Overview of
Houston Early Music's 2003-2004 Season
Claudio Monteverdi and his Contemporaries
Friday, October 3, 2003, 8 p.m.Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts
Join us for our opening concert as this brilliant, young group from Italy explores the passion and beauty of vocal and keyboard music of the 17th century. La Venexina is rapidly gaining an international reputation as one of the world’s finest interpreters of the Italian madrigal, having been praised by the New York Times for "taking Monteverdi madrigals out of the museum and presenting them as living, vital works."
Claudio Monteverdi
with Houston Chamber Choir, Ars Lyrica Houston, and The Whole Noyse
Co-Sponsored by Moores School of Music (University of Houston) and Houston Chamber Choir
Two performances:
Saturday, Nov. 15, 2003, 8 p.m.
and Thursday, Nov. 13, 8 p.m.
at
Moores Opera
House
University of Houston
(UH exit 16 off Cullen)
We are pleased to join with two of our city’s premier musical ensembles in presenting one of the great masterworks of sacred music, Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Virgine. Houston Chamber Choir and Ars Lyrica Houston will be joined by the period wind ensemble, The Whole Noyse, in bringing to life this monumental work.
Prior to the November 15th performance at 7:00 in the Moores School of Music, renowned Monteverdi scholar, Dr. Jeffrey Kurtzman will present a lecture entitled "Honoring the Virgin, the Pope and Advertising Himself: Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine of 1610."
On Christmas Night – Music for the Yuletide Season
The Baltimore Consort
Sunday, December 14, 2003, 4 p.m.
Christ Church Cathedral, 1117 Texas
You requested, and we happily complied with, a return engagement by this Houston favorite. Baltimore Consort returns with a selection of old carols and dance tunes from the British Isles, France and Appalachia performed on lute, flute, voices and viols in a program sure to delight the entire family. You and yours are invited to join us after the concert in the Great Hall for wassail and holiday treats.
Children 12 or under are admitted free to all concerts. Children are especially welcome at our Christmas concert.
Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet
Friday, February 27, 2004, 8:00 p.m.
St. Paul's Methodist Church
"…a thoroughly unconventional ensemble that defies standard notions about the recorder and its limitations." (Chicago Tribune)
Noted for flawless ensemble playing and breathtaking technique, this internationally renowned Dutch recorder quartet presents a concert of renaissance masterworks from Spain and the Low Countries performed on a collection of recorders ranging in size from the 6 inch garklein to the six-foot contrabass.
Harmonia Artificiosa – The Sonata à Cinque in the 17th- & 18th-Century
Rebel
Saturday, March 27, 2004, 8:00 p.m.
St. Anne Catholic Church
A beautiful and intriguing program of chamber music from 17th- & 18th-Century Italy, Germany and Austria tracing the origins of the quintet as we know it today, written for the richly sonorous formation of two violins, two violas and basso continuo, featuring rarely performed works by Salamone Rossi, H.I.F. Biber, Johann Rosenmüller, Georg Muffat and Georg Phillip Telemann.
"Vitality and enthusiasm … virtuosity and joy." (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Hispanic Heritage Series
El Mundo
Friday, May 7, 2004, 8:00 p.m.
Christ Church Cathedral
This electrifying vocal and instrumental ensemble, noted for its exciting performances of baroque music from Spain and her New World colonies, returns to Houston after its stunning success in 2002 with a program of selected scenes from 17th-Century Spanish zarzuelas and Latin American music dramas. Featured will be excerpts from San Ignacio de Loyola, a sacred drama from the Viceroyalty of Peru with music by Dominico Zipoli.
"Savino and his ensemble provided crackling good playing." (Houston Chronicle)
Recordings by artists featured by Houston Early Music are available at
Joel's Classical Shop4010 Bissonnet St, Houston, TX 77005
Phone: (713) 665-0954
These activities are made possible in part by a grant from the City of Houston and the Texas Commission on the Arts through the Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris County