and we explore the relationship between these two instruments.

This relationship is also noticeable in our programme suggestion for this new project. The instrument we would be playing is particularly exciting for us: the sound of a spinet can get even closer to that of the flute than a harpsichord can, and so creates a more intimate atmosphere.

We intended to design our programme to be similar to a gallery of paintings: as a contrasting yet consistent sequence of portraits by different authors.

Concert Programme

Works by Francesco Maria Veracini (1690 – 1768), Giacobbe Basevi “Cervetto” (1680 – 1783), Johann Christian Bach (1735 – 1782), Pietro Castrucci (1679 – 1752) and Francesco Xaverio Geminiani (1687 – 1762).

Ibera Auri is awarded an additional fourth scholarship as “Young Artist-in-Residence 2023”

From Ibera Auri’s project description:

The balcony of Marizápalos
Iberian Music of the 17th century and its influence on Europe

In the 17th century, María Calderón, aka Marizápalos, was the mistress of Spanish King Philip IV. At the Queen’s request she had to watch events on Madrid’s Plaza Mayor from a balcony located at some distance from the royal balcony, and this famous balcony is named after her.

Ibera Auri would like to look across the borders from the ensemble’s “Iberian balcony”, while immersing themselves in the Iberian musical tradition of the 17th and 18th centuries. At the Spanish court of King Philip IV and Queen Isabel (a sister of French King Louis XIII) and thus also in the sphere of Marizápalos, various musical traditions influenced each other, in particular the French and Spanish traditions. While the King probably preferred Spanish cantatas, folk songs and zarzuelas, the Queen might have enjoyed the Airs de Cours from her French home country.

In its programme, Ibera Auri would like to show how the Iberian musical tradition was present in the rest of Europe during the Baroque period, right through to the 18th century, and how it was also closely interwoven with other European traditions. For our programme, we explored repertoire from various sources recorded and published in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and England.

Concert Programme

Works by Antoine Boësset (1587-1643), Etienne Moulinié (1585-1665), Michel Lambert (1610-1696), Antonio Martin y Coll (1660-1734) and Sebastián Durón (1660-1716), as well as works by anonymous composers.

.

The focus of this programme presented by these two young, highly talented musicians will be on music by Ferdinand Ries and Bernhard Romberg. Romberg, presumably the most prominent central European cellist of his times, had a close working and personal friendship with Beethoven pupil and composer, Ferdinand Ries. These two composers made a tour through Russia, Moldavia, Ukraine, Romania and Estonia. In addition to works written especially for this endeavour, the focus of the programme is also on improvisation – an art practiced both by the composers and today’s artists – live in the castle’s Music Salon and in a concert film.

Website Artem Belogurov
Biography Víctor García García

Flóra Fábri and Martin Jantzen applied for the scholarship with the unusual combination of fortepiano und arpeggione. With their programme, they would like to explore which music is most closely related to the character of the arpeggione, and they want to highlight new facets through the transformation of arrangements. They will combine the music of Clara and Robert Schumann, marked by Romantic depth, with that of Johann Sebastian Bach.

The arpeggione is particularly suited to emotional and rather fragile works – not without reason, contemporaries called it the “sentimental guitar” or “violoncelle d’amour”. Interestingly enough, the instrument’s similarity to the viola da gamba was also remembered. This was already was remarked upon in the first newspaper articles reporting about the instrument after its “birth”.
The two musicians want to build a bridge between these two fairly distant eras. They intend to build on this experiment and create further programmes of this kind.

Website Flora Fabri
Website Martin Jantzen

In their Artist-in-Residence Programme, the Rödberg Trio want to dedicate themselves to piano trios by Clara and Robert Schumann and by Niels Wilhelm Gade.

Website Rödberg-Trio

Trio Radiant will play works by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, by Clara and Robert Schumann and Louise Farrenc.
They juxtapose – on an equal footing – works of the famous male composers and the rather forgotten works by the female composers who were related to these men.
The central focus is a merged version of two piano trios by Felix Mendelssohn and Fanny Hensel. They are intended to grow into one, forming a symbiosis, just as Fanny and Felix maintained a symbiotic relationship throughout their lives. Creating a kind of F-A-E sonata by these two siblings.
Around this there is a group comprising the loving Schumann couple (with a Trio and a Fantasy) and Louise Farrenc (with Trio Op. 11).

A wide variety of sounds, styles and instruments can be experienced in the film Soñar-Soñar. Traditional Sephardic and Irish music, works by Arvo Pärt and Hildegard von Bingen are side by side with Renaissance and Baroque compositions, played on recorders of different sizes and design, accompanied by harp, percussion and live electronic music. How exciting to see and hear what two highly talented musicians and an equally talented filmmaker have created in the impressive atmosphere of the castle’s barn at Schloss Weißenbrunn. Not to be missed!

Duo L’Oro
Friederike Merkel and Babett Niclas who also regularly play together in other ensembles, in Duo l’Oro indulge their virtuoso joy of playing music and their love for intricately detailed arrangements. This resulted in concerts at the Innsbrucker Festwochen, zamus: Köln, Schleswig-Holstein Musiksommer, Heinrich Schütz Musikfest, Felix URBAN, in the Museum of Fine Art in Leipzig and in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. With the experimental ensemble Soundtravelers, Babett Niclas was honoured with the “D-bü” award of the German Music Academie in 2017.

Website Babett Niclas

The exciting combination of harp and guitar, played by two exceptional young artists, this promises to be an unusual film experience.

A Journey from Toledo to Madrid, that is the title they gave to their concert film. The programme’s focus is on two Baroque composers: one of them – Santiago de Murcia – was a guitarist and lived in Madrid, the other – Diego Fernandez de Huete – was harpist at Toledo Cathedral. His main work, “Compendio numeroso de zifras armónicas” provided the title for this concert.

Cordis Consort
The Cordis Consort ensemble was born from the idea of Juan Josè Francione and Carlotta Pupulin to revolve around plucked instruments, concentrating the work of studying the repertoire on original material for harps, guitars and lutes. The use of original material written for solo instruments has led to intensive arrangement work, so that what was originally written for one instrument could be played on two or more instruments. The arrangements are influenced not only by the knowledge of early music and basso continuo but also by the Latin American folk repertoire, which in turn is strongly influenced by Spanish culture and sounds.

Carlotta Pupulin on Facebook
Juan José Francione on Instagram

Music from Vienna from around 1800 is showcased in this unusual concert which moves between two worlds: parlour and pub. There is the old woman grumbling that everything used to be better in the olden days (in an amusing and mischievous setting by Mozart), there is Beethoven’s idiosyncratic version of the folk song »Alle Vögel sind schon da« (All the Birds Are Already Here), and there are gentle, melancholy sounds in Haydn’s »Das Leben ist ein Traum« (Life is but a dream). Just like life itself, with is many facets, and continually surprising. Presented in a lively performance by two young musicians from Vienna, with poetic images from the castle and the park. Enjoy!

Website Johanna Falkinger

One of the most popular topics from Greek mythology is the focus for the concert film featuring two well-known musicians, Monika Mauch and Thomas Leininger: »Arianna a Naxos«, set to music by Joseph Haydn. After their joint victory over the Minotaur, Ariadne, for love of Theseus, follows him to the island of Naxos. In the beginning, Haydn describes her waking up and longing for Theseus whom she supposes to be out hunting. However, when she climbs a high rock on the island, she sees that Theseus is leaving her aboard a ship. Haydn impressively sets to music Ariadne’s lamentation and anger about the unfaithfulness of this man. Musical drama extraordinaire.

Website Monika Mauch
Website Thomas Leininger

Fanie Antonelou & Sofya Gandilyan did intensive work on their programme of poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe which were set to music in the time when the fortepiano by Melchior Guante was built. Works include compositions by Mozart and Beethoven as well as some by less well-known composers such as Zelter, Reichardt and Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick Wolfenbüttel. They concluded their residence in Weißenbrunn with another wonderful concert film.

Website Fanie Antonelou
Website Sofya Gandilyan

Daniel Johannsen, equally praised as subtle Lied singer and outstanding evangelist, and Matthias Krampe, Viennese conductor, organist and Lied accompanist serve up a “Vienna Mélange”, humorous and deep, containing both well-known and rarely heard music. A perfect blend of black humour and exuberant musicality. Enjoy!

Website Daniel Johannsen