La Palatine: “Building a happy hour around two important Italian visitors to Baroque Spain”
York Early Music Christmas Festival: La Palatine and Ensemble Augelletti, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 8 and 9
JUST as the nights turned chill, Early Music’s Christmas celebration in York blazed into life with two young groups determined to bring warmth. In their different ways, they succeeded.
La Palatine’s Fiesta Galante built a happy hour around two important Italian visitors to Baroque Spain, Domenico Scarlatti and Luigi Boccherini, framing them with lesser-known but equally talented locals.
Directed from the harpsichord by Guillaume Haldenwang, La Palatine’s complement includes soprano Marie Théoleyre, backed up by violin, cello and theorbo or guitar.
José de Nebra (1702-1768) is a name not as well known in this country as it should be, but he staged more than 50 zarzuela-style works in Madrid, while holding down a church job. His punchy rhythms reinforced by strumming were right up Théoleyre’s street, playing to the mezzo side of her voice.
In Nebra’s Que Contrario, Señor, which involved two arias, one song-like, one cheerful, Théoleyre delivered some tricky coloratura as she ornamented repeats, and her colleagues backed her to the hilt, especially violinist Murielle Pfister, who sometimes doubled her line.
Her style was less idiomatic, although equally fiery, in two higher-lying arias by Scarlatti, where she tended to fly off onto top notes without covering the tone.
More restrained was a trio sonata by Jose Herrando, although sunshine quickly re-emerged with Jeremy Nastasi’s account of Santiago de Murcia’s rhapsodic Marizapalos for solo guitar, which bordered on flamenco by the end. In such solo pieces, Nastasi would do well to face his audience so that his sound projects better into the audience.
A Boccherini cello sonata elicited much tricky double-stopping, which Cyril Poulet despatched briskly, especially in its central military allegro. A keyboard sonata by Scarlatti, K.144 in G (of no less than 555 that he wrote), enjoyed a smooth line at the hands of Haldenwang amid numerous deceptive cadences. A Spanish encore brought the full ensemble back into joyous life. More of that, please: it suits you perfectly.
Ensemble Augelletti: “A group whose enthusiasm is infectious”
The following evening saw Ensemble Augelletti, another quintet although all instrumental, take the stage in Pick A Card!, which highlighted some historical playing cards in the British Museum collection.
These were shown on a back-screen. They were amusing enough, although the link with the group’s Baroque programme was sometimes tenuous.
Olwen Foulkes, who is a dab hand on a variety of recorders, is the prime mover and most dominant voice among the Augellettis. But equally important to the ensemble’s success is the highly intelligent cello of Carina Drury, whose every note is attuned to what is going on around her. Her phrasing is exemplary.
She was largely responsible for the success of Bach’s Trio Sonata in G major, BWV 1039, especially in the incredibly active bass line of the concluding Presto. Its earlier Allegro had also generated terrific momentum. It was the group’s crowning glory.
Two dances from Purcell semi-operas were beautifully shaped and there was special entertainment in hearing Geminiani base his Third Trio Sonata on the folk-tune The Last Time I Came O’er The Moor.
After Handel at his most effervescent in part of a trio sonata, it was good to hear the dancing shepherds’ Piva from Messiah. It was immediately followed by Corelli’s Christmas’ Concerto Grosso, Op 6 No 8, moving gracefully from its dark opening through excitement into its closing lullaby. This was exactly what the festival needed.
Along the way we had appreciated Ellen Bundy’s lithe violin and Johan Lofving’s deft theorbo, but we had not heard quite enough from the harpsichord of Benedict Williams. Even so, this is a group whose enthusiasm is infectious.
Review by Martin Dreyer
York Early Music Christmas Festival runs until December 16. Full details at: ncem.co.uk. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.
Solomon’s Knot: Premiering Johann Kuhnau’s Christmas Cantatas on December 16. Picture: Dan Joy
YORK Early Music Christmas Festival 2022’s combination of music, minstrels, merriment, mulled wine and mince pies can be savoured from December 8 to 17.
The live festival will be complemented by a festive online box set, comprising highlights of seven concerts available to watch on demand from 12 noon on December 19 to January 31 2023.
Run by the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM), at St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, the 2022 festival features both Early and folk music performed by an array of artists from Great Britain, Europe and York itself.
“The NCEM welcomes old friends and new faces for this musical celebration of Christmas,” says director Dr Delma Tomlin. “As well as concerts from some of the world’s foremost exponents of Early Music, this year’s Christmas programme brings you festive cheer from The Furrow Collective, Green Matthews and The York Waits, thanks to a special Events and Festivals Grant from Make It York.
“This is the perfect choice for an atmospheric Yuletide evening away from the crowds as the York Early Music Christmas Festival transports you to a magical Christmas past, with mice pies and mulled wine available at most concerts.”
La Palatine: Opening York Early Music Christmas Festival 2022with Fiesta Galante concert
Returning after their sparkling debut in York last year, French baroque ensemble La Palatine open the festival on December 8 at 7pm at the NCEM with Fiesta Galante, a festive and colourful spread of different musical genres marking the accession of the Bourbons to the Spanish throne in 1700.
These rising stars of Creative Europe’s EEEmerging+ programme – to support the development of young professional ensembles – will be performing acrobatic sonatas, dancing cantatas and guitar pieces, capturing how the new Italianate spirit spread through Spain. Led by soprano Marie Théoleyre, the highlight will be Nebra’s sacred cantatas.
“The relationship with Europe (through EEEmerging) has been fabulous, allowing us to share these wonderful musicians’ skills,” says Delma. “Post-Brexit, the bridges will still be there; they still want to collaborate, and so do I.
“Last December, La Palatine made the audience cry…in a very positive way with the beauty of their music, especially the last song. Marie Théoleyre is such an engaging singer. People were still not getting out to many concerts, and there was such a sense of joy in being there.
“La Palatine will be here for a few days, and as part of their residency, for Restoration, a UK network of Early Music promoters, they will be presenting a private concert to be shared online, giving the promoters the chance to talk to the artists with a view to further engagements.”
Ensemble Augelletti: Invitation to Pick A Card! Picture: Luke Avery
Expect to hear fantasias as they have never been played before when improvising violinist Nina Kumin gives an illustrated concert as part of this University of York PhD student’s doctorate in Telemann’s Fantasy: The Genius Behind The Music (NCEM, December 9, 12.30pm, free admission).
Looking at how fantasias capture the style and the spirit of the Baroque, this Peter Seymour pupil will open with Telemann’s fantasias for solo violin, then will address two questions: how did baroque musicians create fantasias, and from where did they gain inspiration?
Kumin, by the way, has taken over as the director of the Minster Minstrels, the NCEM’s Early Music ensemble for school-age musicians.
In Pick A Card! (NCEM, December 9, 7pm), London’s Ensemble Augelletti explore playing card designs from the 14th century to the present day, connecting each card to a different piece of music to tell seasonal stories of people, places and animals in winter.
Olwen Foulkes, recorders, Ellen Bundy, violin, Carina Drury, cello, Toby Carr, lutes, and Benedict Willliams, keyboards, play music by Handel, Corelli, Rossi, Purcell and Ucellini to conjure up cosy evenings of playing cards around a fire, an ancient pastime for family celebrations and gatherings.
Clowning around in Ensemble Molière’s Good Soup performance on December 12
Audiences can enjoy a brace of intimate yet extrovert celebrations of JS Bach’s music in solo violin lunchtime concerts over the festival’s two weekends. Festival favourite Bojan Čičić returns to the NCEM to interpret Bach’s Sonatas (December 10, 1pm) and Partitas (December 17, 1pm), ahead of the release of his latest recording with Delphian.
York’s Yorkshire Bach Choir and the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists return to the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York (December 10, 7pm to 10pm), with soprano Bethany Seymour and Hannah Morrison, tenor James Gilchrist and bass Johnny Herford as the soloists for Handel’s Brockes Passion.
After languishing in the margins of musical history, Handel’s only Passion setting – first performed in Hamburg in 1719 – receives its debut performance in the North of England, with its vivid mixture of chorales, choruses and emotive recitatives, under conductor Peter Seymour.
Baroque ensemble Spiritato and York vocal group The Marian Consort join forces at the NCEM (December 11, 5pm) to present Inspiring Bach, an exciting, moving and profound performance featuring music and composers admired by Johann Sebastian Bach: Pachelbel, JC Bach, Knupfer and Buxtehude.
“These large-scale, uplifting works, composed after the trauma of the Thirty Years War, have a remarkable resonance today,” says Delma. “Featuring composers you might surmise were inspired by Bach or inspired the man himself, this is music form the very soul of the 17th century, crowned with soaring melodies and the glorious sound of trumpets and drums.
Ensemble Molière: NCEM’s New Generation Baroque Ensemble
“We’re delighted Spiritato are returning to York; they’re an absolutely smashing young ensemble, working incredibly hard to present unfamiliar repertoire and making a real go of it.”
To celebrate French playwright Molière’s 400th anniversary, Ensemble Molière, the first NCEM/BBC Radio 3/Royal College of Music New Generation Baroque Ensemble, re-create a time of environmental catastrophe, war and pestilence set around the table of the Sun King, Louis XIV, in Good Soup at the NCEM (December 12, 7.30pm).
“Very different from a normal baroque programme”, the evening of music, absurdist theatre, slapstick and puppetry features works by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Couperin, Marais, Dumont, Charpentier and Jean Chardevoine, complemented by clowns and performers James Oldham and Lizzy Shakespeare. Klara Kofen is the dramaturg and puppeteer; Rachel Wise, the movement director and fellow puppeteer.
The NCEM and partners will be seeking a new New Generation ensemble from next September. In the meantime, Ensemble Molière will record their debut album at the NCEM next spring, on top of their work for BBC Radio 3.
The Orlando Consort’s Matthew Venner (countertenor), Mark Dobell (tenor), Angus Smith (tenor) and Donald Greig (baritone) mark their final year of performing and recording together with Adieu, presenting a selection of pieces they have particularly enjoyed singing over the past 35 years, at the NCEM (December 15, 6.30pm, moved from 7.30pm).
The Orlando Consort: Saying goodbye with Adieu, an evening of music and conversation on December 15
The mellifluous sequence of music from across Europe ranges from the hypnotic beauty of 1,000-year-old polyphony, through the Medieval age, and onwards to the early Renaissance.
In addition, Consort members will be sharing reflections on their musical journey in a handful of behind-the-scenes touring anecdotes. That journey included a commission from Gabriel Jackson to mark the opening of the NCEM in 2000.
The main festival concludes with Solomon’s Knot’s focus on Johann Kuhnau’s Christmas Cantatas, directed by Jonathan Sells, now at the NCEM, rather than the Lyons (December 16, 6.30pm).
“Three hundred years after his death, it must be high time to bring Johann Kuhnau – the 16th cantor of the Thomasschule in Leipzig – out of the eclipsing shadow of his well-known successor, JS Bach,” says Delma.
The Furrow Collective: Opening their winter tour at the NCEM on December 2
“Thanks to the pioneering work of scholar and countertenor David Erler, his sparkling works are ever more widely available. Solomon’s Knot return to the festival to give three of them their UK premiere in York, to be followed by a second performance at Wigmore Hall, in London, the next day.
“Featuring full choir and orchestra – 25 performers in all – these cantatas will ‘raise the roof’ of our 2022 Christmas celebrations, with festive trumpets, horns, and drums providing the perfect soundtrack for Christmas and New Year.”
In further festive concerts at the NCEM, English/Scottish band The Furrow Collective present We Know By The Moon, a spine-tingling evening of storytelling and harmony, bringing light into the wintry gloom (December 2, 7.30pm), while modern-day balladeers Green Matthews evoke the spirit of Christmas past, bringing600 years of music to life in a riot of sound and colour (December 17, 7.30pm).
In the NCEM’s last Christmas concert, the stalwart York Waits celebrate the 45th anniversary of their re-creation of York’s historic city band with The Waits’ Wassail in Music for Advent and Christmas, exploring festive music from the 14th to the 17th century (December 20, 7.30pm).
For full programme details, go to ncem.co.uk. Tickets are on sale on 01904 658338, at ncem.co.uk or in person from the NCEM.
El Gran Teatro Del Mundo: Part of the NCEM’s online box set
FOR the festive online box set, the NCEM concerts by La Palatine, Bojan Čičić, Spiritato & The Marian Consort, The Orlando Consort and Solomon’s Knot will be filmed and recorded by Ben Pugh and Tim Archer, formerly of the BBC’s Manchester studios, to enjoy from the comfort of home.
The set will be completed by El Gran Teatro Del Mundo’s concert, The Art Of Conversation, filmed on November 20. A festival pass costs £45 for the seven concerts; individual concerts, £10, at ncem.co.uk, and the concerts may be watched any number of times.
NCEM director Dr Delma Tomlin says: “York Early Music Festival is one of the highlights of the city’s Christmas calendar and the online programme offers the chance for everyone to enjoy these glorious concerts wherever they are in the world, giving access to people unable to go out or attend.
“As always, we’re welcoming old friends and new to the festival, which features an extraordinary wealth of music associated with Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Our programme is the perfect accompaniment to Yuletide festivities and can be streamed well beyond Twelfth Night, so if you can’t join us in York this year, you can celebrate with us at home from December 19 to January 31.”
York Early Music Christmas Festival director Dr Delma Tomlin: “Welcoming old friends and new”
York Early Music Christmas Festival: La Palatine, Il n’y a pas d’amour heureux, National Centre for Early Music, York, December 4
IT is hard to think that an early music event has ever included a modern French cabaret song. Until now.
La Palatine, a French quartet who joined the EEEmerging scheme (Emerging European Ensembles) last year, waited until the end of their stimulating lunchtime concert to reveal the origin of their programme title, ‘Il n’y a pas d’amour heureux’ (There’s no such thing as happy love).
It was an umbrella motto for a roving exploration of the pitfalls and drawbacks of love in the songs and arias of Italian early baroque. Italian poets of the period positively wallowed in self-pity over amatory disasters, real or imagined.
Composers naturally followed suit. So we had Domenico Mazzocchi (Rome), Francesco Cavalli (Venice) and Tarquinio Merula (Cremona), amid a host of lesser lights, culminating in the great Monteverdi (Mantua) and his Lamento di Arianna.
Off-stage humming was the prelude to Kapsberger’s hymn to Rosa Bianca, whose dazzling whiteness symbolised virginal innocence. Emotions ran a lot higher when soprano Marie Théoleyre applied her fluent coloratura to Mazzocchi’s S’io mi parto (when I leave … I shall die), exactly what one would expect from a composer on the rave.
A dip into Cavalli’s opera Eliogabalo (1668) produced an aria of heartfelt pain, but the progressive Merula’s tale of a girl continually stood up by her boyfriend was actually very amusing in Théoleyre’s peppy delivery. Sometimes these breast-beating pronouncements are just a little over the top.
With two excursions into cantatas by Luigi Rossi, it was the turn of our love-lorn lass to inflict vengeance, although not before she had turned catty – some distinctly feline noises here – climaxing in some triumphal coloratura in “I’ll make you pay”.
That called for some remorse. It came with the programme’s only sacred piece, Mazzochi’s handsomely chromatic Lagrime amare (bitter tears), with weeping written into every line. It would have been even more effective if Théoleyre’s diction had been less lax.
She more than made amends, however, with a crunching Arianna, lamenting her mistreatment by Theseus, as her central mad scene reached near-suicidal levels. Invoking nature as well as her friends, she calmed down on realising that her fate awaits any who love or believe too much. Monteverdi’s supremacy in this repertory shone through every bar.
We had enjoyed instrumental interjections throughout, including a rambling Frescobaldi toccata from Guillaume Haldenwang’s harpsichord, a lute passacaglia from Juan-José Francione, and rapid gamba figurations from Noémie Lenhof, both these latter pieces by Giovanni Vitali. All were despatched with brio, as were the accompaniments to the vocal music.
Then came the final revelation. Adopting her finest Edith Piaf chest tone, Théoleyre took us into a Parisian nightclub with singer-songwriter Georges Brassens’ setting of Louis Aragon’s poem (1943) used as title for this concert. It seemed to fit perfectly. No-one minded in the slightest. Quite the contrary.
Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment: Opening the 2021 York Early Music Christmas Festival with two sold-out concerts on December 3
YORK Early Music Christmas Festival will be back in full swing this season, combining live concerts with a later online programme of festive music.
Running from December 3 to 11, then on demand from December 17 to January 14, the festival promises Christmas carols, candlelight, Vivaldi, Corelli, Bach, Handel, Purcell, Schubert, mulled wine, mince pies and Mexican melodies.
In the medieval St Margaret’s Church, in Walmgate, this celebration of Advent and the festive season will go ahead with Covid safety measures in place: seating will be socially distanced and proof of two Covid vaccinations or a negative Lateral Flow Test will be required. “No proof, no admission,” will be the strict policy, and the wearing of masks will be actively encouraged too.
To adapt to the prevailing circumstances and smaller capacities, five of the festive programmes will be performed twice, at 5.30pm and the more conventional 7.45pm.
“The philosophy is short concerts, no interval, and still selling to a limited capacity, so that people feel more comfortable because there’s more room and they don’t have to spend too much time together indoors in winter,” says festival director Delma Tomlin.
“In dark December, earlier evening concerts will appeal to a certain demographic, who can get home in good time for supper. It’s all about understanding people’s wishes as we return to going to concerts, and it’s much more practical to do two concerts in an evening, as we don’t have the same level of visitors for afternoon concerts.”
La Palatine: French songs of love, betrayal, disenchantment and loss on December 4
Looking forward to a festival with plenty of concerts sold out already, Delma says: “Christmas in most circles is a time for celebrations, a time of fanfare, ceremony and feasting. At the heart of the celebrations is a very human story which is often so beautifully illustrated through music, and we invite you to find peace, serenity, alongside mince pies and mulled wine at this busy time – and to enjoy some really fabulous music too!
“There is 500 years’ worth of glorious Advent, Christmas and winter music to go at, and frankly we all need a bit of cheering up right now.”
Opening festival proceedings will be an ever innovative, entertaining and engaging British ensemble, the Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment, whose 5.30pm and 7.45pm performances of A Baroque Christmas on December 3 have both sold out. Concertos by Corelli, Manfredini, Torelli and Vivaldi will be complemented by Handel’s Pastorelle from Messiah and works by D Scarlatti and JS Bach.
Replacing Ensemble Caladrius’s O Magum Mysterium in the festival’s first NCEM Platform Artists’ concert on December 4 at 12.15pm will be French ensemble La Palatine, presenting Il n’y a pas d’amour heureux.
The raw emotions of love, betrayal, disenchantment and loss infuse the songs and opera arias of the early baroque in Italy, as explored by Marie Theoleyre, soprano, Noemie Lenhof, viola da gamba, Jeremy Nastasi, theorbo and baroque guitar, and Guillaume Haldenwang, harpsichord, in the works of Tarquinio Merula of Cremona, Domenico Mazzocchi in Rome and Claudio Moneteverdi’s Lamento d’Arianna.
Travelling further afield, the festival takes a Mexican theme with Siglo de Oro’s Christmas In Puebla, a sold-out 6.30pm concert on December 4 that evokes the spirit of the warm breezes of South America, on Christmas Eve in Puebla Cathedral, blending dance-infused villancicos with traditional 17th century carols under the direction of Patrick Allies.
Siglo de Oro: Mexican melodies
“This will be Siglo de Oro’s York debut,” says Delma. “Somewhat delayed, though, because they were supposed to be here two years ago.”
York favourites The Gesualdo Six return to the NCEM once more, this time with In Winter’s House, on December 5 at 5.30pm (sold out) and 7.45pm (tickets still available). Director Owain Park’s programme of music evokes a sense of mystery and joy, from works of the Tudor church to the 21st century by Judith Bingham, Joanna Marsh and Sally Beamish. “They will be wallowing in the deliciousness of both old and new music,” says Delma
The second NCEM Platform Artists’ concert, supported by the NCEM’s Creative Europe-funded programme EEEmerging, will be given by Prisma, a German ensemble comprising Franciska Anna Hadju, violin, Elisabeth Champolion, recorder, Alon Sariel, lute, and David Budai, viola da gamba, on December 7 at 5.30pm and 7.45pm. “They’re so much fun, so cheerful, and a very delightful group to welcome at Christmas,” says Delma.
Their programme, A Baroque Christmas, will be wrapped around baroque trio sonatas and dances, inviting the audience to rediscover Christmas songs by Castello and Fantana in fresh arrangements laced with joie de vivre.
Pocket Sinfonia’s Mozart And A Miracle concert, on December 9 at 5.30pm and 7.45pm, aims to re-create the atmosphere of 19th century living-room parties, where the intimacy of a chamber music performance was applied to orchestral-scale pieces.
Rosie Bowker, flute, Eleanor Corr, violin, Thomas Isaac, cello, and Emil Duncumb, piano and fortepiano, will be taking a journey through the dark wintery nights of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, onwards to the Christmas cheer of Mozart’s Sleigh Ride, in a new Pocket Sinfonia transcription, and Haydn’s Miracle Symphony No. 102 in B flat.
Pocket Sinfonia: Dark journey through wintery nights
“Two members of the ensemble are from Norway, with dual nationality, and they’ll be making their debut here after I saw them on Zoom in a showcase they did in Brussels last year, and booked them on the strength of that,” says Delma.
Tenor James Gilchrist and lutenist Matthew Wadsworth reflect on love, passion and loss in Divine Love And Earthly Passions on December 10 at 5.30pm and 7.45pm, as they open with Purcell’s Evening Hymn and close with Dowland’s In Darkness Let Me Dwell on their thoughtful, sometimes melancholic, always engaging journey, with a sprinkling of Schubert and Praetorius as a taster of the festivities to come.
In A Contest Of Equals, on December 11 at 1pm, Bojan Cicic, violin, Gawain Glenton, cornetto, and Silas Wellston, organ, celebrate the late-16th and 17th century rivalry between the violin, the irreverent newcomer, and the cornetto, the older, aristocratic instrument, with music from Italy, Germany and Spain. Who will emerge victorious? Let Battaglia! commence.
The 2021 live festival concludes on December 11 with Yorkshire Bach Choir’s 7pm to 10pm performance of J S Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists under conductor Peter Seymour. On solo duty will be Bethany Seymour, soprano, Helen Charlston, alto, Matthew Long, tenor, and Johnny Herford, bass.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to hear the Yorkshire Bach Choir again at the festival after two years, and especially to hear them doing the Bach mass,” says Delma. “It’s such a cracking piece.”
Joglaresa: Carols, lullabies, dance tunes and wassails
In addition, but separate from the festival, Joglaresa will be presenting Lullay Myn Lykynge, a stand-alone concert on Monday, December 6 at 5.30pm and 7.45pm, complemented by a live-streaming of the second performance.
Their programme will offer encouragement to celebrate Yule effervescently and chase out the chill from the Celtic fringes of Europe with traditional carols, lullabies, dance tunes and wassails from Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. Armed with fidel, harp, bells, bagpipes and voices, Joglaresa will be ringing in Christmas and the New Year.
Tickets remain available for concerts unless stated otherwise at ncem.co.uk/york-early-music-christmas-festival/ and on 01904 658338.
IN the York Christmas Box Set, seven concerts from the 2021 York Early Music Christmas Festival will be available to watch online throughout the festive season.
Billed as “the perfect festive gift for music lovers” by the National Centre for Early Music, the £40 filmed concert package can be viewed on demand from 10am on December 17 to Friday, January 14.
First prompted by pandemic restrictions, the NCEM continues to share many of its festival highlights online, reaching ever-growing audiences from as far away as Japan and Australia.
The seven festival highlights in the box set are:
Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment, performing A Baroque Christmas;
Siglo de Oro, celebrating Christmas with dance-infused 17th century Mexican music;
The Gesualdo Six, returning to York after sold-out summer concerts to present In Winter’s House, Christmas music spanning many decades;
Prisma: Baroque joy in the York Christmas Box Set
EEEmerging artistsPrisma, bringing Baroque joy with fresh arrangements of Christmas music;
Pocket Sinfonia, conjuring up the atmosphere of 19th century living-room parties with Mozart and more;
Festival favourites James Gilchrist & Matthew Wadsworth, performing Divine Love And Earthly Passions, featuring music by Purcell, Schubert and Dowland;
Battaglia, the combative trio of Bojan Čičić, Gawain Glenton and Silas Wollston, staging an exuberant musical battle between the violin and cornetto, once considered rival instruments.
Festival director Delma Tomlin says: “We’re delighted to be able to bring you this fabulous array of concerts online with this wonderful Christmas Box Set, filmed at our home of St Margaret’s Church during this year York Early Music Christmas Festival.
“We’re continuing to share our music online, so those of you who aren’t able to join us in York will be able to enjoy this fabulous feast of music in the comfort of your own homes – and it’s the perfect gift to share with family and friends.
“We hope that our online friends will enjoy seeing the beautiful surroundings of our medieval home and we hope to welcome them in person in the future.”
For tickets and more information, go to: ncem.co.uk/events/york-christmas-at-home-festival-pass/
“Financial help from the ARG Fund ensures that we can stage the annual York Early Music Christmas Festival,” says director Delma Tomlin
THE National Centre for Early Music, York, has received a “generous grant” from the City of York Council’s Additional Restrictions Grant fund to help with the cost of staging this year’s York Early Music Christmas Festival.
This discretionary scheme supports York businesses affected by the lockdowns but not eligible for Lockdown Restrictions Grant and the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed Businesses) payments, thereby helping businesses that, while not legally required to close, were still severely impacted by Covid-19 restrictions.
In keeping with other arts organisations, the NCEM was forced to close its doors for several months but it continued to stage concerts and festivals digitally, sharing specially commissioned concerts all over the world, reaching audiences from as far away as Australia, Japan and the United States.
The return of a week-long York Early Music Christmas Festival from December 3 is one of the NCEM’S most important and high-profile events, attracting not only York residents but also audiences from all over Britain and beyond.
The NCEM, at St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, is fully open once more, staging its year-round programme of concerts, not only Early Music, but jazz, folk and world music too.
NCEM director Delma Tomlin says: “We’re delighted to receive this generous grant from the City of York Council. Financial help from the ARG Fund ensures that we can stage the annual York Early Music Christmas Festival, a week of music celebration featuring a line-up of world-class performers.
“The festival is hugely popular with residents and attracts visitors from all over the UK, who make it part of their Christmas calendar. It’s wonderful to see the city coming back to life and we’re very proud to be able to be part of its fabulous programme of events celebrating the festive season. We can’t wait to welcome audiences back to our beautiful home of St Margaret’s Church.”
Councillor Derek Smalley, executive member for culture, leisure and communities, says: “York’s live music scene is a crucial and vibrant part of the city’s cultural offer. We recognise the ongoing challenges venues are facing as we ease out of the national restrictions and people get used to a new ‘normal’.
“We are committed to working with the sector to provide all possible support, including promoting the great experiences on our doorstep thanks to the many brilliant live music venues across our city.”
L’Apothéose in the grounds of the National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, York, in 2019. Picture: Jim Poyner
CALLING young ensembles of the world: the deadline for applications for next year’s York International Young Artists Competition is January 14 2022.
This prestigious longstanding competition for young ensembles will take place on Saturday, July 16 at the National Centre for Early Music as part of next summer’s York Early Music Festival.
The first prize includes a recording contract from Linn Records: a £1,000 prize; opportunities to work with BBC Radio 3 and a concert at the 2023 York Early Music Festival.
Other prizes include: the Friends of York Early Music Festival Prize; the Cambridge Early Music Prize and a prize for The Most Promising Young Artist/s endowed by the EUBO Development Trust.
The competition is open to Early Music ensembles with a minimum of three members; ensembles must have an average age of 33 years or under, with a maximum age of 37 years for individuals.
The ensembles must demonstrate historically informed performance practice and play repertory from any period, spanning the Middle Ages to the 19th century, on period instruments.
The competition is recognised as a major international platform for emerging talent in the world of early music. Attracting musicians from all over the globe, it offers a boost to young professional careers with opportunities for performance, recording and broadcasting and international exposure.
NCEM director Delma Tomlin says: “We are so pleased to be staging the 2022 competition, which brings together young musicians of the highest calibre from the UK and all over the world.
“This is one of highlights of the York Early Music Festival and we are always overwhelmed by the superb quality of the performances from these fantastically talented young artists. The competition provides a joyous, optimistic finale to our festival and we are delighted to be able give these rising stars many exciting future opportunities.”
2019 winners L’Apothéose say: “Winning the York competition was an extremely important and prestigious recognition of our career, and taking part was an immensely joyful experience.”
Fellow former winners Sollazzo Ensemble enthuse: “Winning the competition was a turning point in our career, bringing us to the attention of both a wider audience and professionals throughout Europe.”
Details of how to apply can be found at yorkcomp.ncem.co.uk; alternatively, send an email to yorkcomp@ncem.co.uk.
