East Cork Early Music Festival 2018 programme by Caitriona O' Mahony

EAST CORK 12-14 OCT EARLY MUSIC

FESTIVAL

2018

Festival At A Glance A Welcome from the Directors Fri

Sat

Sun

Bach’s Coffee Cantata

The Goldie Chapel, Nano Nagle Place • 1pm • €15

Mein Freund ist Mein

CIT Cork School of Music, Curtis Auditorium • 7.30pm • €24

Antidotum Arachne - Beware the Spider!

Mall Arts Centre, Youghal • 3pm • €18 (day pass €35)

St. John Passion

St. Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal • 7.30pm • €24 (day pass €35)

East Cork Early Music in the Community

CIT Cork School of Music, Curtis Auditorium • 3pm • Admission Free

Flipside

St. Peter’s, North Main Street • 6pm • €18

Acknowledgements & Patrons

Patrons

Festival Board and Committee

Arachne: Beware the Spider!’ In the 16th and 17th century, victims of venomous spider bites were offered no medicinal cure or relief. Instead the local musicians would work together to find the correct melody, known as a Tarantella, which could cure them of their otherwise fatal symptoms. Palisander, using a wide range of recorders, (including a 6 foot tall contrabass) explore the victim’s ordeal through the numerous symptoms and side effects of a tarantula’s bite. This is an engaging and exciting programme perfect for young audiences and adults alike!

A Welcome from the Directors Welcome to the 2018 edition of East Cork Early Music Festival ‘Portraits of Bach.’ Directors Caitríona O’Mahony and Norah O’Leary invite audiences to travel with them in time and bring the past back to life through early music.

Our ‘Portraits of Bach’ Festival presents an exciting array of works with a focus on J.S. Bach, beginning with his hilarious Coffee Cantata at our Friday lunchtime concert in the beautiful surroundings of the Goldie Chapel in Nano Nagle Place. That same evening, critically acclaimed vocal ensemble Sestina Music directed by Mark Chambers bring their programme ‘Mein Freund ist Mein’ to life, with renowned Dutch baroque violinist Johannes Leertouwer and the Cork Baroque Players. Sestina Music will feature rarely heard works by other members of the Bach family, along with one of Bach’s finest church cantatas, and his famous Chaconne for solo violin re-interpreted to explore its chorale connections. Saturday sees the Festival in the historic town of Youghal. At 3pm in the Mall Arts Centre, award-winning and engaging recorder quartet Palisander present a spooky programme, perfect for the run up to Halloween in their ‘Antidotum

The highlight of our 2018 festival comes in the form of one of Bach’s most powerful works, his St John Passion. It will be performed at 7:30pm in the inspiring setting of the medieval St. Mary’s Collegiate Church by soloists from Sestina Music, beloved Cork chamber choir Madrigal ’75 and the Cork Baroque Players, making the walls of St. Mary’s ring as Bach’s Thomaskirche in Leipzig would have rung with the sound of eighteenthcentury instruments and voices. Join us for this extraordinary experience where the St. John Passion brings to life the pain and suffering of Christ’s passion as a very human drama, centering around the figure of St. John the Evangelist. To close the festival, on Sunday 14 October at 6pm, our ‘Flipside’ concert in St. Peter’s, North Main Street will appeal to many different tastes. It showcases another side of our Festival artists in genres from the seventeenth century to electronic folk-rock. This concert will feature the premiere of a festival-commissioned string quartet by star Irish composer Sebastian Adams. This quartet is related to the viol consort genre of the ‘In Nomine’, and will be juxtaposed with some

original In Nomines played by the Cork Viols. Multi-talented ‘Renaissance Man’ Simon MacHale brings a background as a singer with many international early music ensembles to his brand of electronic-folk music. Countertenor Mark Chambers and his merry band indulge in the seventeenth-century version of jazz with an improvisational exploration of ground bass arias. Relax and enjoy an unusual feast for the ears, with something for absolutely everyone. East Cork Early Music Festival is passionate about involving the community in early music, during our Festival and throughout the year with our educational and outreach programmes. This year will see a Sunday afternoon workshop concert involving some of Cork’s best amateur choirs and orchestras, who will perform favourite Baroque choruses and orchestral music after coaching from festival artists. Our St. John Passion brings local choirs the unique opportunity to sing the congregational chorales with internationally renowned Sestina Music and Madrigal ‘75, and through a new and exciting partnership with Nano Nagle Place, East Cork Early Music looks forward to many more exciting community collaborations throughout the year. Norah O’Leary & Caitriona O’Mahony

Bach’s Coffee Cantata Date & Time Friday 12th October, 1pm

Tickets €15

Venue The Goldie Chapel, Nano Nagle Place

Limited number of €5 student tickets available on the door. Children u.12 free admission with each accompanying adult

Royal Irish Academy of Music Baroque Ensemble David Adams ��Director/harpsichord Leah Redmond �� Soprano (Liesgen) Berus Komarschela ��Tenor (Narrator) Dylan Rooney �� Baritone (Herr Schlendrian) Miriam Kaczor �� Flute Caitríona O’Mahony & Francesca de Nardi ��Violins Sebastian Adams ��Viola Gabriele Dikciute ��Cello

Programme

Programme Notes

Johann Sebastian Bach:

Johann Sebastian Bach’s (1685-1750) set of sonatas for harpsichord and violin can be called the first ‘duo’ sonatas for violin and keyboard. In some movements there is a more baroque trio sonata structure, with the right hand of the harpsichord forming a second upper voice with the violin, and a basso continuo in the left hand. In other places, one can see an entirely new form of keyboard and violin sonata which would influence works by Mozart and Beethoven.

From Sonata No. 6 for harpsichord and violin BWV 1019 i. Allegro, ii. Largo, v. Allegro From the St. Matthew Passion BWV 244, ‘Blute nur du liebes herz’ From Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten in meinem Namen BWV 87, ‘Ich will leiden, ich will schweigen’ ‘Schweigt Stille, plaudert nicht’ BWV 211 Coffee Cantata

The last sonata in G major was the most developed over time, existing with varying alternative movements in different manuscripts by different copyists. Breaking with traditional sonata structure it begins with a fast joyous movement, rather than an adagio. The quick movements in this set see some of Bach’s most playful writing, particularly in the final allegro movement of this sonata. The light-hearted gigue sees rapid, almost teasing, imitative interchanges between the two instruments. The movement is also influenced by Bach’s secular cantata writing, and takes material from the aria ‘Phoebus eilt mit schnellen Pferden’ from the Wedding Cantata. The first soprano aria in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion comes after Judas 6

has agreed to betray Christ for thirty silver pieces. Bach lends some drama to this aria with word-painting: a twisting serpentine motif takes over the melody when the text laments the nurtured child becoming a snake and turning on its carers. Separated from the Gospel text which has gone before, the aria of course refers to Judas, but in its metaphorical text also implies the collective fault of all humanity in Jesus’ suffering. Like ‘Blute nur’, the cantata BWV 87 meditates on the passion of Christ as a price that was paid for humanity’s failings of sin. The tenor aria ‘Ich will liebe’ offers a moment of sweetness towards the end of the work. With the character of a gentle Siciliano, the aria dwells on the comfort that Jesus brings in the midst of pain. In a very different vein to his sacred cantatas, Bach’s secular ‘Coffee’ Cantata is a tiny masterpiece in satire. From the end of the seventeenthcentury to the mid-eighteenth, coffeehouses in Leipzig increased in number and popularity. Academics wrote about the dangers of coffee, over-stimulating the senses and weakening the body, while preachers denounced it as an overindulgence, along with overelaborate church music. Coffee-houses also had their steamier side; with the drink’s reputation as an aphrodisiac, 7

the establishments were prime location for prostitutes to trade, and the town of Leipzig banned women from entering coffee-houses on two occasions, neither of which seemed to have much effect. Higher-class women also defied the law by setting up coffee-circles in their own houses where they could enjoy their addiction together. In this atmosphere, Bach’s Coffee Cantata was performed in Zimmerman’s coffee-house by his Collegium Musicum. The setting would have been a huge part of the performance, even from the beginning when the narrator directly scolds the crowd to stop their chatter and listen to the story. The aria writing is almost brashly illustrative for Bach; in his first aria, Herr Schlendrian’s grumbling about the thousand annoyances of children

is painted by the repeated circling semiquavers low down in the strings, which never get anywhere. Liesgen’s response is a love song to coffee, almost swooning with her repeated ‘ei’s drifting into a pause as she daydreams about the sweetness of the drink. The obligato flute could suggest a bubbling coffee-pot over the fire, as she waits for her beloved beverage to brew. Neither character really learns anything by the end of the cantata, and the final trio brings the wry observance that it can’t be expected of girls to give up their coffee (their mothers were the same!), any more than it can be expected of cats to leave mice alone.

Caitriona O’Mahony, 2018

The Royal Irish Academy of Music Baroque Ensemble Under the directorship of David Adams, head of the RIAM’s Historical Performance Department, the RIAM Baroque Ensemble comprises some of Ireland’s finest instrumentalists and singers. The ensemble enjoyed an extremely successful performance collaboration with the National Gallery of Ireland during its recent Beyond Caravaggio and Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting exhibitions. It made its Abbey stage debut giving a performance of Monteverdi’s Ballo delle Ingrate, described as ‘simply mesmerising’. The ensemble has also represented the Academy abroad, performing a programme of new compositions mixed with eighteenthcentury music in the American-Irish Historical Society in New York, and has performed Handel and Monteverdi in the Liszt Academy, Budapest.

David Adams A former organ scholar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Trinity College Dublin, David Adams studied in Freiburg and Amsterdam. Since his debut recital at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, at the age of 16, he has performed throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe and is a regular guest at major international festivals. He regularly appears with all the Irish orchestras and is much in demand as an ensemble player and conductor in the fields of contemporary and early music, working with the Ulster Orchestra, english Touring Opera, Opera Theatre Company and the Irish Baroque Orchestra. David lectures in organ and harpsichord at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, where he is also Head of Ireland’s first Historical Performance Department. In 2007 he was awarded a PhD from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam for his work on Max Reger and Karl Straube.

Mein Freund ist Mein Date & Time Friday 12th October, 7.30pm

Tickets €24

Venue Curtis Auditorium, CIT Cork School of Music

Limited number of €5 student tickets available on the door. Children u.12 free admission with each accompanying adult

Sestina Music Mark Chambers ��Musical Director Thomas Guthrie �� Stage Director Fiona Flynn, Chloë Morgan �� Soprano Beth Taylor, Mark Chambers ��Alto Thomas Herford, Thomas Guthrie ��Tenor Aaron O’Hare, Brian McAlea �� Bass Cork Baroque Players with Johannes Leertouwer (leader) Johannes Leertouwer, Caitríona O’Mahony ��Violin Marja Gaynor, Caitríona O’Mahony, Lisa Dowdall ��Violas Norah O’Leary ��Cello Malachy Robinson ��Double Bass Malcolm Proud �� Keyboards

Programme

Programme Notes

Lyric sheets available on the door.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)

Johann Sebastian Bach: Sarabande from Partita for solo violin no.2 in D Minor BWV 1004

For many music-lovers, the music of J. S. Bach underpins our musical experience. We can turn to it again and again and never be bored or disappointed. There is no doubt that his music forms the foundation on which later European musical history was built. He is inescapable, in the best possible way.

Cantata BWV no.4 - Christ lag in Todes Banden Chaconne from Partita for solo violin no.2 in D Minor BWV 1004 (with choral interpolations by Helga Thoene) Interval: 20 mins Johann Christoph Bach: Es ist nun aus (Sterb Aria) Meine Freundin du bist schön

Cantata for Easter, Christ lag in Todes Banden ~ Christ lay in death’s bonds The Bach family produced an incredible 53 prominent musicians over seven generations. One of 8 children, J.S. Bach was orphaned at the age of 10 and went to live with his organist brother. Bach’s second professional engagement as an organist was at Mühlhausen, where he worked, from June 1707 to June 1708 and wrote the cantata for Easter, Christ lag in Todes Banden (“Christ lay in death’s bonds”) - an early example of his affinity with the hymns and theology of Martin Luther. Luther’s chorale, whose melody is strongly related to the plainchant Easter sequence Victimae paschale laudes, is

in seven verses. Bach sets all seven in his cantata, establishing the mood with an opening sinfonia (in which we can already hear motifs from the chorale), then a vocal chorale prelude, with the hymn melody in the highest voice. An exuberant “Halleluja!” closes both this and all the subsequent verses. Central to this work, is the fourth verse of the chorale: “Es var ein wunderlichen Krieg / Da Tod und Leben rungen, / Das Leben behielt den Sieg, / Es hat den Tod verschlungen.” (It was a wondrous battle, / when death and life wrestled. / Life won the victory, / it has swallowed up death.) Bach sets this verse as a fugue, in which the voices, underpinned by the continuo players, depict the sounds of battle – the final hallelujah is oddly muted, perhaps preparing the intonational character of the next verse. The final two verses glorify life with the last section being set as a hymn. Sarabande and Chaconne from the D minor partita The Lutheran chorales were central to Bach’s music, forming the foundation for both his sacred works and 13

instrumental pieces. Bach’s six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin are among the cornerstones of the repertoire, and no part of this great collection is more revered than the wonderful Chaconne that closes the D minor partita. This work was written around 1720 and most likely composed it as a response to the unexpected death of Bach’s wife, Maria Barbara, who died unexpectedly in 1720 while he was away from home. German researcher Helga Thoene’s analysis of this work reveals a network of chorale themes woven into the fabric of the work. A chaconne is essentially a set of variations on a given harmonic theme, and Bach’s harmonic foundation is a simple 8-note pattern four bars in length. Thoene found the first line of the melody of Christ lag in Todes Banden, and its Hallelujah refrain, woven into the two opening iterations of the chaconne theme; the same pattern is found again and again throughout the Chaconne. In addition, Thoene found traces of many other chorales - chorales whose texts reflect sorrow, seek solace in Jesus and, later in the Chaconne, sing praise and glory to God.

Sebastian would certainly have admired is the ‘Sterb-aria’ (death aria) Es ist nun aus, a beautiful, hymn-like setting of a seven-verse poem that welcomes death as respite from a noisy, confusing, Babel-like world. Meine Freundin du bist schön Based on texts from the Song of Songs this Cantata is assumed to have been written for a family wedding. Though based on the words from the Old Testament, the text is occasionally slightly altered; and the playful nature of the music indicates that this cantata was not intended for a sacred occasion, but perhaps for celebration after the wedding ceremony. J.S. Bach’s father made a manuscript copy of the cantata, attaching to it an ‘explanation’ of the work, telling a story of a young woman who goes in search for her lover in order to meet up with him in private. However, she is joined by others in the search for him and in the end their tryst becomes a very public affair. Finally, after a hymn of thanks, they are left alone to celebrate their love. Alison Bullock (ed. Norah O’Leary)

In this performance you will hear the chorales that Thoene found hidden in the violin score interpolated in the Chaconne. Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703) Johann Christoph Bach, an uncle of Johann Sebastian was in his lifetime the most famous of the Bachs. His music was known and admired by Johann Sebastian, and although we can assume that many of his works are now lost, most of those that survive are sacred in nature, a product of his long service as organist at the Georgenkirchen in Eisenach. One of the works that Johann 14

Mark Chambers

Thomas Guthrie

A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, Mark enjoys a successful performing career as a soloist, including performances with Sir John Eliot Gardiner; recordings with Paul McCreesh for Deutsche Grammophon and a recording with Nederlandse Vachberenging of Beloved and Beautiful conducted by Jos van Veldhoven.

Thomas Guthrie is an innovative musician, singer, performer, writer and director working in classical music and theatre.

His Operatic work has included many roles in Handel operas and Monteverdi Orfeo (Speranza) in a Jonathan Miller production conducted by Philip Pickett. He sang the soprano role of Pilpatoe in Carl Heinrich Graun’s Montezuma for Musikfestspiele Potsdam and has worked at at the Royal Opera House as understudy for the role of Snake Priestess in Harrison Birtwistle’s world premiere The Minotaur and Fate in Judith Weir’s Miss Fortune. Mark works regularly with many leading choirs and ensembles including Tenebrae, Gallicantus, The Monteverdi Choir, The Gabrieli Consort, the Theatre of Voices and Gramophone award winning Binchois Consort. Mark has created the Voice of the Ood for the BBC Dr Who television series with music by Murray Gold and features as a soloist in the electro acoustic score for Joby Talbot’s Genus; a commission by Paris Opera Ballet. Other film work includes The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Elizabeth The Golden Age.

Equally at home devising new theatrical and musical work, working with singers and actors, performing, singing and writing, Tom also works with non-professionals of all ages and backgrounds. Some of his most thrilling projects have been in this field, including with Streetwise Opera and the Royal Opera House, through whom he has inspired hundreds to connect with their inner Caruso and raise the roof. His production of Ludd and Isis, an opera commissioned to launch the ROH’s new Production Park in Thurrock, involving a cast of hundreds, including professionals and amateurs of all ages, was acclaimed as ‘one of the Royal Opera House’s greatest achievements’. “Thomas Guthrie is hot news. His imagination knows no bounds” Opera now.

Johannes Leertouwer Johannes Leertouwer is conductor and artistic director of the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht with whom he gave a much praised debut performance of Stravinsky and Ravel in 2009. Johannes studied conducting with David Porcelijn and Jorma Panula. He has worked as guest conductor with various orchestras in the Netherlands, such as the Noord Nederlands Orkest, choir and orchestra of the Netherlands Bach Society and in Belgium, France, Japan and Mexico. From 1989 to 2006 he was artistic director and conductor of the Netherlands Youth String Orchestra, and conducted various projects at several renowned European conservatories. After studying violin with Bouw Lemkes in Amsterdam and Josef Suk in Vienna and Prague, Johannes decided to specialise in historical performance practice. He worked as concertmaster and soloist with a number of international period instrument ensembles and orchestras, such as Anima Eterna, and the orchestra and choir of the Nederlandse Bach Vereniging. Johannes has made several recordings; with his duo partners Menno van Delft (harpsichord) and Julian Reynolds (fortepiano) for the Globe Label and with the Schönbrunn Ensemble of which he is a founding member.Johannes is professor of violin at the Conservatory of Amsterdam.

Malcolm Proud

Sestina Music

Malcolm Proud won first prize at the Edinburgh International Harpsichord Competition in 1982 after a year of study with Gustav Leonhardt. He has performed as a soloist and continuo player throughout Europe, the U.S.A., Canada and Japan. Projects during 2018 include concerts with his ensemble Camerata Kilkenny in Belgium, Germany (Handel Festival, Halle) and Finland, with Swedish soprano Maria Keohane in Italy, Switzerland and Austria, and a programme of early 17th century Italian music with Akademie für alte Musik Berlin and a recital of Brahms’ organ chorale preludes Op. 122 at Kilkenny Arts Festival. In November he will curate a series of concerts at the National Concert Hall in Dublin to mark the 350th anniversary of François Couperin’s birth. He is principal harpsichordist with the Irish Baroque Orchestra.

Spirit. Inspired. Sestina Music is a dynamic young vocal ensemble specialising in early music, and consists of singers hand-picked at the beginning of their professional careers. Founded in Belfast in 2011 by countertenor Mark Chambers, the group’s musical director, Sestina Music has quickly built a reputation for excellence and authenticity in performance as well as a fresh and innovative approach to the programming of early music. The ensemble has performed all the major stage works of Henry Purcell (The Fairy Queen, King Arthur and Dido and Aeneas), and has collaborated with some of the finest specialist early music practitioners in the world: His Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts, The Monteverdi String Band (in their 2015 production of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610), Dutch violinist Johannes Leertouwer and the Irish Baroque Orchestra for a production of Handel’s Theodora (April 2018). In December 2016, Sestina Music collaborated with Hillsborough Castle for the first time in A Georgian Family Christmas, providing informed period music for an immersive event within the Castle, a project which culminated in the ensemble’s first ‘Come and Sing’ Messiah.

Malcolm has made more than 40 recordings on numerous labels, including Bach’s 5th Brandenburg Concerto with both the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the English Baroque Soloists. His recordings of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Six Partitas for Harpsichord on the Maya Recordings Label have been critically acclaimed. www.malcolmproud.ie. Malcolm Proud is supported by Music Network’s Music Capital Scheme, funded by The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Music Network is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland.

Cork Baroque Players The Cork Baroque Players was set up as ‘resident band’ for East Cork Early Music Festival. Conceived as a response to the growing interest in historically inspired music performance, CBP provides a precious opportunity for Irish and Irish-based musicians to work with the world’s leading early music specialists, as part of a highlevel, professional orchestra. CBP made its debut in 2013 with Finnish harpsichordist and conductor Aapo Häkkinen. In 2014 one of the world’s foremost Baroque violinists, Elizabeth Wallfisch, led a programme of Vivaldi, Schmelzer, Telemann and a new work by the Clonakilty-based Justin Grounds. According to the Irish Examiner the result was “...memorable for (its) energy, sense of phrasing, dynamic contrasts, and brilliance”. CBP’s debut at Cork International Choral Festival in May 2015 with Madrigal 75 was again hailed by the Examiner as “... a magnificent performance... Throughout, the orchestral playing was crisp and supportive.”

Sestina Music is grateful to its principal sponsor, Exitex Ltd.,and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for their ongoing support.

Antidotum Arachne - Beware the Spider! Date & Time Saturday 13th October, 3pm Venue Mall Arts Centre, Youghal

Palisander Lydia Gosnell Miriam Nerval Caoimhe de Paor Elspeth Robertson

Tickets €18 (Youghal Day Pass {Antidotum Arachne and St John Passion}: €35) Limited number of €5 student tickets available on the door. Children u.12 free admission with each accompanying adult 19

Programme Antidotum Recorded by Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) Canzon Seconda ‘La Lusignola’ Tarquinio Merula (1595-1665) Tarantellas II Arr. Miriam Nerval Sources: La Carpinese – Athansius Kircher from Magnes siue de arte magnetica (Rome, 1641) Tarantella Del Gargano – Traditional Apulian Melody [Ground Bass] La Tarantelas - Santiago de Murcia From The Saldivar Codex No. 4 (Madrid, c.1732) La Notte (The Nightmare Concerto) RV 439 Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Arr. M Nerval (Largo)- Allegro-Largo-Allegro Troppo Ben Puo Luzzasco Luzzaschi (1545-1607) Tarantella Napoletana Trad. Italian Arr. M Nerval

Ego pro te rogavi Petre Tiburtio Massaino (c.1550-1608) Il Vostro Dipartir Maddalena Casulana (c.1544- c.1590) Articulator V Agnes Dorwarth (b. 1953) The Temporiser Robert Johnson (1583-1633) The Frog Galliard John Dowland (1563-1626) Tarantellas I Arr. M Nerval Sources: Tarantella Napoletana – Athanasius Kircher From Magnes siue de arte magnetica (Rome, 1641) Tarantelas – Santiago de Murcia From the Saldivar Codex No. 4 (Madrid, c.1732) Tarantella Italiana – Recorded by Francisco Xavier Cid From Tarantisimo Observado… (Madrid, 1787)

Lachrimae Pavan John Dowland With divisions by Jacob van Eyck (1590-1657) The Jogger Dick Koomans (b. 1957) 20

Programme Notes Tarantula: An insect whose bit is only cured by musick. A Dictionary of the English Language – Samuel Johnson, 1755 In the midst of Renaissance advancements human knowledge and understanding of the world around them was developing with increasing speed, yet the extraordinary belief in curing spider bites with music continued. Tarantism was a hysterical disorder believed to be the result of a tarantula’s bite. It had a sovereign cure: Music. According to folklore, the single method of survival once bitten was to expel the spider’s poison through sweat induced by dancing the Tarantella: a frantic dance that could last for hours or days at a time. Tarantellas originate from the Apulia region of southern Italy long associated with magic, music and dance. 22

This programme is an exploration into the world of Tarantism and its symptoms. Athansius Kircher recorded a number of the tarantella melodies he encountered, including Antidotum Tarantulae. Most surviving records of tarantellas notate only a single melodic phrase or ground bass, Antidotum is unique in that three voices are fully recorded. The intricate writing in Tarquinio Merula’s Canzon Seconda ‘La Lusginuola’ (‘The Nightingale’) is a stark contrast to the cyclical harmonies of tarantellas, and offers an insight into the more formal music traditions developing in Italy at this time. It opens with imitative bird-calls that conjure images of rural Italy.

Tarantellas II features three tarantellas, woven together in a historical style. These tarantellas were usually passed down aurally and seldom notated. A handful of melodic phrases recorded by contemporary researchers have survived, three of which form this basis of this work. Vivid delusions and nightmares were a symptom of the tarantism, explored here through one of Antonio Vivaldi’s three programmatic concertos: La Notte, or The Nightmare Concerto. Originally scored for flute, this version has been re-imagined for Palisander. The movements juxtapose Vivaldi’s original virtuosic passagework with flashes of extended techniques and unusual sound worlds, including an solo Largo from the contrabass recorder.

Tarantism usually affected women resulting in the nickname carnevaletto delle donne (women’s little carnival). The liberating tarantella dance was outrageous conduct for young women, and witnesses report suspicions of fraudulent female spider victims. Luzzascho Luzzaschi wrote Troppo ben puo for Concerto del Donne, a consort of female singers of the 16th century court at Ferrara. Professional female musicians were a rarity at the time and these showcased an extraordinary sound-world employing three soprano voices as equal forces. Palisander echo this sound using three equal sized upper voice recorders.

Tarantella Napoletana is amongst the most popular surviving tarantella melodies today. Taking its name from the region it originated, variants of this melody are still performed across Mediterranean countries today. John Dowland took to signing his name as Jo. Dolandi de Lachrimae in homage to Lachrimae Pavane. Paired with divisions by blind Dutch recorder player Jacob van Eyck, the opening falling ‘tear motif’ sets the scene for the poignant atmosphere created by Dowland. Such was the grief surrounding a tarantula’s victim, the mourning process would often begin before death occurred. Dick Kooman’s The Jogger explores extended techniques conjuring images of a jogger short of breath! Written in the 1990’s, this piece is one of the more recent pieces in the groups repertory. Ego pro te rogavi Petre is Italian composer Tiburtio Massaino’s musical offering for the Feast day of St Peter and St Paul. A chapel dedicated to St Paul was erected at a water pool in Galatina (Apulia) blessed by St Paul. If initial efforts were unsuccessful in reviving a victim, they were brought to drink the pool’s blessed water before continuing. Such was the success rate, in this area at least, that St Paul became ‘protector and saviour of the tarantata.’ As the spider’s victim descended further in hysterics, witnesses report them speaking, shouting and screaming random words and sounds. The vocal tones Agnes Dorwarth employs in Articulator V appear equally nonsensical, however it offers a unique insight into the many vowel sounds and vocal effects employed by recorder players to achieve a broad range of articulation. 24

The title of Robert Johnson’s piece The Temporiser is indicative of a person trying to buy themselves time. Time was of the essence when curing tarantula bites - if the musicians could not identify the correct curative tune within the first twenty-four hours of sickness, chances of survival were slim. John Dowland’s Frog Galliard is a consort song setting typical of Renaissance England. In the following century Italian music was highly fashionable in London, but whilst Italian traditions notably influenced English composers, curing spider bites with music unfortunately never became popular there! The programme closes with another set of three Tarantellas. No more than a simple melodic phrase and accompanying ground bass survive for any of these examples and they have been expanded for recorder quartet. Miriam Nerval, 2017

Palisander Palisander prides itself on presenting imaginative, historical programmes with a wide range of repertoire; performing largely from memory, on recorders up to 6 feet tall. Formed at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Palisander has quickly established itself as a vibrant young ensemble. The group is excited to have been chosen as Making Music UK Selected Artists 2018-2019. Winners of the June Emerson Launchpad Prize for chamber groups, Palisander has performed at the Royal Greenwich International Early Music Festival, Newbury Spring Festival and the Handel Hendrix in London museum, as well as for London Fashion Week. Palisander’s debut album, Beware the Spider! was released in 2017 and received a 4 star review from BBC Music Magazine. Classic FM recently featured a live performance film of one of the album pieces, which has received over 4.6 million views! Palisander gives regular family concerts and workshops including working for the prestigious Live Music Now scheme and being featured artists in the Wigmore Hall’s Chamber Tots series. Palisander collaborated with puppet theatre company Rust and Stardust Productions, to develop Dr Dee’s Daughter and the Philosopher’s Stone which is supported by Arts Council England and has given performances across the country.

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St John Passion Date & Time Saturday 13th October, 7:30pm

Tickets €24 (Youghal Day Pass: €35)

Venue The Collegiate Church of St Mary, Youghal

Limited number of €5 student tickets available on the door. Children u.12 free admission with each accompanying adult

Sestina Music Mark Chambers �� Musical Director Thomas Guthrie �� Stage Director Fiona Flynn (Maid), Chloë Morgan (Servant) Beth Taylor, Mark Chambers Thomas Herford (Evangelist), Thomas Guthrie (Jesus) Aaron O’Hare (Peter), Brian McAlea (Pilate) Madrigal ‘75 directed by James Taylor Cork Baroque Players Oonagh Lee, Chris Hartland �� Oboes Miriam Kaczor, Elisabeth Vogel �� Flutes Marja Gaynor, Caitríona O’Mahony �� Violins Lisa Dowdall �� Viola Norah O’Leary �� Cello Malachy Robinson �� Double Bass & Viola da Gamba Sarah Groser �� Double Bass Malcolm Proud ��Keyboards James Taylor ��Keyboards

Programme

Programme Notes

Lyric sheets available on the door

In early eighteenth-century Germany, enthusiasm for an oratorio-style setting of the Passion story was growing, in spite of conservative Lutheran resistance to the dramatic style. These settings of the Passion allowed for reflective and meditative texts alongside passages of scripture, perhaps most famously in the text by Barthold Heinrich Brockes, which added in poetry to describe and reflect on the events of the Passion. Brockes’ text was set by numerous composers including Johann Sebastian Bach’s (1685-1750) friend Georg Philipp Telemann in 1716 and by Georg Frideric Handel in 1719, both of which may have influenced Bach’s St. John Passion.

place perhaps since Mendelssohn’s revival of it in 1829, but in comparison to the Matthew Passion, the St. John is significantly more dramatic and moving. Its more compact structure lends an immediacy to our experience of the passion. From the very first chorus, this drama is evident, with the swirling semiquavers in the violins a tumult under the agonizing long lines of wrenching dissonances for oboes and flutes, which could be nails hammered into the Cross. Towards the end of the work, even more literal word-painting emerges, in furious movement from the strings as the Evangelist describes the earth shaking and the veil of the temple rent in two.

At Bach’s Thomaskirche in Leipzig, such settings of the Passion were not allowed until 1721, when Bach’s predecessor Johann Kuhnau set a St. Mark Passion, of which unfortunately very little survives. The St. John Passion was preceded by a Passion which Bach wrote for Gotha, which is not extant, but parts of it may have been reworked for the St. John. Bach’s first Leipzig Passion came as the pinnacle of his first cycle of church cantatas.

The structure of the Passion is both an essentially Lutheran approach to scripture, and part of the reason why this Passion still holds such power to move audiences today. After reading passages of scripture, the Lutheran tradition is to meditate on the passage, and to pray; in music, Bach provides arias as meditation and chorales as collective prayer. For the part of the crowd, who sing the bloodthirsty ‘Crucify him, crucify him!’, and then the chorales, there is a stark realisation that we are the reason for Christ’s suffering.

Johann Sebastian Bach: St. John Passion BWV 245 Part I. Interval: 20 mins Part II.

It may remain the less popular work when compared to the St. Matthew Passion, which has held the principal 30

This duality, between the horror of the events of the Passion, and the joy in the meditation on the Salvation continues throughout the work. Even in the first chorus, we expect a text of lamentation, in mournful g minor, over the troubled music of the orchestra; the opening shouts of the chorus ‘Herr, Herr, Herr!’ cause us to expect a painful beginning. However, the text is quite jubilant, praise to the glory of the Lord. The glory of Christ’s victory and the pain of his suffering are inextricably linked. At the climax of the trial scene, the Evangelist himself bursts into a long melismatic rage when Jesus is scourged by Pilate; this however is immediately followed by the uniquely soft sound of the bass arioso ‘Betrachte, meine Seel’, dwelling on the anxious, uncomfortable, but in turn joyful relief that from Jesus’ suffering comes humanity’s salvation. The succeeding longest aria of the Passion, the tenor ‘Erwäge’, is shaped around this duality also; focusing first on the images of the arcs of Christ’s torn skin, but then seeing in them, the rainbow of redemption after the deluge, a symbol of God’s grace. In John’s text, although humanity’s distress at the suffering of Christ is sung by the Evangelist and the chorus, Christ’s responses are serene, far above the confusion. More joyous music emerges, marking Christ as the victor, the hero over sin, encapsulated in the final alto aria, ‘Es ist vollbracht’. It sets the lamenting vocal sound of the viola da gamba for the dirge-like A section, and a jubilating D Major in the strings in the B section marking Christ as the hero of Judah. The subsequent bass aria is set surprisingly, over a swinging dancelike motif in the cello - a mood which is however interrupted by pauses, as the singer’s uncertainties emerges. The text questions whether redemption has 32

been found, whether humanity has been saved; and Christ in his suffering silently answers, ‘Yes.’ The final chorus of the work somewhat calms the high emotion of the preceding piece, in a stately but softly lilting dance, with a harmony hinting at an underlying pain. Bach’s final chorale returns us from the events of the Passion to the present day, in this church and this time, yet still allows the listener space to reflect on humanity’s role in the suffering of Christ and rejoice in salvation. Caitriona O’Mahony, 2018

Thomas Herford For Mark Chambers and Thomas Guthrie’s biographies please see page 15

For Sestina Music and Cork Baroque Players biographies please see page 17

Thomas Herford began his singing career as a boy chorister in the choir of New College Oxford, and went on to study at Trinity College Cambridge and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. While on the Guildhall Opera Course he won many prizes and scholarships, and has since performed on many stages in both concert and operatic repertoire. Recent highlights in opera include Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus (Opera Danube), Imeneo in Bertoni’s Orfeo (Bampton Classical Opera), cover Bad’un in Birtwistle’s Yan Tan Tethera (Britten Sinfonia) and tenor roles in Gloria - A Pig Tale by HK Gruber (Mahogany Opera), Don Narciso Il Turco in Italia and cover Don Ottavio Don Giovanni (Garsington Opera), Don Ramiro La Cenerentola (Clonter Opera). On the concert platform, Thomas performs much of the core repertoire, from Monteverdi to Puccini and beyond, and has appeared at many of the UK’s most important venues, including the Barbican, Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square, the Royal Festival Hall, and the Royal Albert Hall.

James Taylor

Madrigal ‘75

Since 2007, Madrigal ‘75 has been directed by James Taylor, organist and harpsichordist, who, having held posts in the UK, New Zealand and Canada, now lectures at CIT Cork School of Music. Until 2017, James was also Assistance Musical Director at St. Finbarre’s Cathedral Cork. James has performed concerts across Canada and the United States, in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and New Zealand, and he has participated in numerous television and radio broadcasts as a soloist and accompanist.

Madrigal ’75 is a vocal ensemble based in Cork City and its repertoire ranges from early music to modern, both sacred and secular. Founded in 1975 by university students, the choir now comprises a diverse combination of singers from all walks of life. Madrigal ’75 has developed a reputation as a vocal ensemble of great skill and beauty, performing repertoire from as early as the 14th century right through to contemporary choral works including first performances of new commissions. The group has performed at services in London at St. Paul’s Cathedral and Southwark Cathedral. In 2005 Madrigal ’75 was a prominent participant in the Cork European Capital of Culture events and toured France as cultural ambassadors for the city. Madrigal ’75 is also the winner of the Carols for Christmas 2006 competition on Lyric FM, Ireland’s national arts and culture radio station. Other successes include Best Choir at the Montreux Festival, several Best Performances and First Prize awards at successive Cork International Choral Festivals, and the Irish Choir of the Year award.The choir has collaborated with the East Cork Early Music Festival and Cork Baroque Orchestra on a number of occasions.

Flipside Date & Time Sunday 14 October, 6pm

There is a BYOB policy operating at this event.

Venue St Peter’s, North Main Street

Glass may not be taken into the venue. Limited to 4 cans per person.

Tickets €18 Limited number of €5 student tickets available on the door. Children u.12 free admission with each accompanying adult.

Programme

Programme Notes

Mark Chambers and his Merry Band Marja Gaynor ��Violin Norah O’Leary ��Cello David O’Shea �� Harpsichord Seventeenth-century ground bass arias.

Composers have always reached back in time to what came before, and found material in times past, across many different styles of music. Ravel’s famous Tombeau de Couperin directly stemming from the French tradition of the tombeau, and Couperin’s own tribute to his predecessor in his Apothéose de Lully. Benjamin Britten when writing his Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra turned to his lineage in English composition, making Purcell’s Rondeau from Abdelazer famous. Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas tend to have a formative influence on any violinist, perhaps best encapsulated in the nineteenth-century by Eugene Ysaye in his second sonata, which develops from violent outbursts interrupting the notes of the E Major partita, and also makes liberal use of the plainchant Dies Irae. Even in the realm of light-hearted 1990s pop music we can find Baroque music; the omnipresent school graduation song Vitamin C’s ‘Friends Forever’ built over the ground bass used in Pachelbel’s famous Canon. And these are only a few of the most obvious examples in which the composers of the Baroque and of earlier music have influenced much later music, up to the present day.

Cork Viols Sarah Groser, Caitriona O’Mahony, Eimear Reidy, Sebastian Adams, Norah O’Leary Antony Holborne. (1545-1602)

The Nightwatch The Fairy Round

Christopher Tye. (c.1505-c1573)

In Nomine ‘Crye’

Orlando Gibbons. (1583-2625)

In Nomine No. 1 a 5

East Cork Early Music String Quartet Aisling McCarthy, Marja Gaynor: violins, Caitriona O’Mahony: viola, Norah O’Leary: cello Sebastian Adams. 2018.4: In Nomine a 4 WORLD PREMIERE* Simon MacHale. A MacHale Mix from old to new.

Building a piece of music over a repeating pattern or framework is a style which can be found in numerous ways 38

in music; from the Indian raga to the jazz riff. Coming from the sixteenth to the seventeenth centuries, as the bass replaces the tenor as the fundamental voice, we find in Western repertoire an explosion of pieces written over repeating bass lines, the ‘obstinate’ bass in Italian basso ostinato, or ‘ground’ in English. These forms are in all likelihood much older than their notation, coming from folk traditions, but sparked the imagination of many composers. As vocal music began to move from the madrigal to the aria and cantata genres, the ground bass was frequently used to provide structure to the freer new form, interrupted perhaps by passages in the ‘new style’ of recitative. These ground basses also of course provide ideal frameworks for improvisation by performers, and tonight Mark Chambers explores the ground bass as both a structure for composers and a kaleidoscope of possibilities for improvising performers. Fusing the notated music of the seventeenthcentury with improvisations created right now on the same framework, you will hear a unique blend of past and present. Alongside lute song, the viol consort was the central genre of English music and indeed much Anglo-Irish music from the Renaissance well into the seventeenth centuries. Richard Boyle, 39

the 1st Earl of Cork bought a chest of viols for the at the time significant sum of £8, and employed a staff of musicians to play them in his seat at Lismore Castle. A major genre in viol consorts at the time was the In Nomine, which sprang from a passage in a mass by John Taverner. Examples exist from John Dowland, William Byrd and John Bull amongst many others. In 2017, Sebastian Adams was introduced to the In Nomine and the pleasures of viol consort music in a crash course under the tutelage of Sarah Groser and Reiko Ichise which culminated in a performance at Sligo Festival of Baroque Music. That experience, and particularly the outstanding Gibbons In Nomine which you will hear tonight led Sebastian to experimenting with the form of an In Nomine for a contemporary ensemble. As co-director of the baroque/early-classical orchestra, Fishamble Sinfonia and coming from a family steeped in early music, Sebastian’s musical background makes him uniquely placed to combine early and contemporary music. East Cork Early Music are particularly delighted to have been able to commission this In Nomine a 4* for string quartet. Simon MacHale definitely earns the title of ‘Renaissance man’ in the many strands of his musical career. While familiar to East Cork Early Music audience as a tenor who performs with many of Europe’s finest Renaissance and Medieval vocal ensembles, he is also a noted composer of contemporary music, particularly in the choral tradition. Besides all of this he is very familiar to Cork audiences as a singer-songwriter, with his unique brand of electroacoustic folk rock music described as ‘Morrissey having just gotten his hands on a synthesiser’. Simon’s early music background is nonetheless audible in 40

certain ways in his songwriting, from occasional passages of text-setting evocative of Baroque recitative, to the occasional use of harpsichord in his debut album ‘Let Down Those Old Defences’. Above all, Simon’s music delivers the expressive power of his words in a manner easily comparable to the best of Monteverdi or Bach.

Simon MacHale For Mark Chambers’ biography please see page 15

Caitriona O’Mahony, 2018.

Sebastian Adams Sebastian Adams (b. 1991) is an Irish composer, viola player and artistic director. He was Composer in Residence with RTÉ lyric fm in 2016/17. Recent commissions include the Irish Chamber Orchestra and both RTÉ orchestras. Performers of his music include Crash Ensemble, Kirkos, Benyounes Quartet, Fidelio Trio, Sarah Watts, Beatrice Berrut, Carl Ludwig Hübsch, David Adams, Lina Andonovska, and many others. His music has been included at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Festival EuropArt (Brussels), Órtús Festival and Hilltown Festival and has been performed in Montreal, Vienna, Cologne, Potsdam, Antwerp and Görlitz. Sebastian founded and directs Kirkos and co-directs the Fishamble Sinfonia. He also chaired the Irish Composers Collective for two years. As a violist, Sebastian has premiered works by many of Ireland’s leading composers and performed as an improviser in Dublin, New York and London. He studied in Dublin (Kevin O’Connell & Jonathan Nangle) and Vienna (Karlheinz Essl).

Simon MacHale has written music for theatre, choirs, and orchestra, and is also recognised as a composer of original songs and electronic music. Sound design credits include Cónal Creedon’s Second City Trilogy (2005), John Murphy’s Smallone (2006), Brian Friel’s Making History (2007), and Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (2017). In 2010 he was awarded first prize in the Sean O Riada Competition at the Cork Choral Festival for his With Heart And Soul And Voice (premiered by Chamber Choir Ireland). Previous commissions include Caintic Mhuire is Shimeoin (2007) for Cumann Gaelach na hEaglaise, Freagraí (2008) for Christchurch Cathedral Dublin, Alle Diese Worte (2014) for Voce d’Argovia Basel, and Faultier, Yak & Kakerlake (2014) for Schola Cantorum Basel. He has twice received the Arts Council Travel and Training Award, and has worked as a performer and conductor in Switzerland, France, Germany and the USA. In 2014 he wrote, recorded and released an album of original songs entitled Let Down Those Old Defences, produces electronic music under the name New Paper Boy, and is the founder of The Electronic Folk, a Corkbased music collective. He has also sung with Chamber Choir Ireland, Zürich Sing Akademie, Christchurch Cathedral Dublin, Chant 1450, and Ordo Virtutum. He currently lectures in Cork School of Music and UCC.

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Festival Workshop

Date & Time Sunday 14th October, 3pm Venue CIT Cork School of Music Curtis Auditorium Tickets Free at the door

East Cork Early Music in the Community Cork Choirs and Orchestras join together for a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Famous Baroque Chorusesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Workshop. Primary school to third-level student ensembles and choirs, as well as Kinsale Amateur Orchestral Society perform after a workshop with East Cork Early Music Festival artists

Acknowledgements

Patrons

East Cork Early Music gratefully acknowledges the financial support and assistance of the Arts Council, Cork County Council, and RTÉ Lyric FM, and of our individual donors.

Gold Patrons

Silver Patrons

Edward & Trudy Fahy

Mary Shorten

Hugh Owens

Mark Chambers

We appreciate the collaboration partnership with CIT Cork School of Music and Nano Nagle Place and are grateful for all of their generosity and hard work. We are also truly thankful for the support, assistance and encouragement of local businesses and the hard work of a group of loyal volunteers, without whom there would be no festival: Aiveen Kearney, CIT Cork School of Music • Cork ETB School of Music • Danielle O’Donovan & Shane Clarke, Nano Nagle Place • Eileen O’Shea, St. Peter’s • Royal Irish Academy of Music • Mall Arts Centre, Youghal • Irish Times • Evening Echo • Evelyn Grant • Liz Nolan • Wolodomyr Smishkewych • Lorcan Murray • Irish Examiner • Dr Gabriela Mayer • Joan Scannell • John O’Connor • Ian McDonagh • James Taylor • Simon MacHale • Claudiu Murariu • Crowley McCarthy Chartered Accountants • Frank Prendergast • Pat Hennerty Printing • Máire O’Mahony • David Slevin • Mark Chambers • David Adams • Sarah Groser and Patrick Goyvaerts • Malcolm and Susan Proud • Síle Ní Dhubhghaill • Sestina Music • Clare Keogh • James Taylor • Kinsale Amateur Orchestral Society • Colm MacAthlaoich • Francesco Giusti • Elisabeth Vogel • Justin Grounds • Blackwater Distillery • L’Atitude 51 • O’Leary’s Farm B&B • Market Lane • Clonakilty Chocolate • Philomena and Gabriel O’Neill • Rhea Lewis • Melissa Shiels • Youghal Community Radio • CMJ Services

Bronze Patrons Martin & Anne Wright Frank Ayers Seán & Henar Ua Súilleabháin

Festival Board and Committee Chairman: Edward Fahy

Caitríona O’Mahony

Treasurer: Mark Khan

Norah O’Leary

Secretary: Sheila Spalding

Máire O’Mahony

Marja Gaynor

Eimear Reidy

Síle Ní Dhubhghaill

Aoife Nic Athlaoich

Pauline MacSweeney

Tom O’Driscoll

Alan Navratil