An excellent week for early music. First up, The Portrait Players on Tuesday evening, followed by my discovery of Olive Simpson. Then the launch of the London Handel Festival’s autumn programme with Apollo’s Cabinet on Thursday – the day that also saw the announcement of the latest grants from the Continuo Foundation – those wonderful supporters of everything ‘early’.
The Portrait Players
So here are The Portrait Players, Kristiina, Claire and Miriam, looking very happy after their delightful recital on Tuesday – as well they might.
Love was the heft of their programme – the joys, but mainly the sorrows! The first section songs by 17th century French composers, the second featured Engish composers, primarily Purcell including both the mad song from Don Quixote and The Plaint – ‘Oh, let me Weep’ – below.
You will note that in this song Miriam is playing a treble viol, which was effectively, a small viol da gamba. Much 17th century violin music was transcribed for ladies to play on the treble viol because it was thought ‘a more suitable instrument for ladies than the violin’ – probaby because you could play it in an upright position rather than raising your arm as you would need to do to play a violin. Arm raising was considered unladylike – although by the standards of a later age, holding the instrument between your knees would have appeared a great deal more unlady like!
If you would like to hear more of the trio, get yourselves to St Olave’s church in the City of London at 1pm on Wednesday (2nd October) where they will be singing music from the 17th century theatres. More details here.
Olive Simpson
In the audience on Tuesday was my old friend Olive Simpson. Olive had actually been a friend of James, my classical record producer partner who died in 2018. We had all met many years ago at Trinity College Dublin where Olive sang, James recorded her – and I got on with learning about life. We only reconnected when, after James’ death, I asked Olive to contribute a few words at the memorial service we held for him at St Lukes.
I knew that Olive had become a professional singer with the Swingle Singers after we all left Trinity. What I did not know was that after she left the Swingles she went on to sing a great deal of early music – with The Deller Consort, The King’s Consort, The Sixteen, the Tallis Scholars, The Monteverdi Choir, The New London Consort, the Cardinall’s Musick, The Academy of Ancient Music, the Schutz Choir and more, specialising, as a soloist, in Handel, Mozart and Bach. She also worked with Iestyn Davies, Lynne Dawson, James Bowman, Dame Sarah Connolly, Nigel Hess, Sir Simon Rattle and Daniel Barenboim – and – at the other end of the musical spectrum – with Steve Reich, John Adams, Luciano Berio and Pierre Boulez.
For more on Olive – and her books of memoir musings – check into her site. If you would like to hear her sing there are a small collection of songs also to be found on her site including several by Purcell.
And finally, thanks to Olive (second career, photographer…) for the image of the Portrait Players above.
Apollos’ Cabinet – re:invention
Apollo’s Cabinet courtesy of the Continuo Foundation
The autumn programme of the London Handel Festival kicked off on Thursday with a delightful concert in St George’s Hanover Square with Apollo’s Cabinet an early music ensemble founded in 2018 – and a Continuo Foundation grantee. A core group of five musicians, they are joined by other players and singers according to the programme – in this case the really stunning soprano Lauren Lodge Campbell.
re:invention explored how composers like Handel, Bach and Telemann were often inspired by each others’ works borrowing melodies, bass lines, harmonies and texts from each other. The programme not only highlighted those links but paired modern songs by Paul Simon and Carole King with their Baroque roots.
For details of the rest of the London Handel Festival’s autumn programme see their site here – but meanwhile pencil into your diaries:
15th October – Opera Settecento with ‘Jane Barbier – Shrew’d Syren’.
21st November – Gala Recital in Support of the Music Therapy Charity
5th December – The Messiah
And finally – The Continuo Foundation
On Thursday too the wonderful Continuo Foundation which does so much to support early music and old instrument players, announced their grantees for the upcoming six months.
In the four years since they were founded at the start of the pandemic (one of the many projects kickstarted by the pandemic to help those whose livelihoods had been so suddenly snatched away from them) the Foundation has given over £850,000 to support 197 projects and 525 performances. Grants range from as little as £2000 to a maximum of £8000 and focus on early or period instruments – either the originals or modern replicas – and the groups that play them. For more details see this post or go to their site.
An offsoot of the foundation is Continuo Connect – a ‘what’s on’ of early music performances across the country. The site includes interesting articles, interviews etc but its heart is the details of festivals, performances and people connected with early music and old instruments. Whether or not you are a foundation grantee you can upload the details of your event provided you are an early music artist and have given at least 3 public performances of your music in the last 12 months. For more details check in here.
For other future happenings in at Hampstead Lane and elsewhere – see our Upcoming Events page.
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