NEW WORLDS
2021-22
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The Academy of Ancient Music confirmed their status as perhaps the finest period-instrument ensemble performing today… Opera Today
We are AAM
The 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 period-instrumentalists 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; Orchestra-in-Residence at the University of Cambridge, Milton Abbey International Summer Music Festival and The Apex, Bury St Edmunds; and Research Partner to the University of Oxford. The 2021–22 season sees Laurence Cummings join the orchestra as Music Director.
Visit us at www.aam.co.uk to find out more
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
South America from Rome to Peru with VOCES8 24 November 2021 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
Travelogue a voyage across Europe with Anna Dennis 16 February 2022 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
Exile Haydn in London with Ann Hallenberg 9 March 2022 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
La Turquie Ottoman Empire at Versailles with Peter Whelan 18 May 2022 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
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Welcome
from
John McMunn chief executive On behalf of all of us at the Academy of Ancient Music, it is my great pleasure to invite you on an adventure to New Worlds. As we mark the UK’s emergence from lockdown and the arrival of our new Music Director, Laurence Cummings, AAM’s 2021–22 season surveys how composers have explored the world musically, dramatically and even literally over the centuries. From the grand vision of Haydn’s The Creation to the fantastic landscapes of Rameau and Geminiani’s works for theatre; from Zipoli and Lanier’s engagement with the creative diversity of foreign lands to Lully and Campra’s conjuring of the Ottoman Empire for the French Court – prepare to be seduced by colourful new sounds and inspired by stories both true and imagined. But more than this, prepare yourself anew for the magic of live musical performance, an experience we have all been starved of for far too long. After the ravages of COVID-19, what comfortingly familiar act could be more shockingly new?
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from
Laurence Cummings music director
Photo: Robert Workman
It is my privilege and delight to welcome you to the Academy of Ancient Music’s 2021–22 season. Though our theme is New Worlds, there is still much that will feel familiar. We rekindle connections with Mary Bevan, Ashley Riches and the vocal ensemble VOCES8, and embrace a fresh spirit of discovery, travelling through South America and 17th century Europe via the birth of Creation itself, with great performances by our acclaimed musicians at the heart of it all. We are also thrilled to welcome new artistic partners; Josette Simon OBE guides us through an evening of magical theatre music by Handel, Rameau and Geminiani; mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg plumbs the depths of despair in a series of dramatic works by Joseph Haydn; and guest director Peter Whelan leads a romp through the Ottoman Empire by way of 18th century Versailles. I hope that you will journey with us across the season, and I look forward to welcoming you soon in person.
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Season opening
Barbican Hall 28 September 2021
A NEW CREATED
WORLD
HAYDN THE CREATION
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Haydn The Creation Mary Bevan, Rachel Redmond sopranos Stuart Jackson tenor Ashley Riches, Brindley Sherratt baritone/bass Academy of Ancient Music Laurence Cummings conductor Nina Dunn video & projection designer Co-produced by the Barbican and Academy of Ancient Music
Laurence Cummings’s first concert as music director of the Academy of Ancient Music puts Haydn’s The Creation at the centre of a dazzling immersive vision. It’s hard to imagine a choral work more life-affirming than The Creation: a vision of the universe that embraces both earthworms and angels, in music of cosmic grandeur and uninhibited joy. It’s the perfect way to celebrate a new chapter in the history of the AAM, in a performance that pairs immersive visuals with sounds that never get any less fresh. As the world begins to return to normal, Cummings and the Academy are looking to the future. This is no ordinary period-instrument The Creation: Haydn innovated throughout his career, and just as his music sweeps from the chaos of a universe in flux to the vibrant colours of life in all its forms, this performance will use innovative digital effects to fill the Barbican with wonder and light. Genius is timeless, after all – and that deserves a celebration. AAM is grateful for the generous support of The London Community Foundation and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts, the Derek Hill Foundation, the Maria Björnson Memorial Fund, The Polonsky Foundation and other trusts for this performance.
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Tuesday 28 September 2021, 7.30pm | Barbican Hall, London Tickets: £50, £40, £30, £20, £15, £12.50 (live-stream), £5 (AAMplify) * see page 20 for all ticketing information
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Booking fees apply (£3 online bookings, £4 phone bookings). Booking fees are per transaction and not per ticket. If your booking contains several events, the highest booking fee will apply. Booking fees do not currently apply to in-person bookings. The booking fee may be reduced on certain events.
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New Worlds
THE
ENCHANTED FOREST
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The energetic brilliance so prominent in the AAM’s crisply athletic playing has its own rewards. The musicians are unanimously immersed in the intricacies of the music. Gramophone
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Handel Overture & Dances from Alcina Rameau Suite from Dardanus Geminiani The Enchanted Forest Josette Simon OBE narrator
Handel weaves spells, Rameau dances with gods, and Francesco Geminiani creates a whole enchanted forest on this magical history tour with Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music. Flying horses, seductive witches and aerial ballets for goddesses, Graces and the very elements themselves – welcome to baroque theatre, where storylines were fantastic, effects were spectacular and composers like Handel and Rameau became conjurors, summoning entire supernatural worlds of magic and illusion. Hear the sorceress Alcina bewitch the heroic Ruggiero, while dreams come to life and dance in Rameau’s Dardanus. And then plunge deep into The Enchanted Forest of Francesco Geminiani – an extraordinary pantomime-ballet, created in Paris in 1754, that uses a super-sized orchestra (and a supercharged imagination) to tell a tale of knights, wizards and monsters. An evening of words and truly enchanted music: surrender to its spell…
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Photo: Michael Shelford
Academy of Ancient Music Laurence Cummings director & harpsichord
Josette Simon
Wednesday 27 October 2021, 7.30pm | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge Tickets: £37.50, £29.50, £18.50, £5 (AAMplify) 20% discount for subscribers – see page 21 for all ticketing information
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New Worlds
SOUTH
AMERICA
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Anon. Hanacpachap cussicuinin Pasquini Sinfonia from La Sete di Christo Zipoli Tantum Ergo Zipoli Verso do organo A Scarlatti Dixit Dominus Zipoli Confitebor tibi Diego Sanchez de Cáseda Silencio, no chiste al aire Zipoli Beatus Vir
G Gabrieli Sonata No.21 for 3 violins Zipoli Laudate Dominum Palestrina Magnificat primi toni Marini Sonata in eco for 3 violins Zipoli Tantum Ergo A Scarlatti Gloria Patri (from the Dixit Dominus) Roque Jacinto de Chavarria Naranjitay Hisiño
VOCES8 Academy of Ancient Music Laurence Cummings director & harpsichord
The Academy of Ancient Music and VOCES8 travel from Rome to Peru, as they trace the remarkable journey of Domenico Zipoli: priest, traveller and composer extraordinaire. The baroque world was wider – and more wonderful – than we often assume. Domenico Zipoli began his career as a student of Scarlatti in Rome, and ended it as one of the most striking European voices in the music of South America. Today the AAM uncovers his legacy and his world, in company with a group of singers who’ve become a byword for sonic adventure, VOCES8. Zipoli’s own gorgeously rich and expressive sacred music takes its place alongside the works that inspired him: music by Palestrina, Pasquini, Scarlatti and Gabrieli, as well as the indigenous voices of South America itself. It’s a lively and thought-provoking perspective on the wider world of the baroque tradition, and with VOCES8 – the group that critics have called ‘the Rolls Royce of British a capella ensembles’ – joining Laurence Cummings and the AAM, it’ll positively sparkle.
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Wednesday 24 November 2021, 7.30pm | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge Tickets: £37.50, £29.50, £18.50, £5 (AAMplify) 20% discount for subscribers – see page 21 for all ticketing information
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New Worlds
TRAVELOGUE
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Dowland Come again, sweet love Monteverdi Lamento d’Arianna Lanier Sinfonia Lanier No more shall meads Ramsey, arr. Lanier The Witch of Endor Frescobaldi Recercar settimo Duarte Sinfonia No.6 Sweelinck Poi che non volete
Di Lasso Un jour vis un foulon Rusca Canzona prima à 4 ‘La Borromea’ Monteverdi Cruda Amarilli Marini Sonata d’inventione, Op.8 F Caccini Lasciatemi qui solo Lanier Hero’s complaint to Leander Monteverdi Tirsi e Clori
Join the 17th century British composer Nicholas Lanier on a voyage across Europe: a tale of elegance, innovation and simply ravishing sounds. Meet Nicholas Lanier – lutenist, courtier and musical adventurer. In 1625 he travelled from the Court of Charles I to the Venice of Claudio Monteverdi, and British music was never the same again. Today, Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music follow him on his journey, encountering heroes, lovers and geniuses along the way. We’ll travel with Lanier from the corridors of the Stuart court to Antwerp, Milan and Venice. We’ll encounter the music of Sweelinck, Frescobaldi and Leonora Duarte, as well as Monteverdi himself. And through it all runs the lively personality and gloriously expressive music of Nicholas Lanier himself, the first Master of the King’s Music and possibly – just possibly – the greatest British composer you’ve never heard.
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Photo: Michael Shelford
Anna Dennis soprano Thomas Walker tenor Academy of Ancient Music Laurence Cummings director & harpsichord
Anna Dennis
Wednesday 16 February 2022, 7.30pm | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge Tickets: £37.50, £29.50, £18.50, £5 (AAMplify) 20% discount for subscribers – see page 21 for all ticketing information
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New Worlds
EXILE “
Whether it was light dancing rhythms or the heavy tread of a ground bass, the mood was always right. The Times
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Haydn Overture from L’isola disabitata Haydn arr. Hogwood Arianna a Naxos Haydn Sinfonia Concertante in B-flat major Haydn Scena di Berenice
Exile, elegance and adventure: Laurence Cummings and the AAM follow Joseph Haydn to 18th century London, in a concert of thrilling emotional extremes. When Haydn arrived in London in 1791, he triggered a fullscale Georgian media frenzy – and responded with some of his most enduring and imaginative music. This new world offered him fortune as well as fame, and today Laurence Cummings demonstrates why, in a concert that explores the full, glorious range of one of music’s first global superstars. That means a tempestuous overture from an opera set on a desert island, and a rare performance of the Sinfonia Concertante, in which four of the AAM’s own stars take the spotlight in a witty quadruple concerto, written to delight a fashionable crowd. And at the heart of it all, two extraordinary, impassioned mini-operas. Abandoned and alone, the heartbroken Ariadne cries to the heavens. Berenice contemplates the death of her beloved – and resolves to share his fate. These two cantatas were enormous hits with the London audience, and today you’ll hear why.
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Photo: Örjan Jakobsson
Ann Hallenberg mezzo-soprano Academy of Ancient Music Laurence Cummings conductor
Ann Hallenberg
Wednesday 9 March 2022, 7.30pm | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge Tickets: £37.50, £29.50, £18.50, £5 (AAMplify) 20% discount for subscribers – see page 21 for all ticketing information
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New Worlds
LA
TURQUIE
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Lully Overture & La Cérémonie des Turcs from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme Delalande Grand pièce in G-ré-sol from Simphonies pour les Supers du Roy Campra Pasacaille & ‘La Turquie’ from L’Europe Galante Rameau Suite & ‘Le Turc Généreux’ from Les Indes Galantes Academy of Ancient Music Peter Whelan director & harpsichord
Amid the glitter and pomp of the French court, Lully, Rameau and their contemporaries looked East. Peter Whelan directs the Academy of Ancient Music, as West Road Concert Hall becomes the Palace of Versailles. Swagger, splendour and imaginations ran wild. At the court of the Sun King and his successors, no-one doubted that the world revolved around Versailles. Or that the court composers would bring all nations to pay homage – musically, at least. Lully, Rameau, Delalande and Campra evoke the world of the Ottoman Empire from a very French perspective. The result? Well, it’s not always what you’d expect – and it’s not just sizzling percussion and tangy harmonies either. Lully’s score for Molière’s social-climbing comedy holds a satirical mirror to European society. Rameau, meanwhile, gives an unexpectedly positive twist to a tale of love and forgiveness in a society very different from his own – with music as spirited as it is entertaining.
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Wednesday 18 May 2022, 7.30pm | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge Tickets: £37.50, £29.50, £18.50, £5 (AAMplify) 20% discount for subscribers – see page 21 for all ticketing information
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Join us
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The music is sublime, the individual personalities form a unique tapestry, the opportunities afforded to meet players and learn about their period instruments is outstanding. AAM supporter
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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
Associates
£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.
£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 www.aam.co.uk/join-aam or contact Liz Brinsdon at liz.brinsdon@aam.co.uk | 07534 997803
Thank you
for your support 17
AAM012
Dussek: Messe Solemnelle
Eccles: Semele
dir. Richard Egarr
dir. Julian Perkins
Choir of AAM Stefanie True soprano Helen Charlston mezzo-soprano Gwilym Bowen tenor Morgan Pearse bass-baritone
Cambridge Handel Opera Company, soloists incl: Anna Dennis soprano (Semele) Helen Charlston mezzo-soprano (Juno) William Wallace tenor (Athamas) Richard Burkhard baritone (Jupiter)
Hear the world-premiere recording of one of Dussek’s last works – his recently discovered majestic Messe Solemnelle, from a new scholarly edition by musicologist Reinhard Seigert and Richard Egarr. This Mass, full of advanced harmonic and modulatory daring, with a sense of drama beyond his contemporaries, shows why Dussek deserves to be far better known than he is. A brilliant cast of soloists is directed by Richard Egarr, whose extensive research uncovered this Mass some years ago.
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released January 2021
AAM011 released October 2020
AAM Records
John Eccles’ setting of Semele, some 30 years before Handel’s well-known work, went unperformed for 250 years. Not just a brilliant, inventive setting of William Congreve’s libretto, this album demonstrates the development of English opera after Purcell, and gives us a tantalising glimpse of what might have been, but for the arrival in London of Handel with his Italian style. A potent fusion of the English language with music, this album also features a re-telling of the ancient myth by actor and writer Stephen Fry.
as you’ve never heard them before Today we hail Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as one of the finest composers ever to have lived and his piano concertos as a pinnacle of classical form in music. But we often lose sight of the fact that during his lifetime Mozart was far better known as a performer than as a composer. Upon his arrival in Vienna in the 1780s, Mozart was the greatest pianist in Europe, a player acclaimed not just for his dazzling virtuosity, but also for his astonishing improvisational abilities. Determined to recapture Mozart’s sense of adventure, the Academy of Ancient Music’s founder Christopher Hogwood and the scholar-pianist Robert Levin came together in 1993 to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra for the first time ever on period instruments. Levin’s interpretation restored improvisation to its rightful place at the heart of each composition. All concertos were recorded with improvised cadenzas, and decorative ornamentation was applied throughout, recreating the approach Mozart would have taken.
“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.” The Times
Over the course of seven years, Levin and AAM produced eight albums in this style, featuring 17 of Mozart’s concertos, a body of work hailed by the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Historical Performance as ‘the historical performance movement at its absolute zenith’. Now, 20 years since the last release, AAM and Robert Levin aim finally to complete the cycle with new recordings made over the course of the 2021–22 season. Five albums remain, featuring not only the numbered concertos, but also lesserknown works for keyboard and orchestra, as well as a new discovery and completed fragments. The release of these new recordings will coincide with AAM’s 50th anniversary season in 2023–24, and a full set will be issued (in collaboration with Decca Records) in the years following. Upon completion, this will be the first-ever recording of Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra on either modern or historical instruments.
Visit us at www.aam.co.uk to find out more
Coming soon
Mozart’s Piano Concertos
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AAM in London Barbican Hall Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS
A New Created World: Haydn’s The Creation 28 September 2021 | Barbican Hall, London With more concerts to be announced from October 2021
How to book Online at barbican.org.uk By telephone: 020 7638 8891 Monday-Saturday, 10am-8pm; Sunday and bank holidays, 11am-8pm Multibuy Get 15% off when you book three or more AAM concerts at the Barbican Centre via barbican.org.uk Tickets: £50, £40, £30, £20, £15, £5 (AAMplify) plus booking fees * *
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Booking fees apply (£3 online bookings, £4 phone bookings). Booking fees are per transaction and not per ticket. If your booking contains several events, the highest booking fee will apply. Booking fees do not currently apply to in-person bookings. The booking fee may be reduced on certain events.
Cambridge subscription series West Road Concert Hall West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DP
The Enchanted Forest: Handel, Rameau and Geminiani with Josette Simon 27 October 2021 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
South America: from Rome to Peru with VOCES8 24 November 2021 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
Travelogue: a voyage across Europe with Anna Dennis 16 February 2022 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
Exile: Haydn in London with Ann Hallenberg 9 March 2022 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
La Turquie: Ottoman Empire at Versailles with Peter Whelan 18 May 2022 | West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
How to book Online at cambridgelivetrust.co.uk/tickets Subscriptions Get 20% off and sit in the same seats when you book all five AAM concerts at West Road Concert Hall Visit aam.co.uk/subscriptions for more information Multibuy Get 10% off when you book three or more AAM concerts at West Road Concert Hall via cambridgelivetrust.co.uk/tickets Tickets: £37.50, £29.50, £18.50, £5 (AAMplify) inclusive of booking fees
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Full programme details at aam.co.uk Music Director: Laurence Cummings Founder: Christopher Hogwood CBE 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 Research Partner to the University of Oxford Artistic Partner to London’s Culture Mile Design by SL Chai
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