2015 4–12 DECEMBER
Box Office 01904 658338 www.ncem.co.uk/xmas
F R I D AY 4 D E C E M B E R Event 01 Venue Tickets
7.30pm NCEM, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate £25.00 (concessions £23.00, students £5.00) including mince pies
Weekend Saver Ticket
European Union Baroque Orchestra
A Taste of the Baroque Directed from the harpsichord by
Lars Ulrik Mortensen with Aira Maria Lehtipuu concertmaster
Muffat
Sonata 5 in G from Armonico Tributo
Biber
Sonata X in g minor & Sonata IV in C from Sonatae tam aris quam aulis servientes
Marcello
Concerto for oboe and strings in d minor
Telemann
Overture, Suite & Conclusion in D from Tafelmusik II
After a thrilling performance ending the 2013 Christmas Festival, we are delighted to welcome EUBO back to York. This extraordinary band of young musicians is drawn together from across the European Union to work under the inspirational leadership of Music Director Lars Ulrik Mortensen. EUBO is like no other orchestra: its modus operandi is to audition and select new personnel annually. This ephemeral existence makes its concerts special: live performances enjoying all the technical
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accomplishment of the best young baroque musicians in Europe, allied to an infectious, undimmed sense of discovery and enjoyment. “The skillful playing of this extraordinary panEuropean orchestra…augurs well for the future of Baroque music-making in Europe” International Record Review eubo.eu
S AT U R D AY 5 D E C E M B E R Weekend Saver Ticket Event 02 1.00pm Venue NCEM, St Margaret’s Church Tickets £12.00 (concessions £10.00, students £5.00)
Les
Contre-Sujets Samuel Rotsztejn recorder, flute Laurence Valentino, Ajay Ranganathan violins Tania-Lio Faucon Cohen viola Eric Tinkerhess cello, gamba Benoît Beratto violone, double bass Takahisa Aida harpsichord Guillaume Jablonka baroque dance
The NCEM is one of eight major partner organisations from across the European Union involved in the eeemerging project that aims to promote new talent in young professional early music ensembles. This dynamic programme is led by the Centre culturel de rencontre d’Ambronay, France and brings together colleagues from Slovenia; Romania; Latvia; Italy and Germany; We welcome Les Contre-Sujets for York’s first residency.
The Four Nations Welcome to the 1st York International Concerto Competition England, France, Germany and Italy will engage in a fierce battle for the best concerto. The rules are simple : 1. Each nation will be represented by a single concerto 2. The audience will vote for their favourite concerto 3. Les Contre-Sujets will play an extra concerto from the winning nation as the encore Applications are open to any unknown baroque composer born between 1670 and 1720 from one of the above-mentioned nations. Rumour has it that Vivaldi, Telemann and even members of the Bach family could attend the competition. Special guests such as dancers are expected. Other prizes may be awarded. “The Italians worship music, the French breathe life into it, the Germans fight for it, but the English pay good money for it.” Johann Mattheson, 1713, in Das NeuEröffnete Orchestre ncem.co.uk/eee
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S AT U R D AY 5 D E C E M B E R Weekend Saver Ticket Event 03 7.30pm Venue Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York Tickets Reserved seating: £25.00 (concessions £23.00)
Promoted in association with
Yorkshire Bach Choir Yorkshire Baroque Soloists with Bethany Seymour soprano Charles Daniels tenor Stephan Loges bass Peter Seymour conductor
Haydn: The Creation Haydn’s choral masterpiece The Creation was premièred in 1798 and was performed nearly 40 times during his lifetime. It remains a life-affirming piece which is eagerly anticipated by audience and performers alike as all have wonderfully rewarding parts to play or sing. We are introduced to the creation of light, land and sea, plant life, heavenly bodies, animals, birds, fish, man and woman. It amounts to a cantata devoted to Adam and Eve and to the further praise of heaven – as is so much of Haydn’s unbeatable choral writing. The orchestra introduces us to the pre-Creation chaos and then to the emergence of the oceans and mountains, the sunrise and moonrise, the birds and the whales all with vivid scene painting. “YBC is a top notch choir, tempos bright & pacy!” BBC Radio 3 yorkshirebachchoir.org.uk
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S U N D AY 6 D E C E M B E R Event 04 10.00am – 3.30pm Venue NCEM, St Margaret’s Church Tickets £15.00 (students & observers £10.00)
War and Peace A workshop for singers and players of renaissance instruments (viols, recorders, wellbehaved cornetts, sackbuts and curtals, etc) that marks the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Marignano, when the forces of François I of France defeated Italian and Swiss opponents. Starting with Janequin’s chanson celebrating the victory we will explore music from masses by Victoria and Guerrero based on Janequin’s music, together with Susato's ‘Battle’ pavan, and intersperse this warlike music with a variety of settings of the prayer for peace ‘Da pacem, Domine’ including those by Lassus, Ferrabosco and Franck.
CHRISTMAS BY CANDLELIGHT Weekend Saver Ticket Event 05 7.30pm Venue NCEM, St Margaret’s Church Tickets £21.00 (concessions £19.00, students £5.00) including mince pies
L’Arcadia Katy Bircher flute Martin Jopp baroque violin Katie Stephens baroque cello Anne Marie Dragosits harpsichord
Ulrike Hofbauer soprano The Thomaskirche Contenders with
John Bryan, Professor of Music at the University of Huddersfield, is well-known as a viol player, choral director and workshop leader, and was the founder of the North East Early Music Forum. Please book by 27 November. Music will be available via: ncem.co.uk/battle
Weekend Saver Ticket £70.00 (concessions £65.00)
WEEKEND SAVER TICKET
Buy a ticket for events 1, 2, 3 and 5 and save 15%
Please note that all concerts must be booked at the same time and the offer is subject to availability.
Bach, Telemann, Fasch and Graupner were all finalists for the same position at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, the post famously going to Bach – the search committee’s last choice! Advent cantatas from his rivals Telemann and Graupner, a sonata by Fasch, Telemann’s exquisite sixth Paris Quartet and one of the greatest trio sonatas of the baroque era – from Bach’s Musical Offering – make compelling cases in support of all four of these composers. “[Ulrike Hofbauer] .. silvery coloratura, grace and charm” Das Opernglas larcadia.org
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M O N D AY 7 D E C E M B E R
CHRISTMAS BY CANDLELIGHT
Event 06 7.30pm Venue NCEM, St Margaret’s Church Tickets £21.00 (concessions £19.00, students £5.00) including mince pies
The
Marian Consort Rory McCleery director Elizabeth Drury, Ruth Provost sopranos Christopher Field, David Gould countertenors Matthew Howard, Tom Kelly tenors Jon Stainsby, Edmund Saddington basses
Christmas with the Shepherds The Marian Consort follows the Christmas story through the eyes of those key players in the drama of the Nativity, the shepherds, in some of the most exquisite music of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. At the heart of the programme is Jean Mouton’s beautiful motet Quaeramus cum pastoribus, which remained in the repertoire of the Cappella Sistina for over one hundred years and had a profound and lasting compositional legacy. “Exquisite...the ensemble sings with eloquence and expressive finesse” The Sunday Times marianconsort.co.uk
FESTIVAL £175.00 SAVER (concessions TICKET £160.00) Buy tickets for all events except 04, save nearly 20% Please note that all concerts must be booked at the same time and the offer is subject to availability.
Supported by queenshotel-york.com
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T U E S D AY 8 D E C E M B E R
WEDNESDAY 9 DECEMBER
Event 07 7.30pm Venue NCEM, St Margaret’s Church Tickets £21.00 (concessions £19.00, students £5.00) including mince pies
Event 08 7.30pm Venue NCEM, St Margaret’s Church Tickets £21.00 (concessions £19.00, students £5.00) including mince pies
Joglaresa
The York Waits
Belinda Sykes voice, bagpipes Sianed Jones voice, fidel Angela Hicks voice, harp May Robertson fidel, voice Louise Morgan percussion, voice Guy Schalom percussion, voice
Tim Bayley shawm, curtal, rackett, recorders, bagpipes, harp, hurdy gurdy Deborah Catterall voice, recorders Lizzie Gutteridge shawm, curtal, recorders, bagpipes, fiddle, harp, rommelpot Anna Marshall sackbut, recorder Susan Marshall fiddle, rebec William Marshall sackbut, recorders, bagpipes, gittern, guitar
Sing We Yule! Celebrate Yule with the ever-cheerful Joglaresa, and chase out the chill from the Celtic fringes of Europe. Traditional wassails, medieval carols, sizzling fidels, dulcet harp, virtuoso percussion, bells, bagpipes and soaring voices enable Joglaresa to ring in Christmas and New Year. "carnival-like exuberance ... enjoyable and virtuosic" FROOTS Magazine joglaresa.com
Crions Noel Northern European music from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries including many familiar Advent and Christmas chorales by Michael Praetorius and his contemporaries, seasonal songs and instrumental pieces that reflect the onset of winter. "Truly the Waits are among York's greatest treasures" York Press theyorkwaits.org.uk
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THURSDAY 10 DECEMBER
CHRISTMAS BY CANDLELIGHT
Event 09 7.30pm Venue NCEM, St Margaret’s Church Tickets £21.00 (concessions £19.00, students £5.00) including mince pies
Courtiers of Grace Clare Wilkinson voice
and friends Jacob Heringman lutes Gawain Glenton cornett & recorder Kirsty Whatley harp Stephen Wilkinson reader
A Rose There Is... Christmas at Luther’s family table “Music is God’s greatest gift.” In 1538 Luther celebrated Christmas with music at his home. He was ‘joyful at table’ whenever a consort of musicians was formed after dinner. Latin motets were sung, and perhaps Luther’s own Vom Himmel Hoch, written for his children. We tease out the story of man and musician in words and music. “Clare Wilkinson - flawless... heartfelt... heavenly” Early Music America clare-wilkinson.com Supported by Middlethorpe Hall Hotel and Spa middlethorpe.com One of the three Historic House Hotels of the National Trust
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F R I D AY 1 1 D E C E M B E R
CHRISTMAS BY CANDLELIGHT
Event 10 7.30pm Venue NCEM, St Margaret’s Church Tickets £25.00 (concessions £23.00, students £5.00) including mince pies
Sponsored by
Ex
Cathedra Jeffrey Skidmore conductor James Johnstone organ
An Elizabethan Christmas Programme includes: Byrd
See, see the Word is incarnate
Three generations of English composers are represented in this evocative Christmas programme Thomas Tallis, John Sheppard, William Byrd - and Orlando Gibbons, the ‘silver swan’ of the Elizabethan era who brought this golden age of music to its conclusion.
Videte miraculum
“thrillingly good” The Telegraph
Mass for Four Voices Great Service (Magnificat & Nunc dimittis)
Gibbons Tallis
This is the record of John
Sheppard Verbum caro
excathedra.co.uk
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S AT U R D AY 1 2 D E C E M B E R Event 11 7.30pm Venue Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York Tickets Reserved seating: £25.00 (concessions £23.00, students £5.00)
B’Rock Orchestra
Julia Doyle soprano Rodolfo Richter concertmaster with
A Baroque X-mas
In this richly variegated Christmas programme, B’Rock follows the star of the baroque throughout Europe. First stop: Corelli’s Italy. The eighth concerto grosso of his iconic Opus 6 is subtitled ‘For Christmas Eve’, on account of the bagpipe-like drones in its concluding ‘Pastorale’. A similar effect can be heard in Alessandro Scarlatti’s O di Betlemme altera. The glowing arias and recitatives of this touching Christmas cantata are a perfect fit for soprano Julia Doyle – as is the virtuoso solo part of Handel’s Gloria, a recently rediscovered composition from his earliest Italian years. After a journey through Purcell’s England, the quest leads to France, where
Charpentier and Delalande turned traditional Christmas songs into instrumental paragons of pastoral beauty. B’Rock’s Christmas concludes in twentieth century Latvia, with the subtle suggestion of bell-ringing in Arvo Pärt’s mesmerising Fratres. “The orchestra's precision, lush sound, unorthodox tempi and beautiful ornamentation make this evening a musical treat” Financial Times “Julia Doyle - a shining champion of the soprano arias” b-rock.org Promoted in association with
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B O O K I N G I N F O R M AT I O N Booking opens to NCEM Patrons and Friends of the York Early Music Festival on Thursday 2 July and to the public from Monday 13 July. Box Office The National Centre for Early Music St Margaret’s Church Walmgate,York YO1 9TL
www.ncem.co.uk 01904 658338 H OW TO BOOK
In person: The NCEM box office is open Monday – Friday 9.00am – 5.00pm.
Refunds: We regret that refunds can only be given if the concert is sold out and we are able to sell on the ticket. Please note that there will be a 10% administration charge. General enquiries: Please ring 01904 632220 for general information.
Group bookings: Buy nine tickets for any one concert and receive one further ticket free! All tickets must be booked in advance at the same time. Accessible facilities: The Festival offers a warm welcome to everyone. The NCEM website www.ncem.co.uk is accessible to the partially sighted and assistance dogs are welcome at concerts. For detailed information, please ring 01904 632220. The NCEM is a Typetalk Approved business.
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On-line: Visit our web site at ncem.co.uk/xmas and use the secure on-line booking service. By telephone: Please contact the box office on 01904 658338.
There is a non-refundable £1.00 administration charge for each transaction made on-line or by telephone. This includes the postage of your tickets if time permits.
By post: Write to the NCEM Box Office, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York YO1 9TL enclosing an SAE. Cheques should be made payable to the National Centre for Early Music.
Seating: Seats are unreserved except for the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall.
Reservations: Tickets must be paid for within three working days of reservation and at least 24 hours prior to the performance. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the venue immediately prior to the performance.
Concession prices: The price shown in brackets is the concession price for those aged 65 and over, registered disabled and a companion, and the unemployed.
Visitor Information The York Visitor Information Centre offers help with accommodation, ring 01904 550099 or email info@visityork.org 7.30pm Friday 30 October | NCEM The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments presents
SOUNDHOUSE Tickets: £13.00 (concessions £11.00, students £5.00) AVAILABLE NOW
NCEM PATRONS S U P P O R T I N G I N N O VAT I O N , E X C E L L E N C E & C R E AT I V E LEARNING
If you are interested in joining us please telephone 01904 632220 or email patrons@ncem.co.uk or find out more at www.ncem.co.uk/patrons
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AT A G L A N C E
Friday 4
European Union Baroque Orchestra
Saturday 5
Les Contre-Sujets
Saturday 5
Yorkshire Bach Choir
Sunday 6
Choral & Instrumental Workshop
Sunday 6
L’Arcadia
Monday 7
The Marian Consort Tuesday 8
Joglaresa Wednesday 9
The York Waits Thursday 10
Clare Wilkinson & Friends Friday 11
Ex Cathedra Saturday 12
B’Rock Orchestra
Box Office 01904 658338
www.ncem.co.uk/xmas
yorkearlymusic
The York Early Music Christmas Festival is directed by Delma Tomlin MBE and administered by the National Centre for Early Music through the York Early Music Foundation registered charity number 1068331. All details are correct at the time of going to press but NCEM reserves the right to amend the published programme if necessary.
DesignRedBonsai.co.uk 01759 319471 Front Cover Image: Jan Provoost, The Virgin and Child in a Landscape © The National Gallery, London. Presented by Queen Victoria at the Prince Consort's wish, 1863
4–12 DECEMBER