programme
New Worlds
2021-22
Genius Friday 1 July 2022 | 7.30pm Barbican Hall, London
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At a glance
NEW WORLDS
2021-22
A New Created World Haydn’s The Creation with Laurence Cummings 28 September 2021 | Barbican Hall, London
The Enchanted Forest Handel, Rameau and Geminiani with Josette Simon OBE 27 October 2021 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge 28 October 2021 | Milton Court Concert Hall, London
South America from Rome to Peru with VOCES8 24 November 2021 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge 25 November 2021 | Milton Court Concert Hall, London
Travelogue a voyage across Europe with Anna Dennis 16 February 2022 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge 18 February 2022 | Milton Court Concert Hall, London
Exile Haydn in London with Ann Hallenberg 9 March 2022 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge 10 March 2022 | Milton Court Concert Hall, London
St John Passion JS Bach’s masterwork in its rarely heard 1725 version 15 April 2022 | Barbican Hall, London
La Turquie Ottoman Empire at Versailles 18 May 2022 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge 19 May 2022 | Milton Court Concert Hall, London
Genius Mozartian fireworks with Ya-Fei Richard Egarr and Robert Levin Chuang 1 July 2022 | Barbican Hall, London
Ya-Fei Chuang fortepiano Robert Levin tangent piano Academy of Ancient Music Laurence Cummings director & harpsichord
Friday 1 July 2022 | 7.30pm Barbican Hall, London
Genius MOZART Overture and Ballet from Idomeneo MOZART Piano Concerto No.7 K242 à 3 Interval: 20 minutes
MOZART Symphony No.41 ‘Jupiter’
Welcome
from
John McMunn chief executive
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to ‘closing night’ of Academy of Ancient Music’s 2021-22 season, New Worlds. And what better way to conclude a series that has taken in magical realms, faraway lands, emotional extremes and innovative new styles than with a demonstration of pure, unstoppable genius? Tonight, we celebrate not only the compositional genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – at three very different stages in his all-too-brief career – but the dazzling virtuosity of three acclaimed soloists: Robert Levin, Ya-Fei Chuang and our very own Music Director Laurence Cummings. Following this evening’s performance of the triple concerto K242, we will record that work (along with the double concertos K242, K365 and K315f) for inclusion in our cycle of Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra. It has been a privilege to work closely with Robert, Laurence and AAM’s former Music Director Richard Egarr over the past year on this ambitious project, and I’m delighted to be able to share some of this work with you all tonight. 4 /
You can learn more about this project on page 22. CDs to follow from next year! As ever, I’m grateful to our excellent musicians for their professionalism and skill, both in this evening’s concert and across the 2021-22 season, and indeed to you all for your unstinting support through difficult and changeable times. Thank you for joining us and enjoy the show.
We are AAM
Academy of Ancient Music is an orchestra with a worldwide reputation for excellence in baroque and classical music. Using historically informed techniques, period-specific instruments and original sources, we bring music vividly to life in committed, vibrant performances. Established nearly 50 years ago to make the first British recordings of orchestral works using original instruments, AAM has released more than 300 albums to date, collecting countless accolades including Classic BRIT, Gramophone and Edison awards. We now record on our own-label AAM Records, and are proud to be the most listened-to period-instrument orchestra online, with over one million monthly listeners on Spotify. Beyond the concert hall, AAM is committed to nurturing the audiences, artists and arts managers of the future through our innovative education initiative AAMplify. Working in collaboration with tertiary partners across the UK, we engage the next generation of periodinstrumentalists with side-by-side sessions, masterclasses and other opportunities designed to bridge the gap from the conservatoire to the profession, safeguarding the future of historical performance. AAM is Associate Ensemble at the Barbican Centre, London and the Teatro San Cassiano, Venice, and is Orchestra-in-Residence at the University of Cambridge, Milton Abbey International Summer Music Festival and The Apex, Bury St Edmunds. The 2021–22 season sees Laurence Cummings join the orchestra as Music Director.
Visit us at aam.co.uk to find out more
EARLY MUSIC PUBLISHED BY NORSK MUSIKFORLAG English Keyboard Music c.1650-c.1700
A Series of Facsimiles of Manuscript Sources Edited by Heather Windram and Terence Charlston. English Keyboard Music, Volume 1: London, Royal College of Music Library, MS 2093 (1660s-1670s) English Keyboard Music, Volume 2: London Palace Library, MS 1040 (1650s-1660s)
Hidden Treasures of Music: A series of music from the past in new practical editions. Edited by Terence Charlston
Charles Wesley: Organ Concerto in G Minor Op. 2 No. 5 Albertus Bryne: Keyboard Music for Harpsichord and Organ Carlo Ignazio Monza: Pièces Modernes pour le Clavecin
For further information please visit our website: www.musikkforlagene.no
MOZART &
HAYDN
Haydn Symphony No 86 Mozart Piano Concerto No 18 Plus John Adams & Gershwin
Mozart Piano Concerto No 27 Plus Schubert & Tchaikovsky Returns only
Sunday 12 June, Barbican
Tuesday 5 July, LSO St Luke’s
Conducted by Sir Simon Rattle with Imogen Cooper
Conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner with Maria João Pires
lso.co.uk
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Héloïse Werner Gavin Higgins
Carmen Ho
BACH I NS P I RED
Charlotte Harding
James B Wilson Des Oliver
Six new commissions @thebachchoir #BachInspired
Launching 2022
Join our mailing list at thebachchoir.org.uk
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)
Overture and Ballet from Idomeneo, K366/367 (1781) 1. Overture 2. Chaconne – Larghetto – Chaconne – 3. Pas de seul 4. Passe-pied 5. Gavotte – 6. Passacaille Idomeneo , Mozart’s tenth completed opera, is by general consent his first masterpiece in the genre, and the result of a happy coincidence of rising talent and timely opportunity. The opera was commissioned by the Elector Palatine of Bavaria, Karl Theodor, and first performed at his court theatre in Munich in January 1781. It was a chance the composer took gladly. He had not seen a new opera on to the stage for six years, and in the intervening period his style had matured immeasurably, not least after his extended visit to Paris, where he had been much impressed by the dramatic operas of Gluck. These in turn had their roots in the powerful tragédie lyrique tradition of Lully and Rameau, and, significantly, Idomeneo’s libretto was based on a French text first set by André Campra as far back as 1712: it tells the tale of the King of Crete, who survives a storm at sea by vowing to Neptune to sacrifice the first person he meets on returning home, only for that person to be his own son Idamante. Also borrowed from French opera was an approach to drama that found an important place for dancing; indeed, so cherished was this association that operas frequently finished with an extended ballet sequence after the plot has been sewn up and all the singing done. Such ballets need not be related to the main drama, nor even be by the same composer, so Mozart was pleased to discover while preparing Idomeneo that he would be providing his own dance music. ‘This is good,’ he wrote to his father, ‘as all the music will now be by one composer.’ In modern-day performances the ballet rarely makes it to the stage – after all, we know nothing of any choreographical or dramaturgical connections it might have had to the opera – and it even has a separate number in the Köchel catalogue of Mozart’s works. The Overture to the opera has a boldness and seriousness to it that accords well with the fateful subject, though thematic links to the body of the work are limited to a tiny falling motif associated with Idamante, that is heard soon after the beginning / 9
and makes further appearances in the long diminuendo at the end. Three hours later in the planned Munich entertainment, the Ballet opens with a Chaconne (an extended movement with a recurring refrain), which leads directly to a noisily introduced Pas de Seul (solo dance). Despite the air of finality reached here, there are three more dances to follow, including a Gavotte the main theme of which Mozart would later re-use in the finale of his Piano Concerto K503, and a Passacaille with the relaxed spaciousness and grace of a symphonic slow movement.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto No.7 K242 à 3 (1776) 1. Allegro 2. Adagio 3. Rondeau: Tempo di Menuetto The period between 1773, when he returned from his last trip to Italy, and 1777, the year he set out to try and make his way in Paris, was a relatively uneventful one in Mozart’s life. This was the time when service to the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg was most dominant in his life, and his position as leader of the court orchestra was at its most demanding and perhaps demeaning. With the foreign adventures of his childhood behind him, he now found himself working well within the provincial boundaries of Salzburg life, composing church music, writing a large number of symphonies, and making his first significant forays into the world of the concerto. His first concerto, in 1773, was for violin, and by the end of the year he had written his first wholly original keyboard concerto (earlier efforts having been adaptations of works by other composers). That concerto, K175, was a boisterous work full of youthful creative vigour; the next three keyboard concertos (K238, K242 and K246) date from the first half of 1776, and if they are notably less ebullient and inventive than their predecessor – there is a sense here that Mozart was more concerned with pleasing his audience than surprising them – they are nevertheless written with a skill and elegance that were beyond most of his contemporaries. K242 is in some ways the least adventurous among these concertos, though mainly in matters of form that would have been of little consequence to its intended hearers; no doubt they, no less than any audience today, would have been excited by its striking line-up of three keyboard instruments. The Concerto was composed 10 /
for performance by Countess Antonia Maria Lodron (a member of one of Salzburg's most prominent families) and her two daughters. They may well have expected a work for harpsichords – the dominant solo keyboard instrument in Salzburg at that time – but later performances took place in cities where newer types of keyboard instrument designed to address the harpsichord's lack of dynamic flexibility were beginning to flourish. The piano was one of these, but another interesting alternative was the ‘tangent piano‘, a short-lived but rather beautiful piano-harpsichord hybrid in which the strings were hit by delicate strips of wood. Tonight's performance features all three instruments, creating a kind of fantasy recreation of an ideal performance that almost certainly never took place, but which showcases the full range of colours and characters that Mozart could have used had he wished. The Countess's daughters, Aloisia and Josepha, were aged 15 and 12 respectively, and the three ladies' individual ability levels are reflected in the parts written for them, with one (presumed to have been Josepha’s), being considerably less demanding than the other two. Further performances took place in Augsburg in 1777 with Mozart participating, and in Mannheim in 1778, when the soloists were Rose Cannabich (daughter of the distinguished composer Christian Cannabich), Aloysia Weber (with whom Mozart was then besotted, but who would eventually become his sister-in-law), and his host's 15-year-old daughter Therese-Piérron Serrarius (described by Mozart as ‘our house nymph’). As befits its circumstances, K242 is courtly and refined, more of a conversation than a keyboard duel. The first movement is polite, its only hint of conflict occurring between the march-like music of the opening and the gentler material that follows it. The finest, most unmistakably Mozartian moments of the Concerto undoubtedly come in the central Adagio, which matches warm lyricism with decorative tracery of the most delicate kind. After this, the finale is a Rondeau, the composer’s favourite way of ending concertos at this period. In the equivalent movements of three violin concertos composed the previous year, Mozart had found room for humour in the episodes which separate the repeated appearances of the main theme; here, tripping over its own feet and making wittily varied reprises, it is the jokey theme itself that brings the smiles.
Interval: 20 minutes
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Wolfgan Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No.41 in C major K551 ‘Jupiter’ (1788) 1. Allegro vivace 2. Andante cantabile 3. Menuetto and Trio: Allegretto 4. Molto allegro Mozart’s final three symphonies – numbers 39 in E flat, 40 in G minor and 41 in C – set a new level of achievement for a genre that was at that time still young, yet already recognised as the principle means for an orchestral composer to show his competence and seriousness. That they were all completed between 26 June and 10 August 1788 suggests a burst of activity for which the impulse remains unclear; it was not usual at that time to compose ‘public’ works such as symphonies without the prospect of a performance, yet there is no clear record of any of these superb compositions being heard during Mozart’s lifetime. It seems likely, however, that they were among the unidentified symphonies performed at concerts Mozart gave in subsequent years in Leipzig, Frankfurt and Vienna, while a prospect of publication – perhaps mooted with the composer’s publisher, but for some reason ultimately unrealised – may also have been an impetus. Had Mozart lived longer, it is unlikely that they would have been his last symphonies, yet in their ability to combine with seemingly effortless ease a varied range of styles and emotions into a satisfying and newly sophisticated type of creation, they offer fascinating complementary outlooks on the form as it stood at the time – a statement of some kind it might seem. And by any standards they would make a proud conclusion to any symphonic journey, perhaps No.41 above all. ‘Haydn, in one of his newest and finest symphonies [No. 95], had a fugue as a final movement,’ observed the composer and teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter in 1798. ‘Mozart did this too in his tremendous Symphony in C major, in which, as we all know, he pushed things a little far.’ This assessment is not at all untypical of its time: although Mozart’s symphony is traditional in many of its points of departure, there is enough that is radical about it in both structural and expressive terms to explain Zelter’s qualified response. C major was a key usually associated with music for public ceremony, and the first movement’s stately opening suggests that this will be the prevailing mood. But Mozart’s art had by now become more all-embracing than that; as in his greatest operas, he is able to articulate more than one character at once, and so it is with surprising naturalness that there eventually appears a jaunty little tune borrowed from an aria he had composed for a comic opera. The second movement Andante cantabile is eloquent and gracefully melodic, yet interrupted by passionate outbursts and haunted by troubling woodwind colourings; the third movement’s 12 /
Menuetto and Trio have the courtliness and poise one would expect of them, even though the former is dominated by a gently subsiding chromatic line that culminates in a delicious woodwind blossoming towards the end. The most celebrated music of this great symphony is reserved, however, for the finale. A vital and superbly organic combination of sonata form and fugal procedures in which melodic ideas fly at us in an exhilarating flood of music, it eventually finds its way to a coda in which five of those ideas are thrown together in a passage of astounding contrapuntal bravado. One can imagine that this was where Zelter drew the line – if not, what else could there have been for him but to break his pen and take up some other profession? For many years this symphony was known in German-speaking countries, somewhat analytically, as ‘the symphony with the fugal finale’. The nickname ‘Jupiter’ appears to have originated in England around 1820, and how much more representative it seems of this work’s lofty ambitions! For the ‘Jupiter’ is not simply the summation of its composer’s symphonic art, it is the greatest of forward-pointers to the genre’s unlimited potential.
Programme notes © Lindsay Kemp
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Laurence Cummings
Photo: Robert Workman
director & harpsichord Laurence Cummings is one of Britain’s most exciting and versatile exponents of historical performance both as a conductor and a harpsichord player. Appointed AAM’s Music Director from this season, he is also currently Musical Director of the London Handel Festival and Music Director of Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música in Porto. Frequently praised for his stylish and compelling performances in the opera house, his career has taken him across Europe as well as the UK where he has been a regular at English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Garsington Opera, as well as conducting at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre, Opera North and Buxton International Festival and for Opera GlassWorks. Equally at home on the concert platform, he is regularly invited to conduct both period and modern instrument orchestras worldwide, including Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The English Concert, Handel and Haydn Society Boston, Croatian Baroque Orchestra, La Scintilla Zurich, and numerous international chamber and symphony orchestras. At home he has conducted the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Hallé Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra. His recordings include discs with Emma Kirkby and Royal Academy of Music on BIS, Angelika Kirschlager and the Basel Chamber Orchestra for Sony BMG, Maurice Steger and The English Concert for Harmonia Mundi and Ruby Hughes and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on Chandos, as well as a series of live opera and concert performances recorded at the Göttingen International Handel Festival and released on Accent. He has also released numerous solo harpsichord recital and chamber music recordings for Naxos.
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Ya-Fei Chuang
Robert Levin tangent piano
fortepiano
Her appearances as soloist include the City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Cologne Chamber Orchestra and the orchestras of Berlin, Boston, Israel, Malaysia, and Tokyo. Festival appearances include KlavierFestival Ruhr, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Verbier, Oregon and Leipzig Bach Festivals, the Mozartwoche Salzburg, International Taipei Maestro Piano Festival and in the US at Newport, Ravinia, Sarasota and Tanglewood festivals. Performances on fortepiano include Boston Baroque, Handel & Haydn Society, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Philharmonia Baroque, and Concerto Köln. Her chamber partners include Alban Gerhardt, Clive Greensmith, Kim Kashkashian, Steven Isserlis and Robert Levin.
Pianist and conductor Robert Levin has performed globally. On period pianos he has appeared with the English Baroque Soloists, Handel and Haydn Society, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Christopher Hogwood, Sir Charles Mackerras, Nicholas McGegan, Richard Egarr and Sir Roger Norrington. Photo:: Clive Barda
Acclaimed by critics in the United States and abroad for performances of stunning virtuosity, refinement and communicative power, Ya-Fei Chuang's mentor Alfred Brendel has praised her as ‘a pianist of extraordinary ability, intelligence, sensitivity and command'.
Renowned for his improvised embellishments and cadenzas in Classical period repertoire, his recordings include a Mozart concerto cycle for Decca; a Beethoven concerto cycle for DG Archiv; his traversal of the Mozart piano sonatas on Mozart's piano for ECM wand the complete JS Bach harpsichord concertos with Helmuth Rilling, as well as the six English Suites (on piano) and both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier (on five keyboard instruments) as part of Hänssler’s 172-CD Edition Bachakademie. Recent performing highlights include recitals at Würzburg Bach Festival and other international festivals and his annual appearances at the Salzburg Mozartwoche. / 15
Violin 1
Bojan Čičić Magdalena Loth-Hill Agata Daraškaitė Iwona Muszynska Gabriella Jones Alice Evans Conor Gricmanis Ada Witczyk
Violin 2
Davina Clarke Persephone Gibbs Julia Bishop William Thorp Holly Harman
Viola
Jane Rogers James O'Toole Rose Redgrave Sam Kennedy Thomas Kirby
Cello
Sarah McMahon Imogen Seth-Smith George Ross Poppy Walshaw
Double Bass
Timothy Amherst Dawn Baker
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Hannah Turnbull
Flute
Rachel Brown Marta Goncalves
Oboe
Mark Baigent Lars Henriksson
Clarinet
Katherine Spencer Sarah Thurlow
Bassoon
Ursula Leveaux
Horn
Huw Evans David Bentley
Trumpet
David Blackadder Phillip Bainbridge
Timpani
Benedict Hoffnung
Keyboard Technician
Marc van Wageningen Simon Neal Academy of Ancient Music is grateful to Pianos Maene for their generous support of tonight’s concert.
Staff & Trustees Founder Christopher Hogwood CBE Music Director Laurence Cummings Chief Executive John McMunn Head of Planning and Operations Fiona McDonnell Librarian Emilia Benjamin AAMplify Co-ordinator Leo Duarte
Head of Finance Julie Weaver Head of Development Liz Brinsdon Development and Events Manager Alice Pusey Head of Marketing and Digital Benjamin Sheen PR Consultant Damaris Brown, Artium Media Relations Programme Editor Sarah Breeden
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
DEVELOPMENT BOARD
Elise Badoy Jane Barker CBE Paul Baumann CBE (chair) Hugh Burkitt Alan Clark Elizabeth de Friend Graham Nicholson Helen Sprott Madeleine Tattersall Kim Waldock
Elise Badoy (chair) Hugh Burkitt Elizabeth de Friend Emmanuelle Dotezac Pauline Ginestié Agneta Lansing Terence Sinclair Fiona Stewart
COUNCIL Richard Bridges Kate Donaghy Matthew Ferrey Jonathan Freeman-Attwood CBE Nick Heath Lars Henriksson Philip Jones Christopher Lawrence
Christopher Purvis CBE (Honorary President) Sir Konrad Schiemann Terence Sinclair Rachel Stroud Dr Christopher Tadgell The Lady Juliet Tadgell Janet Unwin
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Thank you AAM is indebted to the following individuals and trusts for their support of the orchestra’s work. AAM ACADEMY CHAIR SPONSORS Leader Chris and Alison Rocker Principal Second Violin Graham Nicholson Principal Viola Elizabeth and Richard de Friend Sub-Principal Viola Judith Goodison Principal Cello Dr Christopher and Lady Juliet Principal Double Bass Elise Badoy Principal Flute Terence and Sian Sinclair Principal Oboe David and Linda Lakhdhir Principal Trumpet John and Madeleine Tattersall Principal Theorbo John and Joyce Reeve SCORES & MUSIC HIRE Dr Julia P Ellis AAM ACADEMY Lady Alexander of Weedon Marianne Aston Dr Carol Atack and Alex van Someren Paul and Diana Baumann Mrs D Broke Hugh Burkitt Clive and Helena Butler Jo and Keren Butler Daphne and Alan Clark Kate Donaghy The Hon Simon Eccles Marshall Field CBE
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Malcolm and Rosalind Gammie Madeleine Gantley The Hon William Gibson Jean Gooder Christopher Hogwood CBE, in memoriam Heather Jarman Philip Jones Mr and Mrs Evan Llewellyn John McMunn Roger Mayhew Mrs Marilyn Minchom Goldberg Professors Eric Nye and Carol Frost Alessandro Orsaria and Julia Chan Christopher Purvis CBE and Phillida Purvis MBE Chris and Valery Rees Sir Konrad and Lady Schiemann Mr Michael Smith Stephen Thomas Mrs Janet Unwin Julie and Richard Webb Mark West Mrs S Wilson Stephens Christopher White Charles Woodward Tony and Jackie Yates-Watson and other anonymous donors AAM ASSOCIATES Colin and Lorna Archer Angela and Roderick Ashby-Johnson Professors John and Hilary Birks Julia and Charles Bland Charles and Ann Bonney Mrs Stephanie Bourne Adam and Sara Broadbent George and Kay Brock Drs Nick and Helen Carroll
Derek and Mary Draper Nikki Edge Tina Fordham Noel and Fiona Gordon The Hon Mr and Mrs Philip Havers Miles and Anna Hember Frances Hogwood Andrew Jackson Ali Knocker Richard and Romilly Lyttelton Miranda McArthur Richard Meade Mr Peter and Mrs Frances Meyer Nick and Margaret Parker Jane Rabagliati and Raymond Cross Michael and Giustina Ryan The Hon Zita Savile Thomas and Joyce Seaman Colin and Brenda Soden Fiona Stewart Professor Tony Watts OBE Peter and Margaret Wynn and other anonymous donors TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS The John S Cohen Foundation Continuo Foundation The Derek Hill Foundation Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation J Paul Getty Jr General Charitable Trust John Armitage Charitable Trust John Ellerman Foundation The London Community Foundation and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts Maria Björnson Memorial Fund The Polonsky Foundation and other anonymous trusts and foundations
Join Us The loyalty and generosity of our supporters is vital to help sustain our music-making season after season. You can become part of the AAM family by joining one of our three membership schemes. Academy £1,000+ per annum * As an Academy member, you will be at the heart of the AAM. Immerse yourself in our work and meet our brilliant musicians through open rehearsals, interval drinks, post-concert dinners and special events. We also offer a bespoke ticketing service for our Academy members.
Associates £300+ per annum * As an Associates member, you will be a valued part of the AAM family. Meet like-minded individuals at interval drinks and be among the first to hear about AAM news and plans for the future. You will also receive priority booking for our Barbican concerts.
Friends Gold Friends (individual £80 per annum, joint £120 per annum) Silver Friends (individual £40 per annum, joint £60 per annum) AAM Friends are invited to join us for an annual drinks reception and you will also receive updates on what’s happening ‘behind the scenes’. Gold Friends receive priority booking for our Barbican concerts. * Your donation includes a minimum payment of £70 that secures Academy/Associates member benefits and is not eligible for Gift Aid or tax relief. To find out more, visit aam.co.uk/join-aam or contact Liz Brinsdon at liz.brinsdon@aam.co.uk | 07534 997803
Thank you for your support / 19
Completing the Cycle
Mozart’s Piano Concertos as you’ve never heard them before
We are nearing completion of the Academy of Ancient Music’s ambitious initiative to record Mozart’s complete piano concertos – a project we began in 1993 with scholar-pianist Robert Levin with the record label Decca. We are recording more than five albums of music, including Mozart’s best-loved numbered concertos as well as lesserknown works and fragments completed by Robert Levin. The albums will be released in the run-up to AAM’s 50th anniversary in 2023–24, with an eventual ‘complete set’ issued in partnership with Decca in the years following.
“Levin lives Mozart throughout his entire body, and for every second of the score… he plays the music as if he's writing it himself – for the first time.” Hilary Finch, The Times
In his lifetime, Mozart was better-known as a pianist than a composer, and was particularly acclaimed for his dazzling virtuosity and improvisational abilities. Robert Levin recreates this approach, bringing a sense of adventure to each performance and restoring improvisation to its rightful place at the heart of each composition. We need your help to bring this project to fruition. The total costs are £250,000 and we have raised over £210,000 to date. You can help us reach our target by sponsoring one of our musicians, a complete concerto or a cadenza (see right).
For further information, visit www.aam.co.uk/mozart-recordings Alternatively, contact Liz Brinsdon on 07534 997803 or by email at liz.brinsdon@aam.co.uk
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for your support
Sponsor a Cadenza A unique feature of scholar-pianist Robert Levin’s approach to Mozart’s Piano Concertos is to bring improvisation to the heart of each performance, just as Mozart would have done. In particular, almost all of the works we’re recording feature stunning improvised cadenzas.
So help us complete this project by sponsoring a cadenza! Options are available from £100 to £750. You can choose a cadenza from one of Mozart’s best-loved works, Piano Concerto No.21 K467, or perhaps one of the lesser-known early works. There is also the option of choosing a cadenza composed by Mozart, for the 2- and 3keyboard works, where spontaneous improvisation isn’t possible. If you’re not sure, we’d be delighted to talk through the options with you. Whatever you decide, you will be helping us to bring a landmark initiative to completion and creating a lasting legacy.
To make your gift Visit www.aam.co.uk/mozart-recordings or contact Liz Brinsdon on 07534 997803 or by email at liz.brinsdon@aam.co.uk
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’TIS NATURE’S VOICE
2022-23
Explore the natural world and our place within it with Academy of Ancient Music and Music Director Laurence Cummings
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The Seasons with immersive projections
Haydn’s life-affirming oratorio brought vividly to life with striking new visuals 4 October 2022 | Barbican Hall, London
Les Élémens
Cuckoos, nightingales, flood tides and a big bang with Laurence Cummings 10 November 2022 | Milton Court Concert Hall, London
Messiah
Handel’s masterpiece performed by an all-star cast led by Amanda Forsythe 16 December 2022 | Barbican Hall, London
Further concerts to be announced in September 2022 How to book
Online at barbican.org.uk | By telephone: 020 7638 8891 Monday-Saturday, 10am-8pm; Sunday and bank holidays, 11am-8pm Tickets: £50, £40, £30, £20, £15, £5 (AAMplify) plus booking fees Multibuy Get 15% off when you book three or more AAM concerts at the Barbican Centre via barbican.org.uk / 23
Interview ‘What makes music authentic is emotion’
Photo: Benjamin Ealovega
AAM leader, Bojan Čičić shares his thoughts on authenticity What makes music authentic is emotion – our tools are only there to create that. In the same way that a film is a vehicle for empathy and seeing the world through someone else’s eyes, music is about expressing emotions that we share with other people. When Monteverdi began to compose in the style of Seconda Prattica, it was always about words and emotions. The aim of composers such as he was to put music to the service of words. They used florid ornamentation and sudden harmonic changes, which are often shocking to the ears, to describe what the text was saying and to bring an emotional response. This intention of creating a reaction in our listeners hasn’t changed over the centuries. It is what we should strive for – not just using the same instruments they used back then and calling it an authentic approach. It’s good to have discussions about instruments, but that’s not the point of authenticity: the tool doesn’t make the music – the musician makes the sound, regardless of their instrument. Having said that, a musician cannot come close to developing the appropriate sensitivity for baroque or classical music without the experience of trying original instruments or their copies. Students must experience authentic instruments as much as they can. Early Music has always been an experiment. We are at a risk of losing that freshness. We don’t want to make recordings for our parents – we want to make them for our friends and generations that haven’t even been born yet. How do you remain current? By trying new things. However, it’s important that audiences are aware of what is a thoroughly 21st century invention regarding instruments and what tries to be more authentic. Then they can decide for themselves which approach they would prefer. The idea of a singular authenticity is pointless, anyway, because it changes for each generation. For example, back when the Dolmetsch Society brought old music and instruments back from obscurity in the early 20th century, its members were interested in sounds that weren’t available, or known, at the time. You can’t say that they were less authentic than us today because they didn’t know things that we know now. There are many ways to get to knowledge – it’s a path and not a destination. Read the full interview at www.aam.co.uk 24 /
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thebachchoir.org.uk Vaughan Williams, Britten and more at Holy Trinity Sloane Square
CELEBRATE WITH US! 27 MAY TO 12 JUNE 2022 IN HALLE (SA ALE)
100th anniversary festival in Handel‘s birthplace in Halle (Saale), Germany. Experience a unique festival programme with top international performers such as William Christie, Vivica Genaux, Philippe Jaroussky, Valer Sabadus, Jordi Savall and many more in authentic Handel venues. Programme available from December 2021 www.haendelfestspiele-halle.de
ANZ_HFSP_2022_128x65_Cabells_05.10.2021.indd 1
28.09.21 16:36
VALLETTA BAROQUE FESTIVAL
JANUARY 14 - 29, 2022 36 CONCERTS IN 18 DIFFERENT VENUES ACROSS MALTA www.vbf.mt
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Full programme details at aam.co.uk Founder: Christopher Hogwood CBE Music Director: Laurence Cummings Academy of Ancient Music Cherry Trees Centre, St Matthew’s Street Cambridge CB1 2LT UK
+44 (0) 1223 301509 info@aam.co.uk www.aam.co.uk Registered charity number: 1085485 All details correct at time of printing Associate Ensemble at the Barbican Centre, London Associate Ensemble at the Teatro San Cassiano, Venice Orchestra-in-Residence at the University of Cambridge Orchestra-in-Residence at Milton Abbey Summer Music Festival Orchestra-in-Residence at The Apex, Bury St Edmunds Artistic Partner to London’s Culture Mile Design by SL Chai
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@academyofancientmusic
@AAMorchestra
@acadofancientmusic @aamorchestra