Houston Early Music              
Who:   LUCIDARIUM

When:   4:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 4, 2008

MUSIC AND POETRY OF THE JEWS OF RENAISSANCE ITALY

Houston Early Music will present the acclaimed Italian ensemble Lucidarium in a performance of La Istoria de Purim: Music and Poetry of the Jews of Renaissance Italy on Sunday, May 4.  The program, which won the European Association for Jewish Culture award for musical creation in 2004, is a reconstruction of the soundscape that would have accompanied a typical Northern Jewish Italian family through the liturgical year and life cycle. It combines sung poetry in Giudeo-Italian, Yiddish and Hebrew, traditional liturgical and paraliturgical music, and the lively songs and dances that would have been used to celebrate life’s transitions. The performance will be at First Unitarian Universalist Church, 5200 Fannin, at 4:00 p.m.

Founded in 1991, Lucidarium specializes in medieval and early Renaissance music with a special emphasis on unknown or little-known repertoires. The combination of meticulous preparation and creativity, which has opened up new perspectives in historical performance practice, has brought both popular and critical acclaim to the ensemble.  Lucidarium has toured extensively throughout Europe and North America and has performed in most of the important European early music festivals, including: Festival van Oude Muziek (Utrecht,) Festival Divina Musica Musica e Poesia a San Maurizio (Milan) and Freunde alter Musik Basel. Recently the ensemble won an unprecedented second EAJC award, as well as a grant from the Rothschild Foundation, for the creation and recording of Ain neues Lid, a project dedicated to the music of the German-speaking Jews from the 16^th century.

There will be a preconcert talk at 3:00 p.m. by Avery Gosfield, Co-director of Lucidarium.

Tickets are $30 for general admission, $25 for seniors, $10 for students, under 15 free. Tickets may be purchased at the door or by calling 713-432-1744. 

Houston Early Music is funded in part by grants from the City of Houston

through Houston Arts Alliance.

Gloria Moretti: voice

Viva Biancaluna Biffi: voice, viola d’arco

Enrico Fink: voice, narrator

Avery Gosfield: recorder, pipe and tabor

Marco Ferrari: recorder, dulcian, shawm, double flute

Francis Biggi: viola da mano, viola da penna, cetra, colascione

Massimiliano Dragoni: hammer dulcimer, percussion

PROGRAM

Prayer for the Removal of the Torah from the Ark (En Kamokha/Shema Israel)

Les Caterines / La Cara Cossa (La Folia)

Dos lid fun der sreyfe in Venedig

Anello

All Creatures in Heaven and on Earth (Kol Berue)

Bofo-Bukh

Buovo d’Antona

Moresca (sull’ Aria d’ottava)

Ishena at ani geor venodad

Tu dormi, io veglio e vo perdendo i passi

Tu dormi, io veglio a la tempesta e vento

Pass’e mezo a la bolognesa    

Saltarello a la bolognesa

Songs for the Celebration of Purim

   La Cansonetta di Purim

   La Istoria de Purim io ve racconto Moresca (sull’ Aria d’ottava)

   Meghillat Esther                 

Songs for the Celebration of Passover

    Ma Nishtana/Avadim Hainu

    Fuggi, fuggi, fuggi (Il Ballo di Mantova)               

    Khad Gadya / Un Caprett

    Khad Gadya, Khad Gadya                           

Music and Poetry of the Jews in Renaissance Italy.”

In its first visit to Houston, this noted Italian ensemble presents a reconstruction of the soundscape that would have accompanied a typical Northern Jewish Italian family through the liturgical year and the life cycle. It combines sung poetry in Giudeo-Italian, Yiddish and Hebrew, traditional liturgical and paraliturgical music, and the lively songs and dances that would have been used to celebrate life’s transitions. www.lucidarium.com

Tickets are $30 for general admission, $25 for seniors, $10 for students, under 15 free. Tickets may be purchased at the door or by calling 713-432-1744.

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Program List

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Saturday, March 29, 7:30 pm
St. Philip Presbyterian Church
Tickets: $15, available at the door

Our annual collaboration with the Moores School of Music Collegium Musicum features Giocomo Carissimi’s vivid oratorio on the story of Jonah and the whale. Music of other rarely heard 17th-century Roman composers completes Ars Lyrica’s tribute to the eternal city.

More at Ars Lyrica

….Brazilian-Uruguayan countertenor José Lemos sang with appealing simplicity and directness. With a smooth sound that served the music, he could twist listeners around a vocal finger with sensuous melodies or, aided by the instrumentalists, make them fidget with energy.

Playing a wide variety of flutes, recorders, strummed and bowed string instruments (the crumhorn was ailing and couldn’t be used), the Consort had great fun producing spirited, polished music for the large audience in Midtown’s First Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is slowly becoming a location for performances of liturgical and early music as part of its overall rejuvenation.

Consort members noted that the ensemble is now in its 28th year of touring, but one took a moment to congratulate Houston Early Music on its 40th anniversary (it previously was known as the Houston Harpsichord Society). Because of the group, Houston has become a key stop for touring early-music performers, he said.

More at The dark side of ¡Cancionero! | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Chamber Music and More…

click to download PDF file

Houston’s early-music scene is getting another major boost with the founding of the Heinrich Schütz Choir of Texas.

Based at First Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Midtown, the new ensemble debuts on April 20 with a Vesper service featuring Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien, an hour-plus work considered the composer’s most important funeral music. Allen Hightower, director of choral activities at Sam Houston State University, will conduct. The initial concert will feature 24 singers, period instruments and other works of Schütz.

more … Schütz choir to offer new early-music venue | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

MADCAP, RED PRIEST AND ANGEL

Baroque violinist John Holloway, cellist Jaap ter Linden and harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen, three of the greatest names on the international early music scene, will return to Houston for a performance sponsored by Houston Early Music on April 11.  The trio will perform a French/Italian-themed program titled Madcap, Red Priest and Angel which features violin sonatas by Corelli, Veracini (Madcap) and Leclair (said to have played like an angel), a Vivaldi (Red Priest) cello sonata and a Couperin harpsichord sonata.  The performance will be at St. Philip Presbyterian Church, 4807 San Filipe.

John Holloway is one of the pioneers of the early music movement. His extensive work as leader of the London Classical Players and his years with noted early music ensembles (including the Academy of Ancient Music, Les Arts Florissants, and the Freiburger Barockorchester) established him as a major voice in authentic performance.  Holloway is currently Professor of Violin (modern and baroque) and Chamber Music at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden.

As one of the first early music specialists, Jaap ter Linden witnessed the beginnings of many of the oldest and finest baroque ensembles; he co-founded of Musica da Camera and served as principal cellist of Musica Antiqua Köln, The English Concert and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.  He is highly sought as a soloist and conductor for both modern and period-instrument ensembles around the world.

Noted Danish harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen has a career as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, North and South America and Japan. He appears regularly with soprano Emma Kirkby.  His recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations won him a Diapason d’Or. He is the artistic director of Concerto Copenhagen, and appears regularly directing opera at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen.

At 7:00PM, Dr. Gregory Barnett, assistant professor of musicology at Shepherd School of Music, Rice University will give a lecture on the evening’s program.

Tickets are $30 for general admission, $25 for seniors, $10 for students, under 15 free. Tickets may be purchased at the door or by calling 713-432-1744. 

Houston Early Music is funded in part by grants from the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.