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Spotlight turns on young international talent at York Early Music Christmas Festival. Who else will be performing? UPDATED 4/12/2024

Australian soprano Emilia Bertolini. Picture: David Caird

INTERNATIONAL young musicians will take centre stage in the York Early Music  Christmas Festival from December 6 to 15.

The National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) continues to support exceptional young talent in the field of Early music by welcoming three ensembles from Europe under the NCEM Platform Artists spotlight.

Taking part will be Australian soprano Emilia Bertolini, winner of the 2024 Corneille Competition New Voices in Normandy, promoted by Le Poème Harmonique; Contre le Temps, a medieval vocal ensemble from France, supported by the EFFEA’s artist-in-residence Discovery programme, in partnership with AMUZ, and Intesa, a duo of Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgetti, who met at the Royal Academy of Music.

Musaelian and Giorgetti will be staying on in York afterwards to work on Baroque Around The Books, a musical tour of York libraries in a short residency with Explore York. They formed the duo only last year and are already making their presence felt on the concert platform.

Contre le Temps: Medieval vocal ensemble from France

The NCEM has a hard-earned reputation for its support of emerging talent across Europe, running both the biennial International York Young Artists Competition and until recently they were a key partner within the Creative Europe EEEmerging programme.

Ensembles showcased by the NCEM over the past few years include Protean Quartet, Sollazzo Ensemble, winners of two Diapason d’Or de l’année awards, and BBC New Generation Artists Consone Quartet.

NCEM Delma Tomlin MBE says: “The York Early Music Christmas Festival is a firm favourite on the city’s calendar. This year I’m thrilled to welcome three ensembles to York who will no doubt be a fabulous addition to this year’s spectacular programme. 

“The NCEM is dedicated to promoting the extraordinary array of talent from Europe’s vibrant Early Music scene and we are grateful to be able to continue to celebrate their music in York.  We hope that this will be a regular feature in our festive programme in the years to come.”

York Early Music Christmas Festival director Delma Tomlin

The concerts from the NCEM Platform Artists will be led off by Love And Melancholy, featuring  Emilia Bertolini, soprano,  Sergio Bucheli, theorbo, and Lucy Chabard,  harpsichord, in a musical journey into the complex world of human emotions at the NCEM on December 7.

Inspired by the haunting melodies of Henry Purcell and the French court tunes of the 17th century, this evocative 12 noon programme explores love in all its forms, from joyful ecstasy to poignant melancholy.

Contre le Temps, featuring singers Karin Weston, Cécile Walch, Julia Marty and Amy Farnell, present Ubi Sunt Mulieres at the NCEM on December 14 at 12 noon.

Women have inspired thinkers, poets and creators for thousands of years with tenderness and charm, beauty and dedication, fragility and sensuality, prompting this talented young vocal quartet to turn their gaze on to the Middle Ages, focusing on works by Guillaume Du Fay and Hildegard von Bingen, one of the most acclaimed women in music history.

Intesa’s Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgetti

In the third concert, at Bedern Hall, Bedern, on December 15 at 11am, Intesa’s viol and voice duo of Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgetti reflect on the theme of seeking light amid dark and wintry weather with music by Dowland, Hume and Caccini, alongside a selection of Armenian folk songs, in a programme entitled A Merry Conceit.

Spiritato, featuring University of York alumnus Nicolas Mendoza on harpsichord and organ, open the festival with Northern Light, their 6.30pm programme of Baroque works by Kirchoff, Thieme, Pachelbel and Bach on December 6 at the NCEM.

 “This extraordinary jewel of baroque music comes from the Royal Court of Sweden, and the wealth of that court, with all the musicians and composers that flocked up there, and now these neglected pieces have been rediscovered and what glorious pieces they are,” says Delma.

Siglo de Oro will be joined by Spinacino Consort for Hey For Christmas! on December 7 at the NCEM for a 6.30pm celebration of carols, raucous ballads, beautiful folk sonhs and lively dances, as if “we arrived at your relatives’ London house in the mid-17th century for 12 days of revelry”.

Stile Antico: Performing This Joyful Birth: A musical journey through the Christian story at the National Centre for Early Music on December 12

The choral workshop led by Robert Hollingorth, founder/director of I Fagiolini, at Bedern Hall on December 8 from 10.15am to 4pm has sold out. Hollingworth will explore a soprano canon by Guerrero, darker-hued Gombert and music by Vivanco, Aleotti and Palestrina.

Solomon’s Knot, who perform everything learned off by heart, will perform Motets by Johann Sebastian and Johann Christoph Bach at the NCEM on December 8 at 6pm.

A new project brings together two Scottish musicians embedded in their own traditions: former BBC New Generation Artist Sean Shibe, who carries the torch for classical music on his guitar, and Aidan O’Rourke, the Lau fiddler deep rooted in Scottish folk culture. Together they present Luban at the NCEM on December 9.

Join them at 7.30pm to find out where they might meet midst Dowland, Johnson, O’Rourke and Cage as they share the language they find in the backstreets, byways and marginalia of ancient Scottish lute and fiddle manuscripts.

Green Matthews: Gaudete! concert at National Centre for Early Music

Green Matthews make a Christmas return to the NCEM with an expanded line-up for Gaudete!, featuring new arrangements of Chris Green and Sophie Matthews’s festive fare, embellished with Emily Baines on early woodwind and Richard Heacock on violin on December 11 at 7.30pm.

Their lush, rich and heart-warming music evokes the spirit of Christmas over 600 years from the Middle Ages to the 20th century in a riot of sound and colour.

Stile Antico take a journey through the Christian story to the manger in a glorious sequence of music from medieval and Renaissance Europe in This Joyful Birth at a sold-out NCEM on December 12.

The 7.30pm programme follows each scene of the Christmas story, beginning in Advent and moving through to the Nativity, the visits of the Shepherds and the Wise Men, and finally to the Feast of Candlemas. Highlights include Victoria’s O Magnum Mysterium, motets by Byrd, Lassus and Sheppard, medieval carols and dances from Spain and Germany.

Ensemble Augelletti: “How beautifully shines the morning star”

Ensemble Augelletti, BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Baroque Ensemble, return to York to present their new Christmas programme, The Morning Star, at the NCEM on December 13 at 7pm, with Olwen Foulkes on recorders, Ellen Bundy on violin, Toby Carr on lute and Benedict Williams on harpsichord.

On December 23 1784, a letter by York astronomer Edward Pigott, recounting his discovery of a new variable star, made York the centre of the astronomical world, prompting Ensemble Augelletti to celebrate extraordinary stories of 17th and 18th astronomers with music named after stars, angels and 17th-centyry sonatas. Works by Corelli, Schmelzer and Uccellini will feature alongside settings of How Beautifully Shines The Morning Star.

Festival regulars Yorkshire Bach Choir & Yorkshire Baroque focus on Bach’s Magnificat in D and two cantatas, Unser Mund Sei Voll Lachens and Gloria In Excelsis Deo, conducted by Peter Seymour at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, on December 14 at 7.30pm.

“With its exuberant choruses, colourful orchestration and beautiful solo writing, Bach’s Magnificat captures perfectly the divine joy of a pregnant Mary,” says Peter.

Spiritato: Opening York Early Music Christmas Festival on December 6 with their Northern Light programme

Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith collaborate with Lady Maisery to close the festival with Awake Arise – A Christmas Show For Our Times at the NCEM on December 15. The 7.30pm programme “celebrates the riches of our varied winter traditions and reflects on the hope and resilience music and song that can bring joy to us all in the darkest season”.

“York Early Music Christmas Festival is the perfect choice for an atmospheric Yuletide evening away from the crowds, with this year’s festival featuring both Early and folk music performed by an array of talented artists,” says Delma.

“Most performances take place in the intimate surroundings of the National Centre for Early Music’s home, St Margaret’s Church, off Walmgate.  Mince pies and mulled wine available at most concerts.”

York Early Music 210214 runs from December 6 to 15 at National Centre of Music (St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate), Bedern Hall and Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk. Full programme is available at ncem.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on The 24, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, November 27

Robert Hollingworth

THE 24 has grown. When first taken over by Robert Hollingworth, it was largely a choir of graduate students. It has since been amalgamated with the university’s chamber choir and grown to its present 33 members, a size that arguably takes it beyond the usual ‘chamber’ dimensions.

It appeared here with strong support from Ampleforth College Chamber Choir and Huntington School Secret Choir. The menu, served to a full house, was a nourishing pot-pourri ranging from the Renaissance to the present day, all a cappella.

Johann Christoph Bach belonged to the generation before JSB and is widely considered to be the great man’s most talented forebear. The double choir motet Lieber Herr Gott, dating from 1672, has a continuo part but was given here unaccompanied.

Its opening phrase says “wecken uns auf” (wake us up), an apt injunction given that the start was something of a scramble. But it settled into a comfortable stride after its central tempo-change.

In contrast, Alonso Lobo’s penitent motet Versa In Luctum (Turned To Mourning) was much more shapely. For Alma Redemptoris Mater, by his Spanish compatriot and almost exact contemporary Victoria, the school choirs joined the fray, bringing the total to more than 70 voices. Yet the blend was excellent and Hollingworth had the singers in the palm of his hand.

In two madrigals by Thomas Tomkins, we heard the 11 members of the UK’s only MA course in solo-voice ensemble singing, a vivid sextet in Oft Did I Marle (marvel) and a gorgeously mournful quintet in Too Much I Once Lamented.

Either side of the interval, The 24 was back at full strength. It revelled in the lush harmonies of three of Schumann’s double-choir songs, Op 141. The last two had elements of prayer, both ending with ‘Amen’ cadences, but the last – a setting of Goethe’s Talismane – was much the most effective, delivered crisply but with a tender final plea.

 There was exciting propulsion in Gibbons’s O Clap Your Hands and transparency in Tavener’s Hymn To The Mother Of God. Less telling were motets by Kenneth Leighton and Joanna Marsh, although the latter – a setting of Julian of Norwich’s All Shall Be Well – had a welcome sense of triumphal love at its close.

In this exalted company it came as a surprise to hear the calmly confident account of Stanford’s Justorum Animae (The Souls Of The Righteous) delivered by the Ampleforth choir under Roger Muttitt, with ‘non tanget illos’ – the torment of death ‘shall not touch them’ – given special emphasis and the peaceful ending beautifully floated.

With the combined forces reassembled, Elgar’s orchestral Go, Song Of Mine was never going to emerge with much clarity, although its ending was forceful enough. Will(iam) Campbell’s take on Vaughan Williams’s much-loved hymn-tune to Come Down, O Love Divine, however, was lovingly handled, starting out in left field and gradually moving towards more traditional harmonies, as the tune gained shape: a variation in reverse. It made an amusing end to a thoroughly invigorating evening.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: Steve Crowther’s verdict on University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra, The 24, York Minster, June 8

The University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra in concert at York Minster. Picture: Steve Crowther

AS the Match Of The Day football pundits might say, this was a game of two halves.

Despite the obvious musical intelligence and quality on offer, I struggled with the performance of Mozart’s Mass in C minor. It is a large-scale work scored for two soprano soloists, a tenor and a bass, double chorus and large orchestra.

Coupled with the nature of Mozart’s musical dialogue, this meant that I simply could not hear all of the detail, thanks to this very generous Minster acoustic.

There was, however, much to admire: Elspeth Piggott’s soprano solo in the Christie was impressive, although I lost some of the lower register. The fine, crisp string playing in the Gloria. Soprano Rebecca Lea, a last-minute substitute for Helen Neeves, sang the Laudamus Te with real assurance, although again I lost some of the lower register.

More rewarding was when the two singers combined forces in the Domine Deus – tender exchanges and reassuring support. The following Qui Tollis was also satisfying, with Mozart using a double chorus underpinned by a pulsating dotted rhythm ostinato.

The highlight was always going to be Et Incarnatus Est, simply because of the intimacy of the scoring: soprano solo, solo flute, oboe and bassoon. That and the quality of Ms Piggott’s performance of this operatic aria.

Elspeth Piggott and Rebecca Lea were joined by tenor James Beddoe and bass Patrick Osborne for a very fine Benedictus before the recap of the fugal Hosanna, signing off the performance with aplomb.

And so, to the second half. As vocal musical experiences in the Minster go, it doesn’t come much better than the excellent The 24, directed by Robert Hollingworth, singing Bruckner’s Locus Iste and Christus Factus Est motets.

These are not the most technically demanding of works but, nevertheless, we were royally treated with performances of clarity, balance, detail and very real musical insight. The Minster acoustic loved it and, as a consequence, so did we.

This was followed by an inspired piece of programming with Elgar’s rarely heard Elegy op. 58. Well, I’ve never heard it anyway. The performance revealed a delightful jewel of a work intimately scored for string orchestra.

To be sure, there were echoes of Nimrod. Evidently his friend August Jaeger had died one month earlier, but it worked just fine in and of its own terms. Quite poignant, actually.

The concert closed with a full-bodied performance of Bruckner’s Te Deum in C, superbly marshalled by conductor John Stringer. Due to the cleaner, predominantly homophonic nature of Bruckner’s setting, the experience was much more rewarding than the Mozart.

The textures were less busy. Having said that, the sound world had a monumental quality: full-on tonal building blocks of sound augmented by the organ blasts of affirmation; a “cathedral of sound”. This is, after all, a deeply religious work.

There were moments of tranquillity, glimpses from within: the wonderful quartet of soloists – Elspeth Piggott, James Beddoe and Patrick Osborne, who were now joined by mezzo-soprano Helena Cooke. It was such a welcome relief to actually hear all the detail; a tender tenor solo with telling solo violin commentary (Michael Capecci).

However, the work ended as it had begun, in triumphant affirmation and splendour. I thought the sheer volume of sound might blow the Minster roof off; it certainly brought the house down.

Review by Steve Crowther

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University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra to perform Mozart and Bruckner works at York Minster on June 8

The poster for University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra’s concert on June 8

THE University of York Choir, The 24, and the University of York Symphony Orchestra will perform at York Minster on Saturday, June 8.

Under the direction of Robert Hollingworth and John Stringer, the 7.30pm programme will feature Mozart’s Mass in C minor and a selection of Bruckner’s works, celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth, including the Te Deum, a composition he described as “the pride of his life”. Box office: 01904 322439 or yorkconcerts.ticketsolve.com.

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REVIEW: Steve Crowther’s verdict on University of York Choir, The 24 and The City Musick, 18/3/2023

Conductor Robert Hollingworth

University of York Choir, The 24 and The City Musick, Central Hall, University of York, March 18

WELL, this looked interesting, but then any concert with a strapline “Reining in the Donkey” and curated and conducted by Robert Hollingworth would be.

Last Saturday’s concert was a highly imaginative programme focusing on Orazio Benevoli’s mass, Missa Si Deus Pro Nobis, dovetailed with music by Andrea Gabrieli, Vincenzo Ugolino, Palestrina and Frescobaldi.

The mass was written for eight choirs supported by 15 continuo instrumentalists. These would be placed in stalls above and around the congregation, thus setting up a dramatic, sumptuous surround-sound extravaganza.

In York Minster this would have been a real musical event, but in the Central Hall, with an acoustic as dry as sandpaper, it wasn’t. And nor could it have been. Right from the choral opening of Vincenzo Ugolino’s Quae Est Ista, the university choir sounded cruelly exposed and vulnerable.

With all the forces at play, however, the singers grew in confidence through the Kyrie and Gloria of the Benevoli Mass. The choral exchanges of the lovey suspended sequences in the Credo worked well.

The introduction of the amazing contrabass shawm, played by Nicholas Perry, was quite an experience. I thought it sounded like a musical equivalent of the butler Lurch from The Addams Family but it is probably best described by Paul McCreesh as “the finest fartophone in all music”.

Not all the choral detail was in place; the rhythmic passages in the Credo, for example, were not as crisp or accurate as they should have been, but the extensive tutti sections at the end of each of the movements were confident and satisfying. Indeed, the Agnus Dei conclusion was luxurious, quite delightful.

The instrumental movements performed by The City Musick players were, obviously, imperious. Catherine Pierron’s chamber organ performance of Frescobaldi’s Toccata No.3, weaving webs of magical tapestry, was breathtaking.

There was also a wonderful, confident Agnus Dei by Palestrina (arr. Francesco Soriano) sung by The 24, a choir clearly at the top of their game, with crystal-clear part singing throughout. Very impressive.

Anyway, back to the donkey. The technique is a musical joke where busy antiphonal exchanges (runaway, out-of-control donkeys) combined with long plainchant melodies (hapless, possibly fat, cardinals pulling on the reins). Excellent.

I get the impression that Orazio Benevoli’s Missa Si Deus Pro Nobis is not only a hidden gem, but now a discovered masterpiece. I would love to hear Robert Hollingworth curate and direct another performance. But not here, not at the Central Hall. Please.

Review by Steve Crowther

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University of York Choir to perform joyful ‘Colossal Baroque’ Roman music at Central Hall with The 24 and The City Musick

Robert Hollingworth: University of York Choir musical director

THE University of York Choir join forces with The 24 and The City Musick for an evening of the “Colossal Baroque” music of 17th century Rome at Central Hall, University of York, on March 18.

Under the direction of Robert Hollingworth, the 7.30pm programme combines Orazio Benevoli’s Missa Di Deus Pro Nobis for four choirs with what the choir’s musical director describes as “other monstrous works” by Benevoli’s Venetian teacher, Vincenzo Ugolini, among others.

Almost forgotten today, Benevoli (1605-1672) was one of the most important Roman Baroque composers of his day. “He wrote glorious, large scale, multi-choir music that included a technique called ‘reining in the donkey’, in which the lower parts move hastily underneath a static soprano line, supposedly like a priest sitting on and trying to hold back a frenetic donkey,” says Hollingworth. “Think King Of Kings in the Hallelujah Chorus,” he suggests.

The 24 is a University of York music department ensemble, conducted by Hollingworth, founder/director of I Fagiolini. The City Musick comprises cornett, sackbut, dulcian, strings, organs and theorbos.

Tickets for this “wonderfully joyful and uplifting event” are on sale at: https://yorkconcerts.co.uk/whats-on/2022-23/university-choir-the-city-musick/

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on University of York Choir & Baroque Ensemble’s Christmas concert

Robert Hollingworth: Conductor of the University of York’s largest choir

University of York Choir & Baroque Ensemble, Central Hall, University of York, November 30

CHRISTMAS music of the Baroque and the 20th century were contrasted here in the five sections of Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit and four carol-anthems by Howells.

Interwoven with these were five extracts from A Child’s Christmas In Wales by Dylan Thomas. It was an ingenious idea, although none of these strands had much in common beyond the seasonal message.

Robert Hollingworth, who is now conductor of this choir, the university’s largest, read the passages from Thomas’s nostalgic view of a childhood Christmas, blanket-wrapped in an armchair and adopting an impressive Welsh lilt (that softened a bit towards the end). It was cosy, fireside stuff, with larger-than-life characters springing from the pages.

Charpentier’s late-17th century mass is almost balletic in its attempt to appeal to popular taste. The Baroque Ensemble, with guests leading three of its string sections, responded stylishly, with keen rhythm and taut ensemble.

The choir did not catch quite the same sense of urgency, perhaps feeling that Hollingworth’s baton was directed more at the players. That said, the tempo changes in the middle of the Credo were well managed. Alexander Kyle took over conducting for the final two sections, including a surprisingly jaunty Agnus Dei.

Variety came with several passages from a semi-chorus that additionally supplied soloists, who were at their most appealing when sopranos intertwined with recorders. A choir this size ranged on three flanks is always going to have difficulties with blend, especially in the very dry acoustic of Central Hall.

So, it was a pity that the least-known – and most recent – of the Howells pieces, Long, Long Ago, came first, before the choir had found its feet.

Here Is The Little Door, conducted by Kyle, was the best-shaped of the Howells. In contrast, A Spotless Rose was a little too fast for there to be no feel of the bar-line and the crunchy harmonies at the end, symptomatic of icy winter, were fudged. Bo Holten’s First Snow made an effective finisher.

Hollingworth is deservedly recognised as a first-class choir trainer. He will need just a little longer to stamp his mark on this choir. Watch this space.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on 2022 Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival

Florilegium: Opening burst of Bach

From Minstrels to Masterpieces, Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival, May 27 to 29

THE centre of Beverley was festooned with jubilee bunting in time for the festival, which put everyone in the mood for celebration, doubly welcome after a two-year musical hiatus caused by Covid.

Diehards need no reminding that ‘early music’ is not necessarily very early these days, more a case of historical authenticity. Here we ranged no earlier than John Wilbye and covered much more recent territory right up to Mozart.

Concerts took place in four different churches, spearheaded by magnificent Beverley Minster. It was the venue for Florilegium’s opening burst of Bach: three Brandenburg concertos, a violin concerto, and an orchestral suite that is effectively a flute concerto.

It took a little while for performers as well as audience to become attuned to the acoustic. The otherwise excellent platform was placed some distance from the choir screen, so that there was no back-board to reflect the sound down the nave. Detail was hard to disentangle in Brandenburg No 6, written solely for lower strings and it did not hang together as well as what followed, though the final gigue had a pleasing lilt.

In Brandenburg No 5, where the harpsichord steps into the limelight for the first time in an orchestral work, Julian Perkins despatched its cadenza with panache, while Ashley Solomon’s flute was typically fluent if less easy to discern.

The nine string soloists in Brandenburg No 3 radiated immense enjoyment, notably in a dashing finale. In all three concertos, Rosie Moon’s double bass delivered a vivid foundation.

Bojan Čičić was the masterful soloist in the A minor Violin Concerto, BWV1041 (which was later to become a keyboard concerto), with an understated verve and virtuoso lightness of touch that deservedly drew prolonged applause.

Bojan Cicic: “Understated verve and virtuoso lightness of touch that deservedly drew prolonged applause”

The spirit of dance dominated the Orchestral Suite No 2 in B minor; the Polonaise was especially balletic. Ashley Solomon’s flute tripped the light fantastic in a breakneck Badinerie. He could only get away with it because of such incredibly fleet-fingered strings in support. But it was thrilling indeed, filled with laughter.

Saturday morning brought the French sextet Sarbacanes to the same venue. From mid-18th century onwards wind ensembles, known as Harmonie in the German-speaking world, were more affordable by smaller aristocratic courts unable to run to a full orchestra. Their most typical line-up was two oboes, two horns and two bassoons – as here.

Divertimentos by Haydn and Mozart jostled with a trio by Salieri – Mozart’s great rival – and a three horn duets, also by Mozart. They made tasty treats, all the more so for their rarity.

The two Haydn works were from early in his career (probably the 1760s) – and sounded like it. One included a starchy polonaise, followed by a wittily brief presto. The other, essentially a five-movement suite as if a holdover from the Baroque, was more spirited, if quite ornamented.

Mozart by contrast, writing a decade later, was much more advanced, playing with spatial effects, which Sarbacanes exploited to the full in his K.253 in F. A year later (1777), he was playing off the oboes against the rest in his K.270 in B flat. Here the group’s ultra-crisp rhythms spoke of taut ensemble and the closing gallop was straight out of hunting territory.

Three of Mozart’s 12 Duos for horns, K.487 were superbly played by Félix Roth and Gabriel Dambricourt, with eloquent dynamic variations. There was clarity, too, in two trio movements by Salieri, which found two oboes and a bassoon modulating with great clarity.

Prisma, a multi-national quartet, evoked the music of London in 1651, using recorder, violin, lute and viola da gamba in St Nicholas Church. Though none professed to sing, they did so vigorously. They dipped freely into the John Playford playbook, The English Dancing Master, which enjoyed many revisions over the next nearly 80 years and is our main source for popular music of the era.

Prisma: “Casual approach belied considerable skills from all four players”

Prisma’s casual approach belied considerable skills from all four players. Their enthusiasm proved that though the theatres were closed down during the Civil War, nightlife continued unabated, with much dancing to syncopated rhythms as instruments tossed tunes between each other.

Traditional Scottish tunes also had a look-in, with Franciska Hajdu’s violin ‘singing’ the Skye Boat Song and sharing the taxing divisions of a ground ‘after the Scotch humour’ by Nicola Matteis with Elisabeth Champollion’s sopranino recorder.

Ralph McTell’s Streets Of London was thrown in for good measure, as was the Londonderry Air. It was stirring to find outsiders finding so much pleasure in British popular music of all sorts and sharing their enthusiasm for it so freely.

The Baroque quintet Ensemble Molière appeared in Toll Gavel United Church. This encouraged an intimate rapport with their audience in a French programme that encompassed composers writing for the magnificent court of Louis XIV. Louis, incidentally, is the only European monarch our queen has still to out-reign, since he ruled for 72 years after inheriting the throne at the age of five (he was succeeded by his great-grandson).

Opening salvos from Charpentier and Lully – two airs from Phaëton (1683) – were but a prelude to Couperin’s superb Deuxième Concert (Concerts Royaux), which included a very lively Allemande fugée followed by a pensive Air tendre, where the ornamentation was exceptionally neat.

Aids to the king’s digestion were revealed in ‘Soupers du Roy’, six movements taken from a Delalande suite put together by the group’s harpsichordist Satoko Doi-Luck. After two gentle aperitifs and a quintet starter, there was a meatier Gigue featuring a taut duo between Catriona McDermid’s bassoon and Kate Conway’s gamba; indeed McDermid maintained a confident clarity throughout the programme.

The ever-racier variations in the Passacaille dessert might have caused indigestion but for their courtly ending. The king’s nightcap – and finale here – came with a suite by Marin Marais, a much calmer affair which included a fetchingly elegiac Plainte from Flavia Hirte’s flute and Alice Earll’s violin: sweet dreams were guaranteed.

Robert Hollingworth: Madrigal programme with I Fagiolini. Picture: Frances Marshall

The final afternoon included Tony Britten’s entertaining film Draw On Sweet Night (2015), which purports to reveal details of the life of madrigalist John Wilbye in the service of the Kytson family at Hengrave Hall, Suffolk: succulent stuff, though on this evidence either Wilbye was the local Lothario or else he was surrounded by some very randy ladies.

Either way, it made a neat intro to the evening’s madrigal programme by the six voices of I Fagiolini under Robert Hollingworth, in St John of Beverley Catholic Church.

I Fagiolini did not hold back from the juicier implications of these works, which often hinged on romantic liaisons. But Wilbye’s contribution to the collection for Queen Elizabeth I was a sober, beautifully tailored affair.

Adrenaline flowed a little too freely in some of the earlier numbers – there was too much tenor in Adieu, Sweet Amaryllis, for example, though the major-key ending was nicely drawn. Quite the contrary was the six-voice Thou Art But Young which was impeccably blended.

The revelation of the evening was the five-part Down In A Valley, whose Arcadian setting was decorated with startling changes of texture and some graphic illustration, including Cupid’s painful darts (rapidly repeating semiquavers). A wonderfully florid ‘frolic’ was contrasted with a languishing death at the lady’s displeasure in two superb final lines.

Two more familiar pieces had differing outcomes. Sweet Honey-Sucking Bees was a suave affair, warning of the dangers of love’s stings, with a punchy ending that hit home. Draw On, Sweet Night, perhaps Wilbye’s most famous piece and the title of the evening, was undone by an audience cougher unequipped with a means to cover their mouth.

No matter: we had already enjoyed ensemble singing of the most exquisite calibre, much of which had highlighted Wilbye’s special gift for delving beneath the surface of the poetry he set. Catherine Pierron contributed four harpsichord interludes, including galliards by Byrd and Bull, and concluding brilliantly with the flamboyant cross-rhythms of the latter’s In Nomine.

This friendly, compact little festival had made a jewel of a weekend.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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Robert Hollingworth appointed musical director of University of York Choir

Robert Hollingworth: New musical director for University of York Choir. PIcture: Frances Marshall

ROBERT Hollingworth is the new musical director for University of York Choir, taking over from the long-standing Peter Seymour.

Peter has retired from the post after directing the choir through much of the large-scale choral repertoire for many years but will continue to direct the Yorkshire Bach Choir.

Hollingworth, who moved to York in 2012, is a member of the university’s music department and a vocal specialist, and he has a professional performing career too, leading the vocal ensemble I Fagiolini and directing the annual Stour Music Festival. 

He is keen to promote female conductors and composers, hence this term’s repertoire will include Pie Jesu by French composer Lili Boulanger, alongside Faure’s Requiem and other French music.

Peter Seymour: Retiring from director’s post for University of York Choir

For a flavour of Robert’s work, his entertaining and informative Sing The Score videos, produced during lockdown, are well worth exploring at youtu.be/ie7CSrBtbD0.

Membership of University of York Choir is open to students and staff, as well as by audition to those outside the university. Rehearsals are held on Mondays in term time from 7.30pm to 9.30pm in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, Heslington, York.

Registration and auditions will be held on September 27, followed by the first rehearsal on October 4. The Faure concert is in the diary for December 1 at St Lawrence’s Church, Lawrence Street, York. For more details, contact membership secretary Catherine Duncan via university-choir@york.ac.uk.

University of York Choir performing at York Minster under Peter Seymour’s direction. Picture: Alexandru Ichim
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REVIEW: Awaken, National Centre for Early Music online, York, March 27 and 28

Recorder virtuoso Olwen Foulkes at the recording of Ensemble Augelletti’s concert for Awaken. Picture: Ben Pugh

REVIEW: Awaken, National Centre for Early Music online, York, from various venues, March 27 and 28. Streaming until April 30 at www.ncem.co.uk/awaken

AWAKEN had all the right vibes. Five events over the weekend signalled the beginning of the end of our enforced hibernation. They also heralded the start of spring. As if in tune, the weather co-operated and turned warm and sunny.

All the concerts had been filmed in venues around York the previous week, but they had the feel of live events. We began with a peripatetic tour by the Gesualdo Six – a slight misnomer, since they are really seven with their director Owain Park, who also sings from time to time, though there are never more than six singers in action at once.

The group revelled in the free-wheeling motet style of four Englishmen by the name of John from the first half of the 15th century.  The rhythmic verve of John Pyamour was nicely contrasted with a smoother take on John Forest and tenderness from John Plummer; all these were trios. But John Dunstaple’s quartet Veni, Sancte Spiritus outdid them all, a step ahead of his compatriots.

In Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, three Frenchmen from later that century sounded more calculating, more predictable, though Josquin des Prez’s attention to words in Nymphes des Bois – the only secular piece in the programme – was exquisite. It was good to hear, this time in the Hall’s chapel, John Thorne’s Stella Caeli, with neat passing harmonies and major-chord cadences that doubtless were heard in York Minster during his time as Master of the Choristers (1542-73).

Extracts from Lamentations by another three Frenchmen prepared us for Holy Week, with Brumel’s warmly autumnal Good Friday lection, without countertenors, topping the bill and bringing comfort amongst the sorrow. Byrd’s incomparable Infelix Ego, reflecting our current sufferings and sung under the Minster’s Great East Window, made a transcendent finale, its coda deeply affecting. The Gesualdos could not have got Awaken off to a better start.

Ensemble Augelletti: Octet of players homed in on music connected with John Baptist Grano

At the National Centre, recorder virtuoso Olwen Foulkes led the splendid Ensemble Augelletti, an octet of players who homed in on music connected with John Baptist Grano. He was principal trumpeter in the orchestra at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket where he premiered several Handel operas. He was also an operator who had a finger in several pies, but thrived even when in prison for debt.

Given the company he was keeping here, Grano’s own Sonata in F for recorder and continuo was relatively run-of-the-mill, though its Spirituoso was indeed spirited and the succeeding Largo eloquently plaintive. Foulkes was on top of her game throughout, as also in a concerto by John Baston, where her soprano recorder danced wittily in its final Presto.

In Handel’s Trio Sonata Op 2 No 4, Foulkes worked effectively in tandem with Ellen Bundy’s violin and all five players relished its closing, very English, jig. A final word for the supremely attentive cellist Carina Drury, a player I’d be happy to have on my team any time.

Staying in St Margaret’s Church (alias the National Centre), the viol consort Fretwork was joined by York countertenor Iestyn Davies in a programme of 16th century North German music, spearheaded by two arrangements of Vaughan Williams songs. Silent Noon was an odd opener and not heat-hazy enough, but The Sky Above The Roof was much more telling, though Davies’s diction was woolly. (His Latin later was marginally better, but his German admirably clear.)

Davies’s other contributions all concerned music connected with Holy Week and proved that lockdown has in no way hurt his evocative powers, his countertenor gliding smoothly over even the most taxing challenges. In a Lamento by Johann Christoph Bach, often described as JSB’s most talented forebear, he was pleadingly penitential, amid textual floods of tears. Franz Tunder’s Salve Mi Jesu was appropriately prayerful, finding genuine serenity in its peaceful ending.

Most potent of all was Christian Geist’s reaction to Holy Saturday, with semi-recitative for the biblical narrative, culminating in an aria of considerable power, which benefited from Davies’s operatic experience.

Iestyn Davies: “Countertenor glided smoothly over even the most taxing challenges”

Fretwork alone was rhythmically lively in Schein’s Seventh Suite from Banchetto Musicale (1617), notably in the vigorous syncopation of its galliard. The rapidly changing variations in Scheidt’s Canzon Super O Nachbar Roland were brilliantly negotiated, tremolandos and all, though it was a pity we were not given a chance to hear the song by itself.

It took a while to adjust to the sound of period instruments in Schubert’s mighty String Quintet in C, played by the Consone Quartet with Alexander Rolton as second cellist, also at the National Centre.

Let us dispose of the reservations first. Balance was never quite right, though I channelled the sound through my best speakers: we needed more from the outer voices, first violin and second cello. This was almost certainly a problem of microphone setting. There was also a disparity of approach between the cellists, one using more vibrato than the other.

The work got off to a cautious start, as if every effect was being over-calculated. Spontaneity began to surface with the repeat of the exposition. The second movement hovered to the point of stasis, with definition undermined by the second cello’s over-restrained pizzicato (probably microphones again).

Thereafter things changed very much for the better. The players began to enjoy themselves in a robust Scherzo. There was a slight loss of focus in the Trio, but caution was finally thrown to the winds when the Scherzo returned with even more verve. A strong, confident finale did much to compensate for the earlier diffidence and the acceleration towards the tape was neatly managed. I also enjoyed the encore, a sensitive setting of the song Frühlingsglaube (Faith In Spring), with cello to the fore.

Awaken’s finale shifted to St Lawrence Church, where Robert Hollingworth directed his vocal ensemble I Fagiolini (with some stiffening from former members of The 24) and the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble. The evening was entitled Super-Excellent, a word taken from the travel writer Thomas Coryat, preaching the wonders of Venetian music in 1608. Naturally, the programme was largely Italian or Italianate.

The Gesualdo Six with director Owain Park, back, centre: “Revelled in the free-wheeling motet style of four Englishmen by the name of John”

Hollingworth himself expounded on each piece in advance. He was most informative, but his enthusiasm sometimes led him to raise expectations unreasonably. Polychoral effects that were undoubtedly stunning in St Mark’s, Venice, were not quite so impressive in the less rewarding acoustic of St Lawrence.

Music by Giovanni Gabrieli appropriately framed the programme. With voices and instruments used interchangeably, Buccinate featured thrilling fanfares. No less stirring were the recurring Alleluyas in the multi-choir In Ecclesiis at the close, in a clever reconstruction by Hugh Keyte.

There were mass extracts from the Catalan composer Joan Cererols with three choirs overlapping, almost conversationally. Juan de Araujo, Spanish-born but working in South America, gave us an exciting Dixit Dominus, with jazzy rhythms heightened by strumming theorbo and guitar.

Solo tenor and bass respectively (no individual performers’ names were available) offered tastefully decorated motets by Grandi and Schütz, the latter an angry and sorrowful lament by David for Absalom, attended by four mournful sackbuts.

A florid cornett lit up a madrigal-style arrangement of a Palestrina ‘Ave Verum Corpus’. But for me the greatest surprise was Edmund Hooper’s verse anthem ‘O God Of Gods’, in a frankly superb reconstruction by William Hunt (who issued a recording of the work only last June). It proved that an Englishman could do it too.

Streaming of concerts is notoriously difficult, a path littered with potholes. Awaken was not perfect: there were occasional breaks in the sound and the odd unintended freeze-frame. Sometimes the camera lingered too long on an individual when what you wanted was to see the whole ensemble interacting. But it still served a vital role, reminding us how valuable live concerts are and renewing hope that they will soon return.

Above all, these events showed faith in musicians, many of them young, that despite everything we treasure their talents and will welcome them back with open arms (or the socially distanced alternative) just as soon as we are allowed. You have the rest of April to catch up with all these brave souls. I heartily recommend them.

Martin Dreyer