Programme
Robert de Visée Prelude
Michel Lambert Ma bergère
Jean Henry d’Anglebert Prelude
Michel Lambert Ombre de mon amant
Vos mespris chaques jour
Marc-Antoine Charpentier Le Reniement de St Pierre
Interval
Marc-Antoine Charpentier Les Plaisirs de Versailles
Performers
Soprano
Mengyixuan Qi
Claire Ward+
Alto
Roei Shafrir
Angharad Rowlands+
Tenor
Jacob Cole
William Prasetyo
David de Winter+
Baritone
Ben Watkins
Jon Stainsby+
Recorder
Mia Vojic
Catherine Fleming*
Ian Wilson*
Cello
Rowena Taylor
Theorbo
Stefano Fiacco
Harp
Eleanor Medcalf
Keyboards
Ben Cole
Tom Dilley
Sharona Joshua
* Guildhall School of Music & Drama professor
+ Academy of Ancient Music
About the programme
Every schoolboy once knew – in the sense of 1066 and All That – of the musical battle between the French bon goût and il furibondo of Italy. And yet Lully was an Italian, whose musical education was in Paris, whilst his “compatriot” Charpentier was a Frenchman who travelled to Rome. There he may or may not have studied with Carissimi (the origin story was already being written during Charpentier’s lifetime) but he undoubtedly absorbed the sounds of the late 1660s, returning them to Paris through manuscripts and his ‘prodigious’ musical memory, as de Brossard later recalled. These are in evidence in his early dramatic motet Le Reniement de St Pierre, Charpentier demonstrating his genius in creating a narrative through the fabric of his music. The calm certainty with which Jesus warns Peter of his impending repudiation – each clause coinciding with the harmonic rhythm – immediately jars with Peter’s off-beat disbelief, foreshadowing his actual denials. Even more extraordinary is Charpentier’s final depiction of Peter’s bitter tears. Unlike Bach’s solo Evangelist, Charpentier’s intertwining chorus lines – the plangent suspensions – involve musicians and listeners alike in the physicality of musical sound, no longer just observing but momentarily becoming Peter.
Far less serious, but still composed with equally insightful characterisation, is Charpentier’s operatic entertainment Les Plaisirs de Versailles. Although Charpentier never rose to royal patronage, he wrote sacred music for the dauphin, who maintained a separate musical establishment from Louis XIV; it is likely that it was these musicians who performed Les Plaisirs de Versailles in the king’s “apartments”. The entertainment would probably now be described as rather meta, invoking as it does the pleasures and behaviours of the courtiers’ evening. Music, with her sensuous harmonies, and Conversation, with her repetitive repartee, compete with each other to be heard and to be the pre-eminent source of pleasure. The Chorus of Pleasures, afraid that such bickering will draw their evening to a premature close, call on Comus, the God of Festivities and Jeu, the personification of games, to intervene. Offers of wine and chocolate, pastries and marzipan, do little to help, but eventually Music and Conversation agree that they can both help distract the king from the demands of state.
Like Lully, Michel Lambert was prominent as a dancer and a musician. As well as dancing for the young Louis XIV’s ballet, he was the pre-eminent singing teacher of the mid-seventeenth century, sang as a soloist for the king, and was the most prolific composer of airs; the three hundred and thirty or so that have survived are a fraction of the at least twenty volumes published in his lifetime. The declamation of his texts is always bound to his music, whether above the dance-like chaconne basses (Ma bergère and Vos mespris chaques jour) or in the almost recitative lament Ombre de mon amant. Lambert’s daughter married Lully; their marriage contract was signed by Louis XIV and not one, but two queens!
Programme note by Christopher Suckling
About the artists
For well over a decade, James Johnstone has led collaborations between the Vocal and Historical Performance departments at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, performing sacred and secular chamber cantatas from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as long as they are not by Bach! As well appearing at Guildhall, the Cantata Project are regular visitors to Blackheath and Hatchlands Park and have appeared in the Spitalfields and London Handel festivals. For this project they are joined for the first time by vocalists from the Academy of Ancient Music (AAM). Guildhall is proud of its long-standing association with AAM; many of AAM’s members are Guildhall School alumni and professors. Side-by-side performance projects are a highlight of the Historical Performance students’ annual calendars. Following two years of operatic collaborations for Handel’s Alcina and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, this project expands the relationship to much more intimate music. The precise programme remains, of necessity, unknown; a new cohort of singers will walk into Guildhall for the first time in September when this programme will be cast with the sounds of their voices in mind.
Academy of Ancient Music
AAM is an orchestra with a worldwide reputation for excellence in baroque and classical music. Using historically informed techniques, period-specific instruments and original sources, we bring music vividly to life in committed, vibrant performances.
Established more than 50 years ago by Christopher Hogwood to make the first British recordings of orchestral works using original instruments, AAM has released more than 300 albums to date, collecting countless accolades including Classic BRIT, Gramophone and Edison awards. We now record on our own label and are proud to be the most listened-to period-instrument orchestra online, with over one million monthly listeners on streaming platforms. AAM recently celebrated the orchestra’s Golden Anniversary with the completion of a landmark project to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra, a series described by the Financial Times as having ‘set new standards’.
Beyond the concert hall, AAM is committed to nurturing the next generation of musicians and music-lovers through our innovative side-by-side learning and participation initiative, AAMplify. Working with music colleges and universities across the UK, we engage the next generation of period instrumentalists with side-by-side sessions, masterclasses and other opportunities designed to bridge the gap between the conservatoire and the profession, safeguarding the future of historical performance.
AAM proudly holds the position of Associate Ensemble at London’s Barbican Centre and the Teatro San Cassiano, Venice, and Orchestra-in-Residence at the University of Cambridge and The Apex, Bury St Edmunds.
Approx. finish 9.30pm. With interval.
