Enjoy a concert of 17th and 18th-century music recorded in Cambridgeshire
After the success of their online winter season, the young freelance musicians of Eboracum Baroque return with another online concert recorded last year in Cambridgeshire – at King’s Ely Recital Hall.
This Saturday (January 23) at 7pm, they will present Fairest Isle: Music from 17th and 18th Century England – a lively programme featuring famous songs from Henry Purcell’s stage works and virtuosic Italian concertos that took London by storm in the 1700s.
Purcell’s stage works of the 1690s were huge spectacles with elaborate Italian stagecraft. This concert features music from The Fairy Queen, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the patriotic King Arthur, which became one of his most celebrated works.
Music and musicians from Europe flooded London at this time and Italianate music was very much in vogue. The concert will feature a virtuosic recorder concerto by Giuseppe Sammartini and a sonata by Vivaldi, alongside other British composers including John Blow.
The ensemble will consist of soprano Elen Lloyd Roberts, Miriam Monaghan on recorder, Chris Parsons on trumpet, Miri Nohl on cello and Laurence Lyndon Jones on harpsichord.
Highlights from the musical programme include: Hark the Echoing Air from The Fairy Queen by Henry Purcell (1659-1695), Recorder Concerto in F Major by Sammartini (1700-1775), Sweeter than Roses from Pausanias, the Betrayer of his Country, again by Purcell, and Overture from With Noise of Cannon by William Croft (1678-1727).
The ensemble’s director and trumpeter Chris Parsons said: “We are determined to continue to support young freelance musicians in these challenging times.
"We’re also very keen to continue to offer exciting new digital content for our audiences who we wish we could perform to in person.
“We’re very keen to make the concerts accessible to all so whether you are new to baroque music or a regular watcher of early music, we hope there is something for everyone.
"We feel incredibly lucky to have filmed this concert back in October while we were able to be together.
“We have some virtual projects in the pipeline, including a 17th-century pub concert, coming in February which we hope will be an exciting online experience for our audience too.
"We’ll be embracing technology again for that, recording parts individually and then sticking them all together.”
Eboracum Baroque is an ensemble of young professional singers and instrumentalists at the start of their classical music careers.
The group was formed in 2012 by Chris Parsons at the University of York and the Royal College of Music and has performed all across the UK and Europe in venues and festivals including Senate House, Cambridge, The Temple Church, London and Christuskirche, Hannover.
In January 2015, Eboracum Baroque recorded their first CD which was funded by the National Trust and Arts Council England.
The CD features forgotten music by the English Baroque composer Thomas Tudway (1650-1726). It was recorded at Wimpole Hall, near Cambridge, where Tudway worked from 1714 to 1726.
Watch the performance this Saturday (January 23) at 7pm on youtube.com/eboracumbaroque or facebook.com/EboracumBaroque.
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