February 2023 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge

from John McMunn

Chief Executive

’Tis Nature’s Voice; thro’ all the moving Wood Of Creatures understood: The Universal Tongue to none Of all her num'rous Race unknown! So writes the poet Nicholas Brady (adapting Dryden’s Song for St Cecilia’s Day) in the libretto to Purcell’s great ode Hail! Bright Cecilia. A bold claim indeed, as while it has become a cliché to refer to music as ‘the universal language’, few have gone quite so far in asserting its extension beyond humanity to the natural world. Such boldness feels apposite however in the current moment, and so we’ve chosen to dedicate our 2022/23 season to exploring the idea of nature, the natural world and our own place within it. Inevitably this takes in chattering songbirds, croaking toads, raucous storms and swirling tides. But it also considers the nature of music itself, the environments humans have created for themselves and indeed the very meaning of life.

High-mindedness aside, the root of it all is simple: music of the very highest quality – by Handel, Vivaldi, JS Bach, Purcell and others –performed to the very highest standard by our acclaimed musicians. To paraphrase Brady: what else could so charm the sense or captivate the mind?

from Laurence Cummings

Music Director

It’s my great pleasure to welcome you to Academy of Ancient Music’s 2022/23 season, ’Tis nature’s voice: a year-long exploration of the natural world and our place within it. We begin with Rebel’s Les Élémens and its famous discordant Chaos chord, soon resolving into Vivaldi’s Flute Concerto in D major ‘The Goldfinch’ and Handel’s beloved Organ Concerto in F major ‘The Cuckoo and the Nightingale’. The season further unfolds with an exploration of JS Bach’s The Musical Offering, Purcell’s exuberant Hail! Bright Cecilia, an evening of ‘musical jokes’ and Handel’s great (and too infrequently performed) earlier oratorio, Il Trionfo del Tempo. Along the way, we’re privileged to work with some of the world’s great performers including AAM’s leader Bojan Čičić, singers Sophie Junker and Reginald Mobley, and our very own principal musicians who take solo roles across the season.

Truly all of nature is here and I hope you will share in it with us. We look forward to welcoming you soon!

LESÉLÉMENS

Rebel Les Élémens Telemann Violin Concerto in A major ‘The Toad’ Vivaldi Flute Concerto in D major ‘The Goldfinch’ Vivaldi Violin Concerto in E-flat major ‘The Storm at Sea’ Handel Organ Concerto in F major ‘The Cuckoo and the Nightingale’ Telemann Overture in C major ‘Ebb and Flow’

Academy of Ancient Music

Laurence Cummings director & harpsichord

Cuckoos, nightingales, flood tides and a big bang, as Laurence Cummings conducts a virtuosic celebration of nature and music – baroque style. For the composers of the 18th century, nature wasn’t an optional extra: it was an everyday reality. So of course it found its way into their music too, and this delightful concert finds frogs and toads invading a concerto, wind instruments turning into songbirds (both caged and wild) and composers in Venice and Hamburg putting to sea on the tides of harmony. In short, all of nature is here, in music that’s alternately playful, touching and elemental in its ingenuity and power. Laurence Cummings directs soloists from within AAM, and begins with arguably the most astonishing natural wonder in all baroque music: the ear-tingling chaos with which Jean-Féry Rebel opens his suite Les Elémens. Music that was ahead of its time then – and timelier than ever today.

•Wednesday 9 November 2022, 7.30pm | West Road Concert Hall

Tickets: £37.50, £29.50, £18.50, £5 (AAMplify) 20% discount for subscribers – see page 16 for all ticketing information

MUSICAL OFFERING THE

Unfolding the secrets of Bach’s gift for a king

JS Bach The Musical Offering BWV1079

Academy of Ancient Music

Laurence Cummings director & harpsichord

The Musical Offering: music written by a giant for a king, explored and performed by Laurence Cummings and AAM. On 7 May 1747, Johann Sebastian Bach arrived at the court of King Frederick the Great of Prussia. The greatest musician of his age locked musical wits with a monarch who saw himself as a philosopher, and Bach responded with The Musical Offering – a collection of pieces designed to put the nature of music itself to the ultimate technical, intellectual and emotional test. Dazzlingly imagined and endlessly rich, The Musical Offering has fascinated performers and scholars for centuries. Today, we unfold its secrets and explore its remarkable story, as Laurence Cummings and Academy of Ancient Music focus all their insight, energy and verve on one of music’s sublimest puzzles. Bach probes the nature of creativity, harmony and (of course) genius, in a masterwork that never grows old.

•Thursday 2 February 2023, 7.30pm | West Road Concert Hall

Tickets: £37.50, £29.50, £18.50, £5 (AAMplify) 20% discount for subscribers – see page 16 for all ticketing information