oxford early music festival 2016

www.oemf.co.uk

WelcomeWe are delighted to present the programme for the 2016 Oxford Early Music Festival!

Beginning with Trevor Pinnock (10th May) and ending with Emma Kirkby (15th May), this year’s Festival is packed full of performances given by the very best early music specialists, alongside workshops, talks, evensongs and more.

The Festival offers a rich array of musical experiences: intimate encounters with solo recorder and late-night voices, a gala performance of Handel’s epic oratorio Israel in Egypt with soloists including Robin Blaze and Emma Kirkby (13th May), and the chance to experience two spectacular 40-part motets in one day! On 14th May, an afternoon workshop gives singers an opportunity to explore Tallis’s magnificent Spem in alium, whilst the evening concert, given by the Choir of Merton College, will feature the work that may have inspired Tallis: Alessandro Striggio’s Ecce beatam lucem.

The best of current scholarship is celebrated in the first performance of a new edition of a little-known work, Francesco Durante’s C-minor Requiem, performed by Christ Church Cathedral Choir. We also explore Oxford’s rich musical history, with an exhibition offering a rare opportunity to look closely at some of the most beautiful extant sixteenth-century partbooks in the stunning Upper Library at Christ Church. See, hear and learn about these invaluable sources and the works they contain in an exclusive evening concert given by internationally-renowned vocal ensemble Magnificat, with an introduction to the exhibition given by its curator, Dr John Milsom.

Full details of all events are contained in this brochure. We look forward to seeing you at the Festival!

Kate Ashby, Laura Ashby & David Lee Co-Directors, Oxford Early Music Festival

Booking InformationAll concert tickets are available from Tickets Oxford

Online www.ticketsoxford.comTelephone 01865 305305In person Oxford Playhouse,11-12 Beaumont St, Oxford, OX1 2LW

Workshop places can be reserved by emailing [email protected]£5 tickets are available for students on the door only

Tuesday 10 May Wednesday 11 MayTrevor Pinnock & FriendsTrios and solos by ‘the most fam’d masters’St John the Evangelist, Iffley Road, 7:30pm £25, £20, £15 (£5 for students / U18s)

Celebrated harpsichordist, conductor and pioneer of performance on historical instruments Trevor Pinnock joins forces with some of Europe’s finest baroque instrumentalists to open the 2016 Oxford Early Music Festival. A programme of sensuous chamber works by Purcell, Corelli, and Handel will be brought to life with consummate skill by Pinnock,

alongside Sophie Gent, Professor of Baroque Violin at the Amsterdam Conservatorium, Matthew Truscott, a leader of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Jonathan Manson, acclaimed performer on both viola da gamba and cello. An unmissable opening concert!

Christ Church Cathedral Choir Oxford Baroque

presented in conjunction with

Trevor Pinnock harpsichord and organSophie Gent violinMatthew Truscott violinJonathan Manson viola da gamba

Festival Evensong SeriesThe Queen’s College, High Street, OX1 4AWWednesday 11 May, 6:30pm | Friday 13 May, 6:30pm | Sunday 15 May, 6:15pm

We commemorate the 450th anniversary of the birth of Portuguese composer Manuel Cardoso in this series of evensongs, curated by leading expert Professor Owen Rees. A renowned scholar and interpreter of Iberian polyphony, Owen Rees directs the Choir of The Queen’s College in three evensongs showcasing Cardoso’s sumptuous and passionate music. These services are free of charge, and all are welcome.

“Christ Church Cathedral Choir give consistently outstanding performances under the committed direction of Stephen Darlington.” Gramophone

Francesco Durante Requiem Giovannni Pergolesi Stabat Mater

Alexandra Kidgell, Eloise Irving sopranoWilliam Purefoy countertenor Stephen Darlington conductor

Neapolitan composer Francesco Durante (1684-1755) was renowned in his day as much as a teacher as for his own skill as a composer. He counted Giovanni Battista Pergolesi among his students, whose Stabat Mater is an enduring baroque favourite. This concert will be the first performance of a new edition of Durante’s

unjustly neglected C-minor Requiem, prepared by Professor Stephen Darlington.Christ Church Cathedral Choir and vibrant young instrumental ensemble Oxford Baroque are joined by a talented team of soloists, offering a unique opportunity to hear these two powerful works by master and pupil side-by-side.

Christ Church Cathedral, 7:30pm £22, £18, £10 (unsighted) (£5 for students / U18s)

www.oemf.co.ukBox Office: 01865 305305 | www.ticketsoxford.co.uk4 5

As the centrepiece to the 2016 Oxford Early Music Festival, the International Baroque Players and Ensemble 45 once again join forces with conductor Daniel Hyde to perform Handel’s epic oratorio Israel in Egypt.

Telling the story of the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt, through the parting of the Red Sea to the joyful relief at the end of their perilous journey, Handel’s

vividly dramatic writing will be brought to life by a superlative team of soloists, headed by early music superstars soprano Emma Kirkby and countertenor Robin Blaze. This is sure to be a suitably triumphant performance of Handel’s monumental biblical oratorio.

Tickets include admission to a half-hour pre-concert talk on Handel’s Israelite oratorios, given by Dr Deborah Rooke at 6.30pm in the University Church.

Tudor Music from Christ Church LibraryChrist Church Upper Library, 7:00pm £22 (with a glass of wine)

The Festival’s exhibition of partbooks in Christ Church Library, showcases many of the musical treasures contained within the College’s collection. Chief among them are the set known as the ‘Dow Partbooks’. Compiled towards the end of the sixteenth century by Robert Dow, the collection contains many of the highlights of the Tudor choral repertoire, with masterpieces by William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Robert White and many more.

In this, their twentieth anniversary year, internationally-renowned vocal ensemble Magnificat has selected some of the finest works from the exhibition, and will bring them to life in this special concert.

Dr John Milsom, one of the most distinguished scholars of Tudor music and an authority on the Christ Church collection, will give an introduction to the exhibition, and the evening will conclude with a glass of wine and the opportunity to view these spectacular manuscripts.This is a unique opportunity to see, hear, and learn about some of Oxford’s hidden musical treasures in the spectacular setting of Christ Church’s Upper Library, and promises to be a truly memorable event.

Early booking is advised, as space is limited.

For more details of the Exhibition, please see page 11.

Generously supported by the Oxford University Community Engagement Fund

Thursday 12 May Friday 13 May

Festival Evensong 2 at 6:30pmThe Queen’s College

“Director Philip Cave creates some revelatory readings... For clarity, nuance and intimacy,

Magnificat are unmatched.”BBC Music Magazine

MagnificatPhilip Cave director

Israel in EgyptGeorge Frederic Handel

Emma Kirkby, Robyn Allegra Parton sopranoRobin Blaze countertenor

Thomas Hobbs tenorJonathan Arnold, Brian McAlea bass

Ensemble 45The International Baroque Players

Daniel Hyde conductor

University Church, 7:30pm £25, £18, £15 (students / U18s £5)


Saturday 14 May

Virtuosic music for recorderSt Mary Magdalen Church, 1:15pm

£12 (£5 students / U18s)

László Rózsa recorderJan Waterfield harpsichord

Workshop: Spem in aliumSt Peter’s College Chapel 2:30-5:30pm £15 (£5 students / U18s) ‘A life of love and joy’

Songs from Medieval EuropeVoice TrioNew College Chapel, 10pm£12 (£5 students)

Alessandro Striggio’s great 40-part motet, Ecce beatam lucem, lost for 400 years and only rediscovered in 2007, is believed to have inspired Thomas Tallis to write his own iconic masterpiece Spem in alium, when Striggio brought it to London in 1567.

Merton College Choir’s success as a breeding ground for young singers is celebrated with the return of some of its most outstanding alumni, to bring Striggio’s great piece to life alongside works by Renaissance choral masters Gabrieli, Victoria, Praetorius and Schütz.

Voice, the unique a cappella trio, presents an atmospheric late-night concert of sacred and secular songs from medieval Europe. This programme juxtaposes the devotional, soaring chant of the German medieval abbess, Hildegard of Bingen,

whose music has long inspired the group, alongside heart-wrenching vernacular songs and florid motets by composers including Guillaume de Machaut and Jacopo da Bologna, in the beautiful candlelit setting of New College Chapel.

Well-known for his work on BBC Radio, Jeremy Summerly, founder of Oxford Camerata and Director of Music at St Peter’s College, leads a workshop based on Thomas Tallis’s Spem in alium. The workshop will explore the wide variety of works left to us by Tallis, a composer who worked under four different monarchs during a turbulent time in English history.

Merton College Chapel, 8pm£20 (concessions £15 / £10)

Saturday 14 May

A pre-concert talk will be given by Professor Suzanne Aspden at 7pm, free to all ticket holders.

The Choir of Merton CollegeBenjamin Nicholas & Peter Phillips conductors

Striggio Ecce beatam lucemwith works by Gabrieli, Victoria,

Praetorius & Schütz

presented in conjunction with Music at Oxford

“The singing is of the kind of even quality as to make it unrecognisable as a college - and therefore ‘youth’ - choir.” Gramophone

Virtuoso recorder player, László Rózsa and renowned harpsichordist Jan Waterfield combine in a fascinating programme exploring the enticing world of musical ornamentation. The practice of ‘diminutions’ (adding ornamented smaller notes) reached its peak in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, with performers demonstrating their technical facility and ingenuity through

improvised works based on popular madrigals, melodies and dance music.Hungarian-born László Rózsa studied in Vienna, Hamburg and London, and is already marked out as one of the finest recorder players of his generation. Accompanied by Jan Waterfield, one of the UK’s most accomplished harpsichordists, this programme provides the perfect showcase for László’s exceptional talents.

This workshop is open to anyone with experience of amateur choral singing. An opportunity to sing in Tallis’s forty-part motet is a thrilling and rewarding challenge for any choral singer!

Reserve your place by emailing [email protected], stipulating voice part.Tickets include tea/coffee and biscuits.


Sunday 15 May

Emma Kirkby sopranoMarie Jaermann, Angela Hicks soprano Clemmie Franks alto Michael Solomon Williams tenorRichard Moore bassToby Carr, Wezi Elliott lute

‘That sweet melodious sound’Music by John Dowland and his contemporaries

Emma KirkbyDowland Works

Holywell Music Room7pm

£18 (£5 students)

One of the leading lights of the Early Music revival, Emma Kirkby, brings the next generation of performers to Oxford in a celebration of the music of John Dowland and his contemporaries. In the near-perfect intimate acoustic of Europe’s oldest purpose-built concert hall, Kirkby and the hand-picked talented young musicians of Dowland Works close the 2016 Oxford Early Music Festival with an exploration of the rich tradition of domestic song in seventeenth-century England.

Tudor ParbooksDigital Reconstruction ShowcaseFaculty of Music, St Aldate’sSaturday 14 May, 10:30am-1:00pm Sunday 15 May,1:30pm-4:30pmAdmission free

Special Events

ExhibitionTreasures from Christ Church LibraryChrist Church Upper LibraryOpen throughout the festivalMonday-Friday, 9am-5pm

Also on display are Robert Dow’s partbooks, dating from the same decade, and prized as much for their superb calligraphy as for their musical contents. Complementing the partbooks is a display of musical tablebooks, featuring music by John Dowland and Thomas Morley, which require the singers to cluster round all four sides of the opened volume, reading in each direction.

During the Festival a selection of Oxford’s early music treasures will be displayed in the spectacular Upper Library at Christ Church. This special exhibition showcases the music-books used by singers in the age of Queen Elizabeth I, with special emphasis placed on partbooks – matching sets of volumes in which each singer views only her or his own voice-part, not the whole composition in score. Pride of place goes to John Baldwin’s manuscript partbooks, copied largely in the 1580s, which are the sole source of many of John Sheppard’s works, as well as of pieces by Thomas Tallis, Robert White, William Byrd and their contemporaries.

“Kirkby still brings a special magic to this music...her artistry was as winning

and subtle as ever.” The Telegraph

John Milsom will lead a workshop introducing singers to reading from original Renaissance notation. The session will give participants a chance to try their hand at singing from facsimiles of Tudor partbooks, and is aimed at experienced amateur singers. John Milsom is one of the world’s leading editors of and experts on Renaissance music. Tickets include tea/coffee and biscuits. To reserve a place, please email [email protected], stating yourvoice part.

WorkshopSinging from facsimileFaculty of Music, 4-6:30pm £15 (£5 students / U18s)

When the Elizabethan gentleman John Sadler sat down to copy his music partbooks – adorned with elaborate initials, colourful inscriptions and charming pictures of birds, animals and plants – little did he know that he had chosen an overly acidic ink. Over the centuries this ink would burn through the paper, leaving his once beautiful partbooks stained, difficult to read, and too fragile to be handled. With funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Tudor Partbooks team is digitally

reconstructing Sadler’s manuscripts to return them to their former glory.

Join the team at this open day to discover more about John Sadler and the process of digitally reconstructing his partbooks. Drop in to meet volunteer restorers, try your hand at digital reconstruction, hear performances by viol consorts and choirs of the music that Sadler copied, and even have a go at singing from our reconstructed manuscript pages.


VenuesUniversity ChurchHigh StreetOX1 4BJ

Faculty of MusicSt Aldate’sOX1 1DB

St Mary MagdalenMagdalen StreetOX1 3AE

Chirst Church(Cathedral & Library)St AldatesOX1 1DP

New College Holywell StreetOX1 3BN

St John the EvangelistIffley RoadOX4 1EH

OEMF 2016 at a glance

St Peter’s CollegeNew Inn Hall StreetOX1 2DL

Merton CollegeMerton StreetOX1 4JD

Holywell Music RoomHolywell StreetOX1 3SD

Tuesday 10 May7:30pm Trevor Pinnock & Friends St John the Evangelist, Iffley Road

Wednesday 11 May6:30pm Festival Evensong 1 The Queen’s College Chapel8:00pm Durante Requiem Christ Church Cathedral

Thursday 12 May7:00pm Magnificat Upper Library, Christ Church

Friday 13 May6:30pm Festival Evensong 2 The Queen’s College Chapel7:30pm Israel in Egypt University Church

Saturday 14 May10:30am Digital Reconstruction Showcase Faculty of Music1:15pm Laszlo Rosza recorder recital St Mary Magdalen2:30pm Workshop: Spem in alium St Peter’s College8:00pm Merton College Choir: Striggio Merton College10:00pm Voice: A Life of Love and Joy New College Chapel

Sunday 15 May1:30pm Digital Reconstruction Showcase Faculty of Music4:00pm Workshop: Singing from Facsimile Faculty of Music6:15pm Festival Evensong 3 The Queen’s College Chapel7:00pm Emma Kirkby & Dowland Works Holywell Music Room

oxford early music festival 2016

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