The Early Music Show
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04-Jan-2026
The Early Music Show - Happy New Year - 18th Century German style
German cantatas to usher in the new year.
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28-Dec-2025
The Early Music Show - The Spohr Collection
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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21-Dec-2025
The Early Music Show - Christmas with Handel
A festive visit to London's Handel Hendrix House.
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07-Dec-2025
The Early Music Show - Esteban Salas - Christmas in Cuba
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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23-Nov-2025
The Early Music Show - The Early Opera Company
Hannah French chats to the director of The Early Opera Company, Christian Curnyn.
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16-Nov-2025
The Early Music Show - Utrecht Early Music Festival 2025
Hannah French presents highlights from the 2025 Utrecht Early Music Festival.
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09-Nov-2025
The Early Music Show - The Brook Street Band at Love:Handel
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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02-Nov-2025
The Early Music Show - Portuguese Polyphony
Renaissance choral works from Portugal.
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19-Oct-2025
The Early Music Show - Palestrina Rediscovered
Hannah French explores some modern rediscoveries of Palestrina's music with Graham Ross.
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12-Oct-2025
The Early Music Show - The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at Acland Burghley School
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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05-Oct-2025
The Early Music Show - The Four Seasons: Autumn
Hannah French explores the world of Autumn from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.
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28-Sep-2025
The Early Music Show - Early Music Today
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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21-Sep-2025
The Early Music Show - The Medici Popes - Part 2: The most unfortunate of Popes
The music surrounding two 16th Century Popes: Leo X and Clement VII.
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15-Sep-2025
The Early Music Show - The Medici Popes - Part 1: Cousins in arms
The music surrounding two 16th Century Popes: Leo X and Clement VII.
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31-Aug-2025
The Early Music Show - Women in the Old Testament
Hannah French with music inspired by Biblical women Eve, Judith and Bathsheba.
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17-Aug-2025
The Early Music Show - Le Concert Spirituel
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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03-Aug-2025
The Early Music Show - Heaven and Hell. Helen Charlston and Toby Carr at the York Early Music Festival - Part 2: HELL
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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28-Jul-2025
The Early Music Show - Heaven and Hell. Helen Charlston and Toby Carr at the York Early Music Festival
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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20-Jul-2025
The Early Music Show - Cantoría at the York Early Music Festival
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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13-Jul-2025
The Early Music Show - Joan Cererols - a Requiem discovery
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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06-Jul-2025
The Early Music Show - Live from the York Early Music Festival
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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29-Jun-2025
The Early Music Show - The Four Seasons: Summer
Hannah French explores the world of Summer from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.
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15-Jun-2025
The Early Music Show - And we were enchanted...
Ensemble Augelletti at the Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival.
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08-Jun-2025
The Early Music Show - Early Music Today
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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01-Jun-2025
The Early Music Show - Orlando Gibbons
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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25-May-2025
The Early Music Show - Jane Austen's Music
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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11-May-2025
The Early Music Show - The (very) First Viennese School
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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07-May-2025
The Early Music Show - London International Festival of Early Music
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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20-Apr-2025
The Early Music Show - Easter: A Seasonal Journey. The Brockes Passion
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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23-Mar-2025
The Early Music Show - The Four Seasons: Spring
Hannah French explores the world of Spring from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.
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16-Mar-2025
The Early Music Show - Tielman Susato: composer, caligrapher, printer, pioneer
Hannah French explores the world of Early Music.
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09-Mar-2025
The Early Music Show - Palestrina 500
Hannah French explores the world of Early Music.
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02-Mar-2025
The Early Music Show - Arte dei Suonatori
Hannah French explores the world of Early Music.
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23-Feb-2025
The Early Music Show - The Viola Joke
Mark Seow explores the history of the viola and why it became the butt of musical jokes.
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17-Feb-2025
The Early Music Show - The Four Seasons: Winter
Hannah French explores the world of Winter from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.
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09-Feb-2025
The Early Music Show - Early Music Today
Hannah French explores the world of Early Music.
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02-Feb-2025
The Early Music Show - Ensemble Augelletti: Parisian Charm
Hannah French presents a new studio recording from Ensemble Augelletti
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26-Jan-2025
The Early Music Show - RIAS Chamber Choir in Berlin
Hannah French explores the world of Early Music.
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12-Jan-2025
The Early Music Show - The Music of Wolf Hall
Hannah French explores the Tudor music of Wolf Hall.
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05-Jan-2025
The Early Music Show - Radio 3's European Road Trip: Early Music in Iceland
Hannah French explores the world of early music in Iceland.
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29-Dec-2024
The Early Music Show - Ton Koopman at 80
Hannah French explores the world of Early Music.
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22-Dec-2024
The Early Music Show - An Early Music Yule
Hannah French explores the world of festive Early Music.
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08-Dec-2024
The Early Music Show - The Notre-Dame School and its musical legacy
Hannah French explores music in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris from the 12-18th centuries.
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17-Nov-2024
The Early Music Show - The Tallis Scholars at Saffron Hall
Hannah French explores the world of early music.
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10-Nov-2024
The Early Music Show - Morales at the Utrecht Early Music Festival
Hannah French explores the world of early music.
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03-Nov-2024
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival Young Artists Competition
Hannah French explores the world of early music.
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27-Oct-2024
The Early Music Show - Early Music Today
Hannah French explores the latest happenings in the early music world.
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13-Oct-2024
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival - Apotropaïk
Hannah French explores the world of early music.
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06-Oct-2024
The Early Music Show - Brecon Baroque
Hannah French explores the world of early music.
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29-Sep-2024
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival - The Gesualdo Six
Hannah French explores the world of early music.
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22-Sep-2024
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival - Cubaroque
Hannah French explores the world of Early Music.
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15-Sep-2024
The Early Music Show - Restoring Obrecht's Scaramella Mass
Hannah French explores the world of Early Music.
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01-Sep-2024
The Early Music Show - Bach to School
Hannah French goes Bach to School...
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11-Aug-2024
The Early Music Show - Gold
As the Paris Olympics draw to a close, Hannah French explores gold in early music.
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28-Jul-2024
The Early Music Show - Silver
Marking the Paris Olympics, Hannah French explores early music associated with silver.
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21-Jul-2024
The Early Music Show - Bronze
As the Paris Olympics draw near, Hannah French explores early music connected with bronze.
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14-Jul-2024
The Early Music Show - Metastasio's Olimpiade
Mark Seow explores the world of early music.
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07-Jul-2024
The Early Music Show - From the York Early Music Festival
From the National Centre for Early Music as part of the 2024 York Early Music Festival.
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30-Jun-2024
The Early Music Show - The Rise and Fall of JB Lully
Hannah French explores the world of medieval, renaissance and baroque music.
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16-Jun-2024
The Early Music Show - Masaaki Suzuki at 70
Hannah French and Mark Seow discuss the latest happenings in the early music world.
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09-Jun-2024
The Early Music Show - Ensemble Augelletti - A Curious MInd
Hannah French explores the world of early music.
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26-May-2024
The Early Music Show - Ensemble 1700 at Schwetzingen Festival
Hannah French explores the world of early music.
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12-May-2024
The Early Music Show - London International Festival of Early Music
Hannah French explores the world of Early Music.
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05-May-2024
The Early Music Show - London International Festival of Early Music
Hannah French explores the world of Early Music.
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21-Apr-2024
The Early Music Show - Freiburg Baroque Orchestra at Schwetzingen
The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra at last summer's Schwetzingen Festival.
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14-Apr-2024
The Early Music Show - Hannah French marks the 450th anniversary of the birth of madrigalist John Wilbye
Hannah French marks the 450th anniversary of the birth of madrigalist John Wilbye.
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07-Apr-2024
The Early Music Show - Ensemble Augelletti
Hannah French is joined by Radio 3 New Generation Baroque Ensemble - Ensemble Augelletti.
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24-Mar-2024
The Early Music Show - Bach's St John Passion at 300
300 years on from its first performance, Hannah French explores Bach's St John Passion.
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17-Mar-2024
The Early Music Show - Lucrezia Vizzana and the rebellious nuns of Bologna
Lucie Skeaping tells the remarkable story of a convent full of mutinous musicians
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10-Mar-2024
The Early Music Show - Presenter Hannah French with composer Jocelyn Pook on represenations of period music in film.
Hannah French looks back at representations of period music in film.
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03-Mar-2024
The Early Music Show - Empowered Women
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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25-Feb-2024
The Early Music Show - English Satire and Opera in the 18th Century
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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11-Feb-2024
The Early Music Show - Matthias Weckman
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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28-Jan-2024
The Early Music Show - Wroclaw Baroque Ensemble
Wroclaw Baroque Ensemble from Poland perform music by Monteverdi and Zieleński in Czechia.
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14-Jan-2024
The Early Music Show - Chinoiserie
Performance and news from the world of early music.
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24-Dec-2023
The Early Music Show - Early Music for Christmas Eve
Festive pieces with a historical vibe.
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10-Dec-2023
The Early Music Show - Carl Friedrich Abel
Lucie Skeaping delves into the life and music of C18 viol player Carl Friedrich Abel.
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03-Dec-2023
The Early Music Show - Early Music in Derbyshire
Performance and news from the world of Early Music.
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26-Nov-2023
The Early Music Show - English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble
Music for brass from the Golden Age of the Spanish Renaissance.
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12-Nov-2023
The Early Music Show - Herreweghe meets Petrarch
Philippe Herreweghe directs music inspired by the great 14C Italian poet Petrarch.
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05-Nov-2023
The Early Music Show - An imaginary funeral for Charles V
A concert given by ensemble La Tempete at the 2023 Utrecht Festival of Early Music.
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29-Oct-2023
The Early Music Show - The Tallis Scholars at 50
Founder Peter Phillips reviews the Tallis Scholars' five-decade career.
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22-Oct-2023
The Early Music Show - Hidden gems of the French Baroque
Ensemble Moliere perform works by Guillemain, Duphly, Corrette and Boismortier.
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15-Oct-2023
The Early Music Show - Fifty years of the Academy of Ancient Music
Hannah French chats to Laurence Cummings and John McMunn of the Academy of Ancient Music.
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09-Oct-2023
The Early Music Show - Byrd is the Word
The EX CORDE vocal ensemble perform sacred and secular music by William Byrd
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01-Oct-2023
The Early Music Show - Guillaume de Machaut
Lucie Skeaping discovers the remarkable Guillaume de Machaut, renowned poet and composer
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27-Aug-2023
The Early Music Show - The Taverner Consort at 50
Hannah French talks to Andrew Parrott, founder of the Taverner Consort and Players.
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20-Aug-2023
The Early Music Show - Tuma's Te Deum
Andreas Scholl and the Prague Ensemble Baroque perform sacred music by Frantisek Tuma.
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13-Aug-2023
The Early Music Show - Antonio Cesti
Lucie Skeaping delves into the life and music of C17 Italian composer Antonio Cesti.
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06-Aug-2023
The Early Music Show - Hidden in plain sight
Violinist Rachel Podger performs Baroque masterpieces at the York Early Music Festival.
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30-Jul-2023
The Early Music Show - Baroque chamber music rarities
L'Apotheose perform Johann, Anton and Carl Stamitz at the York Early Music Festival.
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23-Jul-2023
The Early Music Show - The harp, the philtre and the sword
Medieval music from the ensemble Apotropaik at the York Early Music Festival.
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16-Jul-2023
The Early Music Show - Dutch Organ Improvisation
Sietz de Vries takes Hannah French on an organ tour of Groningen in The Netherlands.
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09-Jul-2023
The Early Music Show - Live from the York Early Music Festival
Performances by baroque ensemble I Zefirelli and the Butter Quartet.
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02-Jul-2023
The Early Music Show - William Byrd's keyboard music
Lucie Skeaping looks at how Byrd set the course of English keyboard music.
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25-Jun-2023
The Early Music Show - Alessandro Stradella: Music, mayhem and murder
A look at the life and work of Italian Baroque composer Alessandro Stradella.
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14-Jun-2023
The Early Music Show - Ensemble Moliere at the Beverley Early Music Festival
Performance and news from the world of Early Music.
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28-May-2023
The Early Music Show - Bach's arrival in Leipzig
Mark Seow explores the impact of JS Bach's cantata Die Elenden sollen essen.
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21-May-2023
The Early Music Show - Handel & Hendrix in London
Lucie Skeaping visits Handel & Hendrix in London, which reopens this month.
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14-May-2023
The Early Music Show - The Trouveres
Lucie Skeaping meets the singer-songwriters of 13th-century northern France.
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07-May-2023
The Early Music Show - Les Arts Florissants in Vienna
Infernal music by Rebel, Campra and Purcell from Les Arts Florissants
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30-Apr-2023
The Early Music Show - London International Festival of Early Music 2022 (2/2)
Lucie Skeaping introduces more highlights from the 2022 LIFEM festival.
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23-Apr-2023
The Early Music Show - London International Festival of Early Music 2022 (1/2)
Lucie Skeaping introduces highlights from last year’s Lifem festival.
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16-Apr-2023
The Early Music Show - Carnival Ballets
Highlights of a concert given earlier this year by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.
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04-Apr-2023
The Early Music Show - Follow the Lieder
The history of German art song from its beginnings in the 12th century to the Renaissance.
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26-Mar-2023
The Early Music Show - The Brabant Ensemble at 25
Hannah French chats to Stephen Rice about The Brabant Ensemble's 25th anniversary.
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22-Mar-2023
The Early Music Show - Catherine and Mary: Tudor Queens, forever entwined
Cantoria perform music associated with Catherine of Aragon and Mary I.
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19-Mar-2023
The Early Music Show - Catherine and Mary: Tudor Queens, forever entwined
Cantoria perform music associated with Catherine of Aragon and Mary I.
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12-Mar-2023
The Early Music Show - The Museum of Renaissance Music
Hannah French leafs through a new book of 100 exhibits exploring Renaissance music history
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26-Feb-2023
The Early Music Show - Sollazzo Ensemble at Utrecht Festival of Early Music
Sollazzo Ensemble perform 14th-century vocal music at the Utrecht Early Music Festival.
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19-Feb-2023
The Early Music Show - A Mandolin in Naples and Venice
Lucie Skeaping presents Il Pomo d'Oro and mandolin player Raffaele La Ragione in concert.
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12-Feb-2023
The Early Music Show - El Gran Teatro del Mundo
Spanish ensemble El Gran Teatro del Mundo perform Fasch, Vivaldi, Telemann and Pla.
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29-Jan-2023
The Early Music Show - Ensemble Moliere - A Sultana's Garden
Ensemble Moliere perform music by Couperin, Rameau and Rebel.
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22-Jan-2023
The Early Music Show - Clare Salaman: A Tribute
Celebrating the life and work of Clare Salaman, champion of rare and exotic instruments.
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15-Jan-2023
The Early Music Show - Marc'Antonio Ingegneri
Hannah French chats to choir conductor Gareth Wilson about composer Marc'Antonio Ingegneri
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01-Jan-2023
The Early Music Show - Happy New Year with Stile Antico and William Byrd
Stile Antico share their love of William Byrd with Hannah French.
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25-Dec-2022
The Early Music Show - Gabrieli at 40
Hannah French celebrates Gabrieli's 40th birthday with artistic director, Paul McCreesh.
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12-Dec-2022
The Early Music Show - His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts at 40
A celebration of the 40th anniversary of His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts.
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04-Dec-2022
The Early Music Show - The Akademie für alte Musik Berlin at 40
Hannah French is in Germany to mark 40 years of the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin.
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27-Nov-2022
The Early Music Show - Dunedin Consort's silver anniversary
Hannah French chats to the Dunedin Consort's artistic director, John Butt
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13-Nov-2022
The Early Music Show - Consone Quartet at Stour Festival
The Consone Quartet play Mozart, Fanny Mendelssohn and two works by young composers.
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06-Nov-2022
The Early Music Show - Orchestra of the 18th Century at Utrecht
The Orchestra of the 18th Century play sinfonias and concertos by CPE Bach.
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19-Oct-2022
The Early Music Show - The Musette
Lucie and Dr Amanda Babington explore the history of a type of bagpipe called the musette.
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09-Oct-2022
The Early Music Show - Vaughan Williams and early music
Hannah French explores Ralph Vaughan Williams's love for Bach and early English composers.
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02-Oct-2022
The Early Music Show - Robert Parsons
Lucie Skeaping and Magnus Williamson explore the life and music of composer Robert Parsons
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25-Sep-2022
The Early Music Show - The Vivaldi Edition
Hannah French explores the major recording series the Vivaldi Edition
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21-Aug-2022
The Early Music Show - Huelgas Ensemble sing Josquin
The Huelgas Ensemble sings music by Josquin at the Laus Polyphoniae Festival in Antwerp.
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07-Aug-2022
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival Young Artists Competition
Highlights from this year's Young Artists Competition at the York Early Music Festival.
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31-Jul-2022
The Early Music Show - Venice 1629
The Gonzaga Band play Schutz, Monteverdi and Marini at the 2022 York Early Music Festival.
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24-Jul-2022
The Early Music Show - Heaven's Joy - the World of the Virtuoso Viol
Paolo Pandolfo and Amélie Chemin perform viol duets at the York Early Music Festival
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18-Jul-2022
The Early Music Show - Belinda Sykes: A Tribute
A tribute to Belinda Sykes, founder of medieval and folk music band Joglaresa.
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10-Jul-2022
The Early Music Show - Live from the York Early Music Festival
Hannah French presents a live edition from the National Centre for Early Music in York.
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26-Jun-2022
The Early Music Show - London International Festival of Early Music 2021
Highlights from the 2021 London International Festival of Early Music.
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12-Jun-2022
The Early Music Show - Ensemble Molière from the Beverley Early Music Festival
Ensemble Molière give a concert at the Beverley and West Riding Early Music Festival.
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05-Jun-2022
The Early Music Show - Masters of the Queen's Musick
Hannah French explores the history of the role of the Master of the Queen's Music.
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22-May-2022
The Early Music Show - John Blanke's England
Lucie Skeaping uncovers the life of John Blanke, King Henry VIII's black trumpet player.
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15-May-2022
The Early Music Show - Réunion des goûts
Ensemble Molière play Lully, Couperin and Telemann, showing C18 French and Italian tastes.
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08-May-2022
The Early Music Show - RIAS Chamber Choir sings Bach
The RIAS Chamber Choir and Akademie für alte Musik Berlin perform Bach cantatas.
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24-Apr-2022
The Early Music Show - The Aleotti Mystery
Vittoria and Raffaella Aleotti were nuns and composers - but were they one person or two?
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17-Apr-2022
The Early Music Show - Couperin's Leçons de Tenebres
Vincent Dumestre directs Le Poème Harmonique in music by Couperin for Holy Week
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03-Apr-2022
The Early Music Show - Handel in Cambridge
Hannah is in Cambridge exploring links between Handel and a city that he never visited!
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27-Mar-2022
The Early Music Show - Thomas Tomkins
A celebration of the 450th anniversary of the birth of the composer Thomas Tomkins.
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06-Mar-2022
The Early Music Show - Carnevale - Venice, Vino...and Vivaldi
Hannah French and historian Ron Merlino explore music and wine from 18th-century Venice.
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27-Feb-2022
The Early Music Show - Carnevale: Venice and Vino
Hannah French and wine historian Ron Merlino explore Venetian music associated with wine.
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13-Feb-2022
The Early Music Show - A new songbook from the 1400s
Hannah French uncovers the amazing story of a 15th-century songbook rediscovered in 2014.
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06-Feb-2022
The Early Music Show - Ann Hallenberg in concert
Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg sings Monteverdi, Sances, Merula and Purcell.
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23-Jan-2022
The Early Music Show - Orquestra Barroca Catalana
Orquestra Barroca Catalana and Gabriel Diez with music by Porpora, Corelli and Vivaldi.
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16-Jan-2022
The Early Music Show - Molière and Charpentier
Lucie Skeaping explores the music Charpentier composed for Molière's final theatre pieces.
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26-Dec-2021
The Early Music Show - The Feast of Stephen
The music, food and traditions of Christmas in Bohemia
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12-Dec-2021
The Early Music Show - Lucrezia Borgia's music
Hannah French seeks the real Lucrezia Borgia through the music she knew and loved.
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05-Dec-2021
The Early Music Show - Robert Fayrfax - 500th Anniversary
Lucie Skeaping marks the 500th anniversary of the death of English composer Robert Fayrfax
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28-Nov-2021
The Early Music Show - The Elements - Water
Music associated with all things watery.
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21-Nov-2021
The Early Music Show - Palisander recorder ensemble
Palisander play Dowland, Bach, Holborne and Locke at St John's Smith Square.
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07-Nov-2021
The Early Music Show - Who wrote Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea?
Lucie Skeaping turns detective to investigate the mystery behind Monteverdi's last opera.
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31-Oct-2021
The Early Music Show - Fear and Terror in the 18th Century
Scary music for Hallowe'en by Gluck, Handel, Rameau, Marais and Mozart.
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17-Oct-2021
The Early Music Show - The Elements: Fire
Music associated with the Ancient Greek concept of the Four Elements. Today... fire.
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10-Oct-2021
The Early Music Show - London International Festival of Early Music - Young Ensemble Competition
Highlights of the three young ensembles' performances from the 2020 competition.
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26-Sep-2021
The Early Music Show - The Elements - Wind
Music associated with the ancient Greek concept of the four elements. Today...wind.
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20-Sep-2021
The Early Music Show - il Pomo d'Oro from Montpellier
Countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński sings Baroque arias with the orchestra il Pomo d'Oro.
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20-Sep-2021
The Early Music Show - Music at West Horsley Place
Music associated with the household of West Horsley Place in Surrey in the 16th Century.
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20-Sep-2021
The Early Music Show - The Elements - Earth
Music associated with all things earthly.
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18-Jul-2021
The Early Music Show - La Scintilla in Zurich
Music by three of JS Bach's sons played by La Scintilla and harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani.
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11-Jul-2021
The Early Music Show - Linlithgow Palace Reborn
Music from Renaissance Scotland as it would have been heard in the now-ruined Chapel Royal
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27-Jun-2021
The Early Music Show - Vicente Lusitano, the first published black composer
Lucie Skeaping, Joseph McHardy and the BBC Singers reveal Lusitano's life and work.
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20-Jun-2021
The Early Music Show - Bach after the Bleep
To mark Father's Day, some imaginary voicemails between CPE Bach and his old man
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13-Jun-2021
The Early Music Show - The Tallis Scholars
Tallis Scholars sing the two winning entries from the 2020 NCEM Young Composers Award.
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06-Jun-2021
The Early Music Show - Albinoni
Ana Her celebrates the 350th anniversary of the birth of Tomaso Albinoni on 8 June 1671.
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30-May-2021
The Early Music Show - The City of Antwerp
Lucie Skeaping looks at music in Antwerp from the 15th to the 18th centuries.
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23-May-2021
The Early Music Show - Freedom
Lucie Skeaping on the concept of liberty with music by Byrd, Barbara Strozzi and Handel.
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16-May-2021
The Early Music Show - Music for Melancholy
Hannah French chooses music to balance the humours and transform the spirit.
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02-May-2021
The Early Music Show - Divino Sospiro - Portuguese Baroque Music
Seixas, Almeida, Scarlatti and Vivaldi performed by Divino Sospiro in Queluz, Portugal.
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18-Apr-2021
The Early Music Show - Orlando Furioso
Lucie Skeaping explores operas inspired by Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem Orlando furioso.
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11-Apr-2021
The Early Music Show - El Gran Teatro del Mundo
Highlights of a concert from Basel featuring music by Fischer, Muffat and Telemann.
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04-Apr-2021
The Early Music Show - Bach's Easter Oratorio
Hannah French looks into the music and history behind Bach's Easter Oratorio.
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07-Mar-2021
The Early Music Show - The Anna Amalias
The colourful lives and music of two German princess-composers...both called Anna Amalia!
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28-Feb-2021
The Early Music Show - Jeffrey Skidmore - A Performer Profile
Hannah French talks to conductor Jeffrey Skidmore about his career in early music.
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21-Feb-2021
The Early Music Show - On Bach's Farm
Mark Seow explores links between Bach's music and farming - of the soil, heart and soul.
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14-Feb-2021
The Early Music Show - RIAS Chamber Choir - Like a Phoenix
RIAS Chamber Choir perform Binchois Byrd, Caldara, Gesualdo, Lassus and Victoria.
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25-Jan-2021
The Early Music Show - Juan Gutierrez de Padilla
Lucie Skeaping explores the works of one of colonial Latin America's greatest composers.
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10-Jan-2021
The Early Music Show - Flautist Joachim Becerra Thomsen at the Copenhagen Baroque Festival
Joachim Becerra Thomsen in a concert recorded at the 2020 Copenhagen Baroque Festival.
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03-Jan-2021
The Early Music Show - Lassus & Wine - Part 2
Hannah French and wine historian Ron Merlino explore connections between Lassus and wine
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27-Dec-2020
The Early Music Show - Lassus and Wine - Part 1
Hannah French and wine historian Ron Merlino explore connections between Lassus and wine.
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13-Dec-2020
The Early Music Show - Light in the Darkness: Chiaroscuro
Lucie Skeaping delves into the darkness and light of chiaroscuro in music and art.
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06-Dec-2020
The Early Music Show - Collegium 1704
Collegium 1704 performs Caldara, Zelenka, Richter and Galuppi at a concert in Czechia.
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29-Nov-2020
The Early Music Show - Music and Migration
The fascinating story of how migration affected music in the 16th century.
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15-Nov-2020
The Early Music Show - Vincenzo Galilei
Hannah French and Zak Ozmo explore the life & work of 16thC lutenist Vincenzo Galilei
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08-Nov-2020
The Early Music Show - How Pleasing the Pain Is
Hannah French explores musical links between pleasure and pain.
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18-Oct-2020
The Early Music Show - Latin America’s turbulent Colonial history told through its music
Music and discussion exploring the turbulent history of 16th-18th century Latin America.
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11-Oct-2020
The Early Music Show - Il Pomo D’Oro at the 2019 Bremen Festival
Highlights of a concert given by Swiss ensemble Il Pomo D’Oro at the 2019 Bremen Festival.
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27-Sep-2020
The Early Music Show - Gesualdo in Rome
Gesualdo madrigals performed in Rome by Les Arts Florissants.
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13-Sep-2020
The Early Music Show - Telemann in Poland
Polish folk tunes and their influence on the music of Georg Philipp Telemann
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06-Sep-2020
The Early Music Show - Caffarelli
Lucie Skeaping on the life and performances of the 18thC castrato Caffarelli.
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23-Aug-2020
The Early Music Show - Nuremberg International Organ Festival 2020
Highlights from this summer's International Organ Festival 2020 in Nuremberg.
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16-Aug-2020
The Early Music Show - John Dunstaple
Hannah French profiles the life and music of C15th English composer John Dunstaple.
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09-Aug-2020
The Early Music Show - A Delightful Thing: Music and Readings from a Melancholy Man
Iestyn Davies and Elizabeth Kenny perform John Dowland at the York Early Music Festival.
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02-Aug-2020
The Early Music Show - Matthew Wadsworth at the York Early Music Festival
Lutenist Matthew Wadsworth plays music by Dowland, Johnson, de Visee and Piccinini.
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26-Jul-2020
The Early Music Show - Richard Boothby at the York Early Music Festival
Richard Boothby plays C17th viol music by Ferrabosco, Dowland, Jenkins and William Lawes.
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19-Jul-2020
The Early Music Show - Taylor Consort at Pau Casals International Music Festival 2019
The Taylor Consort performs an all-Bach recital at the Pau Casals Auditorium in Tarragona
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12-Jul-2020
The Early Music Show - Thirty-five years of the York Early Music International Young Artists Competition (2)
Early music performance and features from the UK and around the world.
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05-Jul-2020
The Early Music Show - Thirty-five years of the York Early Music International Young Artists Competition (1)
Lucie Skeaping looks back at previous winners of the Young Artists Competition in York.
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21-Jun-2020
The Early Music Show - Hercules at the Crossroads
Hannah French explores two settings of the ancient Greek tale, Hercules at the Crossroads.
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14-Jun-2020
The Early Music Show - London International Festival of Early Music
Highlights from the 2019 London International Festival of Early Music
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07-Jun-2020
The Early Music Show - The Judgement of Paris
Music from an intriguing 18th-century opera composing competition, The Judgement of Paris.
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17-May-2020
The Early Music Show - A Black History
Celebrating the cultural contribution of black people in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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10-May-2020
The Early Music Show - Linde Brunmayr-Tutz and Lars-Ulrik Mortensen in concert
Flautist Linde Brunmayr-Tutz and harpsichordist Lars-Ulrik Mortensen in Leclair and Duphly
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03-May-2020
The Early Music Show - Music in 18th-century Portugal (2/2)
How the Portuguese royal court sought to rediscover its country's 'Age of Discovery'.
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26-Apr-2020
The Early Music Show - Music in 18th-century Portugal (1/2)
How the Portuguese royal court sought to rediscover the country's 'Age of Discovery'.
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12-Apr-2020
The Early Music Show - Ensemble Correspondances - Music for Holy Week
Ensemble Correspondances performs C18 music for Holy Week by Michel-Richard de Lalande.
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05-Apr-2020
The Early Music Show - Les Talens Lyriques - Music for Holy Week
Les Talens Lyriques in a concert of music for Holy Week by Charpentier and Couperin.
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29-Mar-2020
The Early Music Show - L'Acheron play Purcell
L'Acheron perform chamber music by Purcell in Lausanne.
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15-Mar-2020
The Early Music Show - In the Garden of Muses
Highlights of a concert from the 2019 Summer Festivities of Early Music in Prague.
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08-Mar-2020
The Early Music Show - Composer Profile: Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre
Lucie Skeaping profiles French Baroque composer Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre.
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23-Feb-2020
The Early Music Show - La Pellegrina
Incidental music composed as interludes for the 1579 play The Pilgrim Woman
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16-Feb-2020
The Early Music Show - Music for Charles II at Windsor Castle
Lucie Skeaping takes a tour of Windsor Castle, hearing music associated with Charles II.
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09-Feb-2020
The Early Music Show - Bach Collegium Japan - 30th Anniversary
Hannah French talks to Masaaki and Masato Suzuki about 30 years of Bach Collegium Japan.
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26-Jan-2020
The Early Music Show - La Scintilla in Zurich
Corelli, Locatelli, Valentini and Pergolesi from a concert by La Scintilla in Zurich.
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19-Jan-2020
The Early Music Show - Baroque Trumpets at the Bate Collection
Simon Desbruslais explores some early examples of trumpets in Oxford's Bate Collection.
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12-Jan-2020
The Early Music Show - Johann Friedrich Agricola
Lucie Skeaping explores the life, times and music of Johann Friedrich Agricola.
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22-Dec-2019
The Early Music Show - Stile Antico's Renaissance Christmas
Hannah French is joined by members of Stile Antico to explore festive choral music
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08-Dec-2019
The Early Music Show - Vox Luminis at the Utrecht Festival
Vox Luminis perform music by Domenico Scarlatti at the Utrecht Festival of Early Music.
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24-Nov-2019
The Early Music Show - Liam Byrne at Glitch, Bristol
Viol player Liam Byrne gives a concert in Bristol featuring music by Marais and Abel.
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17-Nov-2019
The Early Music Show - Leopold Mozart: 300 years young
Lucie Skeaping marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Leopold Mozart.
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10-Nov-2019
The Early Music Show - La Serenissima at 25
Hannah French and violinist Adrian Chandler chat about 25 years of La Serenissima.
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03-Nov-2019
The Early Music Show - New York City (2/2)
Hannah French visits New York to discover the city's vibrant early music scene.
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27-Oct-2019
The Early Music Show - New York City (1/2)
Hannah French visits New York to discover the city's vibrant early music scene.
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20-Oct-2019
The Early Music Show - Le Poème Harmonique at the Utrecht Early Music Festival
Music from 17th-century Italy performed by Le Poème Harmonique in Utrecht.
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13-Oct-2019
The Early Music Show - Stormy weather
Lucie Skeaping explores early music that evokes stormy weather and extreme climates.
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06-Oct-2019
The Early Music Show - The life and works of Jean Mouton
A remarkable early 16th-Century French composer, compared solely to Josquin des Prez.
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29-Sep-2019
The Early Music Show - Early Music Show Special: Al-Andalus!
Hannah French and guests explore the music and culture of Al-Andalus.
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22-Sep-2019
The Early Music Show - Abel and Gainsborough
The friendship between painter Thomas Gainsborough and viol player Carl Friedrich Abel.
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17-Sep-2019
The Early Music Show - Thoinot Arbeau's Orchesographie
An exploration of Thoinot Arbeau's 16th-century dancing manual Orchesographie.
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02-Sep-2019
The Early Music Show - History of the Chapel Royal
Lucie Skeaping talks to the director of the Chapel Royal, Joseph McHardy.
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05-Aug-2019
The Early Music Show - The sacred works of Claude Le Jeune
The life and works of 16th-century French composer Claude Le Jeune.
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29-Jul-2019
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival International Young Artists Competition 2019
Highlights and performances from the York Early Music Festival Young Artists Competition.
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22-Jul-2019
The Early Music Show - Andreas Staier: A new touch
Andreas Staier performs 18th-century keyboard music at the York Early Music Festival.
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15-Jul-2019
The Early Music Show - Leonardo: Music and Science
Music from the time of Leonardo da Vinci performed by Ensemble Lucidarium in York.
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08-Jul-2019
The Early Music Show - Live from York Early Music Festival
Live from York Early Music Festival with baritone Peter Harvey and Concerto di Margherita
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01-Jul-2019
The Early Music Show - Puppetry in opera
The history of puppets in opera, with musician and director Thomas Guthrie.
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24-Jun-2019
The Early Music Show - Schutz's Psalmen Davids
An exploration of Schutz's 26 psalm settings, published 400 years ago.
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17-Jun-2019
The Early Music Show - Dublin's Matthew Dubourg
The life and music of Irish violinist, composer and friend of Handel's, Matthew Dubourg.
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10-Jun-2019
The Early Music Show - Bakfark's world
Lucie Skeaping talks to Jacob Heringman about C16 lutenist and composer Valentin Bakfark.
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03-Jun-2019
The Early Music Show - Endless Pleasure, Endless Love: Handel's Semele
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights from Handel's racy music drama Semele.
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20-May-2019
The Early Music Show - Louis-Gabriel Guillemain
A profile of the 18th-century French violinist and composer Louis-Gabriel Guillemain.
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13-May-2019
The Early Music Show - Herbert of Cherbury
The life and legacy of the 16th-century musician and polymath, Edward Herbert
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29-Apr-2019
The Early Music Show - The Gibbons Clan
An exploration of the lives and music of a musical C17th dynasty - the Gibbons family.
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22-Apr-2019
The Early Music Show - Tenebrae
Lucie Skeaping with different settings of the Tenebrae services held during Holy Week.
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01-Apr-2019
The Early Music Show - Free Thinking - Emotion in Lutesong
Charles Daniels and Elizabeth Kenny on a journey through the emotions of C17th lutesong.
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25-Mar-2019
The Early Music Show - European Day of Early Music - Liam Byrne and Jonas Nordberg
Viol player Liam Byrne and lutenist Jonas Nordberg perform duets in York
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18-Mar-2019
The Early Music Show - Utrecht Festival - Gli Angeli Geneve
Swiss vocal ensemble Gli Angeli Geneve performs music by Josquin des Prez in Utrecht.
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11-Mar-2019
The Early Music Show - Barbara Strozzi 400th anniversary
A profile of the astonishing 17th-century singer and composer, Barbara Strozzi.
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05-Mar-2019
The Early Music Show - An Evening in the Palace of Reason
Florilegium's Ashley Solomon looks at the life and music of Frederick the Great.
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04-Feb-2019
The Early Music Show - Johann Christoph Pepusch
The extraordinary life and music of Johann Christoph Pepusch.
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28-Jan-2019
The Early Music Show - The Fitzwilliam Collection
Sophie Yates visits the Fitzwilliam Musem to explore a priceless collection of manuscripts
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21-Jan-2019
The Early Music Show - William Hayes's Fall of Jericho
Lucie Skeaping explores a new edition of William Hayes's oratorio, The Fall of Jericho.
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14-Jan-2019
The Early Music Show - Alessandro Scarlatti in Rome
Lucie Skeaping explores Alessandro Scarlatti’s relationship with Rome.
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07-Jan-2019
The Early Music Show - The Sixteen at 40
Harry Christophers, founder of The Sixteen, celebrates the choir's 40th birthday.
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31-Dec-2018
The Early Music Show - Los Hermanos Pla
Hannah French explores the lives and music of three 18th-century Catalonian brothers.
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24-Dec-2018
The Early Music Show - The Early Music Young Ensemble Competition
The inaugural Young Ensemble Competition from the London Exhibition of Early Music
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03-Dec-2018
The Early Music Show - The Elizabethan Dance Band
Lucie Skeaping with music for the broken consort, the dance band in Elizabethan times.
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26-Nov-2018
The Early Music Show - Boethius's 'The Consolation of Philosophy' in music
Lucie Skeaping, Sam Barrett and Ben Bagby on Boethius's The Consolation of Philosophy.
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19-Nov-2018
The Early Music Show - English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble - Echoes of Venice
The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble performs Venetian brass music in Southampton.
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05-Nov-2018
The Early Music Show - Firework Music for Bonfire Night
Musical fireworks from Handel, Corelli, Bach and Rameau.
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29-Oct-2018
The Early Music Show - Couperin's Lecons de Tenebres
An exploration of Couperin's remarkable vocal music for Holy Week - his Lecons de Tenebres
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22-Oct-2018
The Early Music Show - Composer Profile: Philip Rosseter
Countertenor Iestyn Davies marks the 450th anniversary of composer Philip Rosseter.
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15-Oct-2018
The Early Music Show - Vox Luminis at Regensburg Early Music Days
Vox Luminis sing Bach motets at the Regensburg Early Music Days festival in Germany.
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08-Oct-2018
The Early Music Show - Possessed! Demons, Witches and Sorcery.
A look at the mysterious world of possession: witchcraft, demons, sorcery and madness.
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01-Oct-2018
The Early Music Show - Possessed! Euphoria, Tarantula and Trance.
A journey into the mystery of possession: ecstasy, trances, spider bites and animism
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24-Sep-2018
The Early Music Show - Dhrupad Fantasia - Part 1: Morning
A meeting of music from the 16th-century courts of Elizabeth I and Akbar the Great.
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10-Sep-2018
The Early Music Show - The Western Wind
Hannah French explores The Western Wind, a song that inspired many 16th-century masses.
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27-Aug-2018
The Early Music Show - Il Transilvano
The Prisma Consort with a concert of music linking Italy and Transylvania.
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13-Aug-2018
The Early Music Show - Acis and Galatea
Hannah French on the 300th anniversary of the premiere of Handel's Acis and Galatea.
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30-Jul-2018
The Early Music Show - Cuban Discoveries
Lucie Skeaping investigates the music of 18th- and early 19th-century Cuba.
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23-Jul-2018
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival - Les haulz et les bas
Music of the alta capella: a medieval loud band of reed, brass and percussion instruments.
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15-Jul-2018
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival - Revolting Women
Music by four women composers who broke free from the strictures of a male-dominated world
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15-Jul-2018
The Early Music Show - Live from the York Early Music Festival
Lucie Skeaping presents a live edition from the York Early Music Festival.
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15-Jul-2018
The Early Music Show - A tale of two printers
Hannah French tells the tale of two printers: Roger in Amsterdam and Walsh in London.
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15-Jul-2018
The Early Music Show - Vecchi's L'Amfiparnasso
Robert Hollingworth looks at Orazio Vecchi's 1594 madrigal comedy L'Amfiparnaso.
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15-Jul-2018
The Early Music Show - Frick Collection - Forma Antiqva
Hannah French presents a concert given by Spanish ensemble Forma Antiqva in New York.
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14-May-2018
The Early Music Show - The Bachs' Ascension
Hannah French looks at JS and CPE Bach's works celebrating the Feast of the Ascension.
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07-May-2018
The Early Music Show - Ariadne
Lucie Skeaping presents a musical exploration of the Greek myth of Ariadne in early music.
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30-Apr-2018
The Early Music Show - Couperin's keyboard
Lucie Skeaping talks to harpsichordist Carole Cerasi about the keyboard music of Couperin.
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19-Mar-2018
The Early Music Show - Debussy and Rameau
Hannah French looks at Rameau's influence on Debussy, as shown by his 'Hommage a Rameau'.
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12-Mar-2018
The Early Music Show - Free Thinking: Thomas More's Utopia
Free Thinking - a musical exploration of Thomas More's socio-political satire 'Utopia'.
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05-Mar-2018
The Early Music Show - Sara Levy's Salon
Lucie Skeaping looks at the life and legacy of 18th Century Jewish salon hostess Sara Levy
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26-Feb-2018
The Early Music Show - Composer Profile - John Wilbye
Lucie Skeaping looks at the life and music of 16th Century composer John Wilbye.
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19-Feb-2018
The Early Music Show - Opera of the Nobility - 18th Century Disruptors
The war of two 18C London opera companies - the Royal Academy & the Opera of the Nobility.
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12-Feb-2018
The Early Music Show - Music from the Royal Collection
A concert from Windsor Castle using instruments held in the Royal Collection.
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29-Jan-2018
The Early Music Show - The music of Ancient Greece
Lucie Skeaping talks to Prof Armand D'Angour about the music and poetry of Ancient Greece.
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23-Jan-2018
The Early Music Show - 24 Violons du Roi
Hannah French with music for Les 24 violons du Roi - famed throughout 17th Century Europe.
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23-Jan-2018
The Early Music Show - Telemann's Lost Gamba Fantasias
Lucie Skeaping presents gamba player Robert Smith performing fantasias by Telemann.
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23-Jan-2018
The Early Music Show - The Spirit of Bach - Dame Emma Kirkby
Dame Emma Kirkby shares some memories of singing Bach alongside her favourite recordings.
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11-Dec-2017
The Early Music Show - Telemann at the Opera
Lucie Skeaping looks at the operatic output of Georg Phillip Telemann.
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05-Dec-2017
The Early Music Show - Brighton Early Music Festival
Harpsichord and recorder duo Ensemble Hesperi perform Scottish baroque music.
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28-Nov-2017
The Early Music Show - Brighton Early Music Festival - Consone String Quartet
A concert by the Consone String Quartet recorded at Brighton Early Music Festival.
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13-Nov-2017
The Early Music Show - Music at the court of Catherine the Great
Lucie Skeaping introduces music from the court of Catherine the Great in Russia.
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06-Nov-2017
The Early Music Show - Tallis Scholars at Bridgewater Hall
The Tallis Scholars perform the winning pieces of 2017's NCEM Young Composers' Award.
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30-Oct-2017
The Early Music Show - Performer Profile - The Dufay Collective
Lucie Skeaping talks to William Lyons about 30 years of the Dufay Collective.
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23-Oct-2017
The Early Music Show - Telemann's Paris Quartets
Hannah French on Telemann's Paris Quartets, marking the 250th anniversary of his death.
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16-Oct-2017
The Early Music Show - Why Music? The Key to Memory
Mahan Esfahani presents a live show from London's Wellcome Collection on music and memory.
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09-Oct-2017
The Early Music Show - Performer Profile - Exaudi
Fiona Talkington profiles the choir Exaudi and talks to director James Weeks.
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02-Oct-2017
The Early Music Show - Queen Mary's Big Belly
Lucie Skeaping with music surrounding Queen Mary I's 'phantom pregnancy' of 1555.
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25-Sep-2017
The Early Music Show - Giovanni Carbonelli
Lucie Skeaping, Bojan Cicic and Michael Talbot discuss the Italian composer Carbonelli.
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18-Sep-2017
The Early Music Show - Bach's arrival in Cothen
Hannah French looks at the music composed by Bach around his arrival in Cothen in 1717.
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11-Sep-2017
The Early Music Show - Nicholas Lanier - A Drop of Amber Varnish
A concert exploring the life and work of 17th-century composer Nicholas Lanier.
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14-Aug-2017
The Early Music Show - Seductive, Voluptuous & Profane - Portuguese Love Songs
Lucie Skeaping talks to Zak Ozmo about his project based on old Portuguese love songs.
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07-Aug-2017
The Early Music Show - The English Virginals
Sophie Yates looks at the history and music of the English virginals instrument.
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31-Jul-2017
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival - Young Artists' Competition 2017
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of the York Early Music Festival Young Artists' Contest
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24-Jul-2017
The Early Music Show - Musica Invictissima - Music of the Habsburg dynsasty
Austrian vocal ensemble Cinquecento in repertoire by Jacobus Vaet and Jacob Regnart.
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17-Jul-2017
The Early Music Show - Cipriano de Rore
Hannah French presents a profile of the influential Flemish composer Cipriano de Rore.
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10-Jul-2017
The Early Music Show - Live from York Early Music Festival 2017
Lucie Skeaping presents a live edition from the 2017 York Early Music Festival.
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03-Jul-2017
The Early Music Show - Handel's Water Music
Hannah French delves into the history and musical detail of Handel's Water Music.
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26-Jun-2017
The Early Music Show - Canada 150: early music in Quebec
Hannah French explores the vibrant early music scene in Montreal.
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19-Jun-2017
The Early Music Show - Canaletto at the Queen's Gallery
Canaletto paintings in the context of Venetian music of the period.
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05-Jun-2017
The Early Music Show - Beverley and East Riding Early Music Festival 2017
The Carnival Band and students from University of York in a concert from Beverley Minster.
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29-May-2017
The Early Music Show - London Festival of Baroque Music - Les Passions de l'Ame
Les Passions de l'Ame performs music by Schmelzer, Biber and Fux at St John's Smith Square
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22-May-2017
The Early Music Show - 2017 London Festival of Baroque Music - Florilegium
Florilegium perform music by Telemann at the 2017 London Festival of Baroque Music.
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15-May-2017
The Early Music Show - Monteverdi 450: Selva Morale e Spirituale
Lucie Skeaping explores Monteverdi's sacred music collection Selva Morale e Spirituale.
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08-May-2017
The Early Music Show - Breaking Free - Martin Luther's Revolution: Developments in Catholic Music
Lucie Skeaping explores music written by Catholic composers after the Reformation.
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01-May-2017
The Early Music Show - Breaking Free - Martin Luther's Revolution: The Lead-Up...
Lucie Skeaping with pre-Reformation music, by Issac, Senfl, Josquin and Hans Sachs.
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24-Apr-2017
The Early Music Show - Roman Holiday
Hannah French explores the life and music of Swedish composer Johan Helmich Roman.
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17-Apr-2017
The Early Music Show - Mary Magdalene
Lucie Skeaping presents music associated with Mary Magdalene.
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27-Mar-2017
The Early Music Show - European Union Baroque Orchestra
Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of the European Union Baroque Orchestra.
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20-Mar-2017
The Early Music Show - Free Thinking - Vivaldi's The Four Seasons
The Avison Ensemble performs Vivaldi's The Four Seasons at Free Thinking 2017 in Gateshead
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13-Mar-2017
The Early Music Show - Heroines of Love and Loss
Ruby Hughes sings music composed by 17th-century women and arias featuring tragic heroines
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06-Mar-2017
The Early Music Show - I Fagiolini Profile
Lucie Skeaping profiles I Fagiolini in conversation with director Robert Hollingworth.
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20-Feb-2017
The Early Music Show - William Lyons on David Munrow
William Lyons celebrates the life and work of early music specialist David Munrow.
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13-Feb-2017
The Early Music Show - Thomas Campion
Lucie Skeaping marks the 450th anniversary of the birth of English composer Thomas Campion
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30-Jan-2017
The Early Music Show - Bach's Orchestral Suites
Hannah French explores in depth Bach's Four Orchestral Suites.
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23-Jan-2017
The Early Music Show - The Private Musick
Lucie Skeaping explores the music of English royal courts from Henry VIII to George III.
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16-Jan-2017
The Early Music Show - Jeanne Lamon
Hannah French meets violinist Jeanne Lamon, former artistic director of Tafelmusik.
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09-Jan-2017
The Early Music Show - Antonio Lotti
Lucie Skeaping marks the 350th anniversary of Italian composer Antonio Lotti's birth.
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02-Jan-2017
The Early Music Show - Vienna
Lucie Skeaping introduces a programme of early music associated with the city of Vienna.
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12-Dec-2016
The Early Music Show - Seasonal Music with Emma Kirkby
Radio 3's programmes exploring early developments in the musical world.
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05-Dec-2016
The Early Music Show - Utrecht Festival 2016 - Capriccio Stravagante and Vox Luminis
Lucie Skeaping with highlights of a concert of Venetian music at the 2016 Utrecht Festival
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21-Nov-2016
The Early Music Show - Early Music and New Music
Lucie Skeaping hears from contemporary composers about the influence of early music.
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14-Nov-2016
The Early Music Show - Brighton Early Music Festival 2016 - L'Avventura
Zak Ozmo directs L'Avventura London at the 2016 Brighton Early Music Festival.
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07-Nov-2016
The Early Music Show - The Gesualdo Legacy
Fiona Talkington on the continuing fascination with the life and works of Carlo Gesualdo.
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24-Oct-2016
The Early Music Show - Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Fiona Talkington explores the life and music of Joseph de Bologne Chevalier de St-Georges.
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17-Oct-2016
The Early Music Show - Debate: The Future of the Early Music Scene
Lucie Skeaping is joined by studio guests to discuss the future of the early music scene.
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10-Oct-2016
The Early Music Show - Sound Frontiers: In support of early music
Lucie Skeaping and guests discuss how Radio 3 helped to support the early music movement.
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03-Oct-2016
The Early Music Show - Sound Frontiers: English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble
Lucie Skeaping presents a special edition, with the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble.
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26-Sep-2016
The Early Music Show - Sound Frontiers: Lute Songs from Southbank
Lucie Skeaping presents a programme of lute songs from Southbank Centre in London.
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19-Sep-2016
The Early Music Show - Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
Hannah French talks to members of Canadian ensemble Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.
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12-Sep-2016
The Early Music Show - Tafelmusik
Hannah French explores the tradition of Tafelmusik: music performed around tables.
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29-Aug-2016
The Early Music Show - Anne Boleyn's Songbook
Lucie Skeaping talks to Alamire's musical director about music in Anne Boleyn's Songbook.
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15-Aug-2016
The Early Music Show - The Incomparable Lubicer
Lucie Skeaping explores the story of German virtuoso violinist Thomas Baltzar.
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08-Aug-2016
The Early Music Show - Cipriano de Rore
Hannah French presents a profile of the influential Flemish composer Cipriano de Rore.
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25-Jul-2016
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2016: The City Musick
Lucie Skeaping presents the City Musick in concert at the 2016 York Early Music Festival.
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18-Jul-2016
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2016 - Thomas Dunford & Kevyan Chemirani
Lutenist Thomas Dunford and percussionist Kevyan Chemirani at York Early Music Festival.
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11-Jul-2016
The Early Music Show - Live from the York Early Music Festival
Lucie Skeaping at York Early Music Festival, with guests Anthony Rooley and Tabea Debus.
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20-Jun-2016
The Early Music Show - London Festival of Baroque Music - Bruce Dickey
Virtuoso cornett player Bruce Dickey in music by Gabrieli, Palestrina and Luzzaschi.
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13-Jun-2016
The Early Music Show - London Festival of Baroque Music - Roberta Invernizzi
Roberta Invernizzi and Craig Marchitelli perform Italian lute songs.
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06-Jun-2016
The Early Music Show - The Medici Codex - BBC Singers
Robert Hollingworth presents recordings by the BBC Singers of motets from the Medici Codex
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30-May-2016
The Early Music Show - Handel's Giulio Cesare
Lucie Skeaping looks at the history of one of Handel's most enduring operas, Giulio Cesare
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23-May-2016
The Early Music Show - Flanders Recorder Quartet in New York
Hannah French presents the Flanders Recorder Quartet performing at the Frick Collection.
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16-May-2016
The Early Music Show - Composer Profile: Johann Jakob Froberger
Harpsichordist Sophie Yates explores the life and music of Johann Jakob Froberger.
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02-May-2016
The Early Music Show - Florilegium - 25th Anniversary
Flautist Ashley Solomon talks to Lucie Skeaping about 25 years of the ensemble Florilegium
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25-Apr-2016
The Early Music Show - Sounds of Shakespeare
The choir Ex Cathedra with a special concert of madrigals from Shakespeare's lifetime.
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24-Apr-2016
The Early Music Show - Sounds of Shakespeare
Soprano Ruby Hughes and lutenist Jon Nordberg perform music from the time of Shakespeare.
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18-Apr-2016
The Early Music Show - The Mannheim School
Lucie Skeaping features composers active at the court of Mannheim in the late 18th century
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04-Apr-2016
The Early Music Show - Antonio de Cabezon
A profile of the blind Spanish Renaissance organist and composer Antonio de Cabezon.
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28-Mar-2016
The Early Music Show - European Day of Early Music
Christophe Coin and Richard Boothby perform English and French viol music in York.
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07-Mar-2016
The Early Music Show - Francesca Caccini: La liberazione di Ruggiero
Highlights of Francesca Caccini's opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola di Alcina.
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29-Feb-2016
The Early Music Show - John Sheppard
Lucie Skeaping explores the life and music of Tudor composer John Sheppard.
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22-Feb-2016
The Early Music Show - Music in 18th-Century Bath
Lucie Skeaping explores the music scene in 18th-century Bath.
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16-Feb-2016
The Early Music Show - Venus and Adonis
Hannah French presents the earliest surviving English opera: John Blow's Venus and Adonis.
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08-Feb-2016
The Early Music Show - Francesco Scarlatti
Lucie Skeaping explores the life and music of composer Francesco Scarlatti.
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01-Feb-2016
The Early Music Show - Folk Connections in Early Music
Lucie Skeaping explores the influence of folk music on performance of early music.
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26-Jan-2016
The Early Music Show - Composer Portrait: Firminus Caron
The Huelgas Ensemble plays a selection of choral music by French composer Firminus Caron.
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11-Jan-2016
The Early Music Show - Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra Tempesta di Mare
Lucie Skeaping explores the work of Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra Tempesta di Mare.
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04-Jan-2016
The Early Music Show - Echoes of the Past in the Present
Stevie Wishart presents a special New Year New Music programme.
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28-Dec-2015
The Early Music Show - Bach, On This Day
Lucie Skeaping introduces music composed by Bach for 27 December.
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14-Dec-2015
The Early Music Show - Anna Maria Friman of Trio Mediaeval
Fiona Talkington is joined by Anna Maria Friman to explore Nordic folk and medieval music.
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07-Dec-2015
The Early Music Show - Northern Lights: The Duben Collection.
For Radio 3's Northern Lights, Fiona Talkington explores music in the Duben Collection.
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01-Dec-2015
The Early Music Show - The Tangent Piano Unlocked
Lucie Skeaping is joined by Linda Nicholson to discuss the tangent piano.
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23-Nov-2015
The Early Music Show - Composer Profile: Tobias Hume
Lucie Skeaping profiles the 17th-century soldier, viol player and composer Tobias Hume.
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16-Nov-2015
The Early Music Show - Convent, Court and Salon
Lucie Skeaping talks about the role of female musicians in 17th-century Italian life.
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09-Nov-2015
The Early Music Show - Free Thinking
The Marian Consort performs at the 2015 Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead.
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02-Nov-2015
The Early Music Show - NCEM Young Composers Award Winners 2015
Lucie Skeaping presents the winners of the NCEM Young Composers Award 2015.
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26-Oct-2015
The Early Music Show - The Lute and the Harpsichord
Sophie Yates and Benjamin Narvey discuss the relationship between lute and harpsichord.
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19-Oct-2015
The Early Music Show - Bach's Wedding Cantata Weichet nur, betrubte Schatten
Bach's secular wedding cantata Weichet nur, betrubte Schatten, sung by Carolyn Sampson.
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12-Oct-2015
The Early Music Show - A Frenchman at King James's Court
Lucie Skeaping investigates the musical world of the Huguenot composer Jean Servin.
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05-Oct-2015
The Early Music Show - Bjarte Eike Profile
Fiona Talkington presents a profile of violinist Bjarte Eike and his group Barokksolistene
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07-Sep-2015
The Early Music Show - Composer Profile: Duarte Lobo
Lucie Skeaping is joined by Owen Rees to profile Renaissance composer Duarte Lobo.
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27-Jul-2015
The Early Music Show - York Early Music International Young Artists Competition 2015
Highlights of the York Early Music International Young Artists Competition 2015.
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20-Jul-2015
The Early Music Show - Andreas Staier at the York Early Music Festival
Harpsichordist Andreas Staier in concert at the 2015 York Early Music Festival.
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13-Jul-2015
The Early Music Show - His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts at the Manchester International Festival
His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts in concert at the 2015 Manchester Festival.
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06-Jul-2015
The Early Music Show - Live from the 2015 York Early Music Festival
Lucie Skeaping presents a special live edition from the 2015 York Early Music Festival.
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29-Jun-2015
The Early Music Show - Ensemble Organum at the Aldeburgh Festival
Lucie Skeaping presents Ensemble Organum in concert at the 2015 Aldeburgh Festival.
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22-Jun-2015
The Early Music Show - French Baroque Vocal Music - Lully and Charpentier
Lucie Skeaping introduces vocal music from the French Baroque by Lully and Charpentier.
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08-Jun-2015
The Early Music Show - Music in 18th-Century Newcastle
Lucie Skeaping explores the music scene in and around Newcastle in the 18th century.
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01-Jun-2015
The Early Music Show - The Bach Players at the London Festival of Baroque Music 2015
Music by Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre from the London Festival of Baroque Music 2015.
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25-May-2015
The Early Music Show - Music for Marie Fel
Highlights from Music for Marie Fel, a concert celebrating the 18th-century soprano.
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18-May-2015
The Early Music Show - John Holloway, Jane Gower, Lars Ulrik Mortensen
John Holloway, Jane Gower and Lars Ulrik Mortensen at the Frick Collection in New York.
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11-May-2015
The Early Music Show - Baroque Dance
Baroque dance specialist Philippa Waite explores the different styles of various dances.
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04-May-2015
The Early Music Show - Renaissance Dance Music
Dance historian Barbara Segal joins Lucie Skeaping to discuss Renaissance Terpsichore.
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27-Apr-2015
The Early Music Show - Medieval Dance
Lucie Skeaping discovers the delights of medieval dance with choreographer Darren Royston.
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20-Apr-2015
The Early Music Show - Bach-Abel Concerts
Exploring a concert series which lit up London's concert life after the death of Handel.
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13-Apr-2015
The Early Music Show - Metastasio's Artaserse
Lucie Skeaping explores Artaserse, Metastasio's libretto about Artaxerxes King of Persia.
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06-Apr-2015
The Early Music Show - Garden of Early Delights
Music with a horticultural influence, performed in the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace.
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23-Mar-2015
The Early Music Show - Performer Profile: Nigel Rogers
Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of the career of British tenor Nigel Rogers.
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16-Mar-2015
The Early Music Show - Renaissance Polyphony
Lucie Skeaping explores the mysteries of Renaissance polyphony with Peter Phillips.
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09-Mar-2015
The Early Music Show - International Women's Day: Composer Profile - Barbara Strozzi
Lucie Skeaping and Laurie Stras profile the life and music of composer Barbara Strozzi.
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05-Mar-2015
The Early Music Show - The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra at the 2014 Montreal Bach Festival
Lucie Skeaping presents the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra at the 2014 Montreal Bach Festival.
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23-Feb-2015
The Early Music Show - Cuban Discoveries
Lucie Skeaping investigates the music of 18th- and early 19th-century Cuba in the company of Andrew McGregor and musicologist Miriam Escudero. Includes music by Esteban Salas, Juan Paris and Cayetano Pagueras, and performances by Ensemble Ars Longa La Havana.
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16-Feb-2015
The Early Music Show - Valentine's Music: Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
Lucie Skeaping presents a Valentine's Day programme exploring some of the complexities of love. The music reflects themes of longing, jealousy, and the influence of Cupid, by composers such as Machaut, Monteverdi, Campion and Vivaldi. First broadcast 14/02/2009.
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09-Feb-2015
The Early Music Show - 2014 Summer Festivities of Early Music in Prague
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights from three concerts recorded at the 2014 Summer Festivities of Early Music in Prague.
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02-Feb-2015
The Early Music Show - Composer Profile: Georg Wagenseil
Lucie Skeaping looks at the life and music of the Viennese composer Georg Christoph Wagenseil. Although today he's largely relegated to the footnotes of musical history, in his day he was internationally admired, not least in the Mozart household. His tercentenary year gives cause for a fresh look at this founding father of the Viennese Classical style.
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26-Jan-2015
The Early Music Show - Never the Twain Shall Meet
"East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." So wrote Rudyard Kipling, but in the world of early music at least, the artistry of the Middle East exerted a huge influence on the instruments and compositions of Europe. From Greek music theory to wandering minstrels, and poetic song-forms to filigree melodies, Lucie Skeaping surveys the musical legacy of this lively contact, visiting medieval dance-music, Sephardic song and plainchant along the way.
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19-Jan-2015
The Early Music Show - Composer Profile - Jacques Duphly
Sophie Yates presents a profile of the French harpsichordist and composer Jacques Duphly, the tercentenary of whose birth falls this month.
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12-Jan-2015
The Early Music Show - Hampton Court and Edward VI
Lucie Skeaping visits Hampton Court Palace to find out about the music written during the short, but eventful reign of King Edward VI. She traces Edward's story from cradle to grave with guest contributor Michele Price - manager of the choral foundation at Hampton Court Palace.
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05-Jan-2015
The Early Music Show - The Story of Ann Cargill
Lucie Skeaping visits the Scilly Isles to learn about the actress and singer Ann Cargill, who drowned in a dramatic shipwreck there in 1784, and whose ghost is said to have haunted Rosevear Island ever since. Ann made her London stage debut in 1771 at the tender age of eleven in Thomas Arne's opera "The Fairy Prince" at Covent Garden. Later she eloped with a married man eighteen years her senior, and her father washed his hands of her. She continued to be a popular draw at Drury Lane, in productions of John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera" and Thomas Linley's "The Duenna", but her love-life became more scandalous. Eventually, she fell in love with a merchant seaman and, carrying his illegitimate child, left London to start a new life with him in India. In Bombay she received a mixed reception and some were distinctly unimpressed that an "English strumpet" was bringing shame and embarrassment to the nation. One such was the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, who demanded her return to Britain forthwith. So in December 1783, Ann and her husband boarded a ship - the Nancy Packet - and set sail for London. They arrived in British waters in February 1784 amidst a horrific gale, and the ship struck one of the many treacherous rocks off the western reaches of Scilly. Ann scrambled into a lifeboat with her infant son, while The Nancy Packet sank in the tumult. The locals later discovered the upturned lifeboat just off a small bay on Rosevear Island, and underneath found Ann, floating in her nightgown with her head resting on her baby's, as if in sleep. Lucie Skeaping meets Todd Stevens, a wreck-diver and treasure hunter, who found the wreck of the Nancy Packet in 2007, and has since written a book about his findings and the life and death of Ann Cargill. (REPEAT).
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29-Dec-2014
The Early Music Show - Here We Come a-Wassailing
Lucie Skeaping investigates an ancient musical tradition whereby people went from door to door singing carols and were rewarded with hot mulled cider. Wassailing can be traced back possibly as far as Anglo-Saxon times and has evolved over time to become associated with Christmas. Lucie Skeaping introduces some of the music that has been associated with the wassailing tradition and her guests include the historian Joanna Crosby, from Essex Univeristy, who has a particular interest in apples.
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15-Dec-2014
The Early Music Show - Christopher Hogwood Profile
A special repeat of Catherine Bott's interview with the distinguished conductor, keyboardist and musicologist, Christopher Hogwood, who died earlier this year. Catherine chats to him about his career as one of the major proponents of the early music movement, including Christopher's early work with David Munrow in the Early Music Consort of London and the orchestra he founded in 1973 - The Academy of Ancient Music. The music on the programme comes from his choice of some of his own favourite recordings, including a work from Byrd's My Ladye Nevells Booke, vocal music by Purcell, a keyboard fantasia by CPE Bach and part of Handel's opera Rinaldo.
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08-Dec-2014
The Early Music Show - Music to Boccaccio's Ears
As part of Decameron Nights, Lucie Skeaping talks to David Fallows, Emeritus Professor of Musicology at the University of Manchester, about music in Italy in the time of Boccaccio.
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01-Dec-2014
The Early Music Show - Lost Sounds
Clare Salaman on forgotten instruments which were once part of everyday musical life. Clare considers why instruments which were once part of musical life - such as the vielle, the bray harp, the hurdy gurdy and the viola organista - are now rarely heard. Some were particularly suited to certain styles of music and unable to keep up when fashions changed. Others, while astonishing, intriguing and even beautiful in their design proved totally impractical for everyday use. Clare chooses recordings of some of these lost instruments, which create sounds which are very rarely heard today. The programme also includes the launch of the 2015 NCEM Young Composers Award.
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24-Nov-2014
The Early Music Show - Frans Bruggen: Episode 2
Lucie Skeaping presents the second of two tributes to Frans Bruggen looking at the conducting years, she is joined by flautist Lisa Beznosiuk of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the clarinettist Eric Hoeprich, from Bruggne's own Orchestra of the 18th Century.
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17-Nov-2014
The Early Music Show - Frans Bruggen: Episode 1
In the first of two tribute programmes to the late Frans Bruggen, the recorder player Piers Adams reflects on Bruggen's career as a recorder virtuoso. The programme features recordings by Frans Bruggen performing music by Handel, Vivaldi, De Lavigne, Telemann, Walter, Sammartini, Hotteterre and JS Bach.
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10-Nov-2014
The Early Music Show - L'Avventura London at the 2014 Brighton Early Music Festival
Trade Roots. Lucie Skeaping introduces highlights of a concert recorded last Saturday at the Brighton Early Music Festival, in which L'Avventura London, directed by Zak Ozmo, performed African and Brazilian music held in the 16th- and 17th-century archives of the Santa Cruz monastery at Coimbra in Portugal.
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07-Nov-2014
The Early Music Show - The Tallis Scholars
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert given in Oxford by The Tallis Scholars and director Peter Phillips, which features Lamentations by Phinot and Palestrina alongside three brand new settings by the winners of this year's National Centre for Early Music's Young Composers' Award.
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27-Oct-2014
The Early Music Show - Regensburg Early Music Days Festival 2014
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights from the 2014 Regensburg Early Music Days festival in Bavaria, with music from the UK-based Voces 8, the Belgian ensemble Vox Luminis and Bande Montréal Baroque from Canada.
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13-Oct-2014
The Early Music Show - CPE Bach in Hamburg
Piers Adams celebrates CPE Bach's 300th anniversary year with a visit to the city of Hamburg, where the 54-year-old Emanuel Bach began a new career as music director to the city's churches. Dutch keyboard player Pieter Jan Belder samples the vast collection of fortepianos and clavichords at the Museum of Decorative Arts, and there is a visit to the crypt of the Michaeliskirche where Emanuel Bach is buried. CPE Bach's three decades in Hamburg were the happiest and most productive of his career. He arrived there following many frustrating years at the Berlin court of Frederick the Great, who, he felt, never appreciated his talents. Emanuel took over the job previously occupied by his godfather Telemann in 1768, looking after the music of Hamburg's five main churches. He also found time to launch a series of subscription concerts, as well as leading a lively social life, as the English music historian Charles Burney noted when he paid him a visit. According to Burney, the best of CPE Bach's music is to be found in his keyboard works, and Pieter Jan Belder plays pieces written both for the new Hammerklavier, and for Emanuel's favourite instrument, the clavichord. Hamburg loved CPE Bach: one obituary praised his style as being so much superior to the 'kling-klang' of his contemporaries.
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06-Oct-2014
The Early Music Show - Composer Profile: Pierre de Manchicourt
Lucie Skeaping and conductor Stephen Rice explore the music of the Franco-Flemish composer Pierre de Manchicourt, who died 450 years ago today.
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29-Sep-2014
The Early Music Show - A Tribute to Christopher Hogwood
Lucie Skeaping is joined by Sir Nicholas Kenyon in a tribute to conductor and musicologist Christopher Hogwood, who died last Wednesday. They consider the extraordinary impact he made in early, baroque and classical music performance, and introduce some of his iconic and groundbreaking recordings. 'Christopher Hogwood was one of the true pioneers of early music performance. It is not an exaggeration to say that he changed our musical taste, and changed the sound of baroque and classical music for ever.' That's Nicholas Kenyon's assessment of the achievement and influence of Christopher Hogwood. He first made his name as co-founder with David Munrow of the Early Music Consort of London, who were best known for their work on the music for the TV series The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth. In 1973 he founded the pioneering period instrument orchestra the Academy of Ancient Music, and went on to record more than 200 albums with them, including highly-acclaimed recordings of Handel, Haydn and Mozart. He died at home in Cambridge at the age of 73.
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22-Sep-2014
The Early Music Show - Jean-Philippe Rameau Recital
In the last of Sophie Yates's three programmes marking the 250th anniversary of the death of Jean Philippe Rameau, she visits Hatchlands to perform a recital on the recently-restored Ruckers-Hemsch harpsichord, which is the sort of instrument Rameau himself might have played. If you heard the first of Sophie's Rameau programmes back in June, you might be interested to know that this instrument was made in Antwerp in 1636 by Andreas Ruckers and "ravalled" [the practice of refurbishing instruments to extend their range, improve their marketability, or pass them off as an older or more valuable instrument than they really are] in Paris in 1763 by Henri Hemsch. The programme for the concert includes several works by Rameau himself and opens with "La Rameau", a tribute by his contemporary Antoine Forqueray. A. Forqueray: La Rameau Rameau: La Livri, L'Agaçante, La Timide (extraites de Pieces de Clavecin en Concerts) Rameau: Suite in E minor [Allemande, Courante, Gigues en Rondeau, Le Rappel des Oiseaux, Rigaudons, Double du 2me rigaudon, Musette en Rondeau, Tambourin, La Villageoise (Rondeau)] Rameau: Les Indes Galantes [Ouverture, Musette en Rondeau, Air Polonais, Air gratieux pour les Amours, Menuets 1 & 2, Airs pour les Bostangis, Gavotte, Air des Fleurs - Air tendre pour la Rose, Gavottes pour les Fleurs, Air pour la Borée et la Rose, Air vif pour Zéphire et la Rose, Air grave pour les Incas du Perou, Air grave pour les Incas du Perou, Gavotte 1, Gavotte 2 en rondeau, Air pour les esclaves Africains, Les Sauvages, Tambourins 1 & 2].
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16-Sep-2014
The Early Music Show - Music in 18th-Century Birmingham
Lucie Skeaping is joined by harpsichordist Martin Perkins to explore the music 18th-century audiences in Birmingham and the Midlands would have known. The programme includes rarely heard works by John Pixell, Richard Mudge, Joseph Harris, Barnabas Gunn, Jeremiah Clark of Worcester and Capel Bond. John Pixell: An Invitation to the Red-Breast Louise Wayman (soprano) Musical and Amicable Society Martin Perkins (director) Richard Mudge: Concerto No. 2 in D minor Barockorchester Capriccio Basel Dominik Kiefer (concertmaster) Joseph Harris: Invocation (O Muse beloved, Calliope divine!) Louise Wayman (soprano) Musical and Amicable Society Martin Perkins (director) Barnabas Gunn: Solo No. 4 in B minor for flute and basso continuo Rachel Latham (flute) Musical and Amicable Society Martin Perkins (director) Jeremiah Clark: To Myra Louise Wayman (soprano) Musical and Amicable Society Martin Perkins (director) Capel Bond: Concerto No. 1 in D major Crispian Steele-Perkins (trumpet) The Parley of Instruments Baroque Orchestra Roy Goodman (conductor).
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08-Sep-2014
The Early Music Show - The Roots of Klezmer
Lucie Skeaping explores the origins of Klezmer, a musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe, with musicologist Dr Alexander Knapp. Played by professional musicians called 'klezmorim', the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations. Compared with most other European folk music styles, little is known about the history of klezmer music, but research now traces it back to medieval times through synagogue chant and modes.
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01-Sep-2014
The Early Music Show - Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano
Lucie Skeaping profiles Rinaldo Alessandrini - keyboard player and director of Concerto Italiano - with music recorded at their recent Edinburgh International Festival concert. Alessandrini founded Concerto Italiano in 1984 with a debut performance in Rome with Cavalli's opera "La Callisto". Now considered one of Europe's finest Baroque ensembles, Concerto Italiano is cherished for its vivid, urgent yet subtle performances that display a rare expressive flexibility. The ensemble celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and over the last three decades it has become renowned for its interpretations of Monteverdi, Vivaldi and Alessandro Scarlatti, amongst others. Rinaldo Alessandrini brings a rich programme of exquisite Italian music to Greyfriars Kirk as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, contrasting instrumental pieces by Marini, Uccellini, Merula and Castello with dazzling madrigals by Monteverdi, including the highly moving "Lettera amorosa" and the hugely emotional miniature opera "Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda", in which a Christian knight unknowingly defeats his beloved in battle. Concerto Italiano is joined for their Edinburgh concert by the soprano Anna Simboli and tenors Gianluca Ferrarini and Luca Dordolo.
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18-Aug-2014
The Early Music Show - Jean-Philippe Rameau and the Dance
In the second of our three programmes marking the 250th anniversary of the death of Jean Philippe Rameau, Sophie Yates visits the Royal Academy of Music in London to explore Rameau's mastery of dance music in his works for the theatre. She's joined by the art historian Clare Hornsby, the dancer and choreographer Christopher Tudor and the composer and harpsichordist David Gordon, to examine an engraving which boasts a fascinating genesis and which has an intriguing link to Rameau's opera Castor and Pollux.
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11-Aug-2014
The Early Music Show - How to be HIP
Clare Salaman is fascinated by the continuing debate about authenticity - or Historically Informed Practice (H.I.P) - in Early Music. How can we be sure that performances are historically accurate, and how important is it that they are? Clare talks to Cat Mackintosh about early developments in performance practice pioneered by David Munrow and his contemporaries, and about Cat's own work with the Academy of Ancient Music and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The baroque violinist Bjarte Eike tells her about his unique approach with his group Barokksolistene. And Clare talks to David McGuinness about his eclectic and sometimes surprising work with Concerto Caledonia.
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04-Aug-2014
The Early Music Show - Forma Antiqua at the 2014 York Early Music Festival
Lucie Skeaping presents a recital of early dance music performed by the early music group Forma Antiqua - Fandangos, Folias and Passacaglias. The concert was recorded at this year's York Early Music Festival and features the three Zapico brothers - Daniel (theorbo) Pablo (guitar) and Aarón (harpsichord).
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21-Jul-2014
The Early Music Show - Maria Cristina Kiehr, Ariel Abramovich: 2014 York Early Music Festival
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a recital by soprano Maria Cristina Kiehr and lute player Ariel Abramovich recorded earlier this month at the National Centre for Early Music as part of this year's York Early Music Festival. The programme for this concert is drawn from two Spanish Renaissance songbooks, the Cancionero de Palacio and the Cancionero de Segovia - music from the dawn of the Renaissance.
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14-Jul-2014
The Early Music Show - Live at the 2014 York Early Music Festival
Lucie Skeaping presents a live edition of The Early Music Show from the National Centre for Early Music, as part of this year's York Early Music Festival. There will be live music from Ensemble Amarilli, Duo Domenico and bass-baritone Matthew Brook, and Lucie will also be talking to the conductor Andrew Parrott, about his Lifetime Achievement Award from the York Early Music Festival.
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07-Jul-2014
The Early Music Show - CPE Bach in Berlin
Piers Adams continues to celebrate CPE Bach's 300th anniversary year with a visit to Berlin's Charlottenburg Palace, where Emanuel Bach arrived as an optimistic 26 year old to join the court of Prussia's flute-playing King Frederick the Great. In a guided tour though the palace we hear how Emanuel Bach's adventurous musical style was not to the King's conservative tastes, and so he spent much of the next 28 years trying to leave the court - but not before he had established himself as Europe's most famous keyboard player and teacher. Emanuel also found a valuable friend in Frederick's sister Anna Amalia, herself an accomplished musician and also something of a court outcast, having secretly married and become pregnant against the King's wishes. We hear movements from CPE Bach's String Symphonies and from his Prussian Sonatas, from new recordings issued to celebrate the anniversary.
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30-Jun-2014
The Early Music Show - Composer Profile: Robert Fayrfax
Lucie Skeaping celebrates the life and music of English composer Robert Fayrfax who flourished in the early 1500s and was born 550 years ago. More of Fayrfax's music survives than of any other English composer of the period, largely due to the existence of two large Tudor choir books in which his works were collected. Lucie Skeaping takes a look at one of these choir books housed in Lambeth Palace library with the help of musicologist David Skinner and plays recordings of some of the music featured in it. Producer Helen Garrison.
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16-Jun-2014
The Early Music Show - Rameau and the Harpsichord
Sophie Yates visits The Russell Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments in Edinburgh to play extracts from Rameau's Pièces de clavecin on three extraordinary double-manual French harpsichords made in the late 1700s and fully restored to playing condition. She talks to the museum's curator, Darryl Martin, about the history of the instruments, and to harpsichord maker Andrew Garlick about how they each produce their own unique sound.
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09-Jun-2014
The Early Music Show - QuintEssential Sackbut and Cornett Ensemble
Lucie Skeaping presents a concert of German music performed by the QuintEssential Sackbut and Cornett Ensemble recorded at the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music 2014. Banchetto Musicale In the regions of Saxony and Thuringia there are some of the most important musical cities of the German Baroque, including Leipzig, Dresden, Halle and Mühlhausen. This programme of 17th-century sacred and secular works demonstrates the strong Italian influence in music of the time as well as the impact upon composers of the Lutheran church. Music includes works by Scheidt, Rosenmüller, J. R. Ahle, Schein, J. P. Krieger, Schütz and Vierdanck QuintEssential Sackbut and Cornett Ensemble Daniel Auchincloss (tenor) Richard Thomas (cornett & director) Producer Helen Garrison.
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02-Jun-2014
The Early Music Show - Vox Luminis
Lucie Skeaping introduces highlights from a concert recorded last month at this years Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music. The award-winning Belgian-based vocal ensemble, Vox Luminis, along with QuintEssential Sackbut and Cornett Ensemble recreate two funerals from 17th century Germany and England. Schütz's Musicalische Exequien was written during the searingly violent 30 years war for Heinrich Posthumus Reuss, a minor aristocrat who was so keen to hear the music written for his funeral that it was performed several times during his lifetime. It is often assumed that Purcell's Funeral sentences were written for the funeral of Queen Mary in 1695, but although Purcell's music was included, it was Thomas Morley's music that was sung. Both Morley's and Purcell's settings are performed in this concert. Vox Luminis QuintEssential Sackbut and Cornett Ensemble Lionel Meunier (director) Music includes: Schütz - Musicalische Exequien Purcell & Morley - Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary Purcell - Funeral Sentences Producer Helen Garrison.
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19-May-2014
The Early Music Show - Charles Burney - Journeyman, Historian and Composer
Lucie Skeaping talks to musicologist Ian Gammie about the life and travels of the inimitable Charles Burney. Burney, the 18th-century music-writer, teacher, organist and composer was well known for having opinions on just about everything, and, during his extensive travels through Europe, met some of the great musical luminaries of his day, including Padre Martini, Scarlatti and even the young Mozart.
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12-May-2014
The Early Music Show - Hilliard Ensemble - 40th Anniversary
Lucie Skeaping talks to members of the Hilliard Ensemble as they celebrate their 40th anniversary, and plays a selection of their many recordings. The Hilliard Ensemble established a reputation as an early music ensemble with a series of successful recordings in the 1980s, but it was when they began also to focus on new music that the world began to sit up and take notice. The 1988 recording of Arvo Pärt's "Passio" began a fruitful relationship with the Estonian composer, and the group has recently commissioned other composers from the Baltic States, including Veljo Tormis and Erkki-Sven Tüür, adding to a rich repertoire of new music from Gavin Bryars, Heinz Holliger, John Casken, James MacMillan, Elena Firsova and many others. The Hilliard Ensemble's popularity crossed musical boundaries when their collaboration with the Norwegian Saxophonist Jan Garbareck sent their ECM recording "Officium" soaring up both classical and pop charts in several countries. Equally at home with Perotin, Palestrina and Pärt, the four members of the Hilliard Ensemble describe some of the many musical experiences they have had in concert halls and recording studios around the world, and select some of their favourite tracks from their extensive CD catalogue.
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05-May-2014
The Early Music Show - Hesperion XXI - The Soul of Armenia
Folk tunes, popular epics and early Christian church music from Armenia, performed by Hespèrion XXI, directed by Jordi Savall, at a concert given in February at the Marquès de Comilles Hall, Royal Shipyards, Barcelona. Introduced by Lucie Skeaping.
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28-Apr-2014
The Early Music Show - 18th Century Season Composer Profile: Carl Friedrich Abel
As part of the BBC's 18th Century Season, Lucie Skeaping looks at the life and music of the German composer Carl Friedrich Abel, who spent most of his career in London. Abel arrived in London in 1754 as a virtuoso viola-da-gamba player, and soon became one of the biggest names on the London music scene. Along with his fellow German musician JC Bach, Abel set up England's first subscription concerts, which allowed them to promote not only their own pieces, but also those of other composers - including Joseph Haydn. He composed many pieces for his own instrument, the viola da gamba, as well as trio sonatas, concertos for the new-fangled square piano and early forays into the classical-style symphony which were a huge influence on the young Mozart.
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21-Apr-2014
The Early Music Show - 18th Century Season: Hogarth
18th-century life by Hogarth, and considers their musical references. Lucie is joined by Jeremy Barlow, an authority on music in the 18th Century, who has made several recordings with the Broadside Band and has written about music and Hogarth. The three featured pictures by Hogarth are: "The Enraged Musician" The 2nd picture from the series of "The Rakes Progress" "The Beggar's Opera" #BBC18C.
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14-Apr-2014
The Early Music Show - 18th Century Season: From the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace
As part of the BBC 18th Century season, Carole Cerasi gives a recital of Handel, Scarlatti and Croft on the Royal Collection's Burkat Shudi harpsichord in the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace. Built in 1740, the harpsichord is thought to have been purchased by Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of George II. This concert has been created in partnership with Royal Collection Trust, to coincide with the exhibition The First Georgians: Art & Monarchy 1714-1760 at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace William Croft: Trumpet Overture in D major Handel: Suite No. 1 in A major, HWV426 Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata in A minor, Kk7; Sonata in D minor, Kk9; Sonata in D minor, Kk18 Handel arr. William Babell: Aria "Vo' far guerra" from Rinaldo Carole Cerasi (harpsichord) Introduced by Lucie Skeaping.
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07-Apr-2014
The Early Music Show - Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride
Lucie Skeaping looks at the music from Gluck's fifth operatic masterpiece, Iphigénie en Tauride - based on Euripides' play, and first performed in Paris in 1779. With Iphigénie, Gluck took his operatic reform to its logical conclusion. The recitatives are shorter and accompanied by strings and other instruments (not just traditional continuo). The normal dance movements found in earlier French tragédie en musique are almost entirely absent. The drama is ultimately based on the play Iphigenia in Tauris by the ancient Greek dramatist Euripides which deals with stories concerning the family of Agamemnon in the aftermath of the Trojan War.
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31-Mar-2014
The Early Music Show - Live at Southbank Centre: 2013 Utrecht Early Music Festival
Live at Southbank Centre: Lucie Skeaping introduces highlights from the 2013 Utrecht Early Music Festival. Radio 3 is broadcasting live from a pop-up studio at London's Southbank Centre all day every day for the last two weeks of March. If you're in the area, visit the Radio 3 studio and performance space in the Royal Festival Hall Riverside Café to listen to Radio 3, ask questions and enjoy the special events.
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24-Mar-2014
The Early Music Show - Live at Southbank Centre: Composer Profile - Locatelli
Live at Southbank Centre. Lucie Skeaping explores the life and works of Pietro Antonio Locatelli, who died 250 years ago. One of the violin giants of the eighteenth century, Locatelli was born in Bergamo in 1695, but by the age of sixteen had moved to Rome, perhaps to study with the famous but ailing Arcangelo Corelli, but more likely with another prominent virtuoso, Giuseppe Valentini. His growing reputation as a violinist soon began to take him further afield, however, and we know of concert appearances during the 1720s in Mantua and Venice (both places in which he might have met Vivaldi), as well Munich, Kassel, Dresden, Frankfurt and Berlin. His playing was noted particularly for its power and brilliance; 'He plays with so much Fury upon his Fiddle, that in my humble opinion, he must wear out some Dozens of them in a year', wrote one English observer, and indeed his most famous concertos, the Op. 3 set entitled L'Arte del Violino, show a fearsome difficulty that has led to latter-day comparisons with Paganini. In 1729 Locatelli moved to Amsterdam, where he stayed for the rest of his life, making a living as an 'Italiaansch musiekmeester', publishing his own music, giving private concerts, teaching, and selling imported Italian violin strings. Radio 3 is broadcasting live from a pop-up studio at London's Southbank Centre all day every day for the last two weeks of March. If you're in the area, visit the Radio 3 studio and performance space in the Royal Festival Hall Riverside Café to listen to Radio 3, ask questions and enjoy the special events.
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10-Mar-2014
The Early Music Show - CPE Bach 300th Anniversary
Piers Adams celebrates the 300th anniversary of the birth of CPE Bach with tracks from new CDs released to mark the occasion. There are also interviews with musicians in Leipzig, Hamburg and other cities around Bach's native Germany who reveal how they will be celebrating the year. In his time, CPE Bach was one of Europe's most famous and popular composers: a friend of English music scholar Charles Burney wrote to him in 1774, "I find the Carlophilipemanuelbachomania grow upon me so, that almost every thing else is insipid to me". He is now all but overshadowed by his more celebrated father, and so this anniversary year (he was born on 8th March 1714) is an opportunity to hear his music afresh. This is the first of three Early Music Show tributes to CPE Bach during this anniversary year.
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03-Mar-2014
The Early Music Show - The Return of the Nyckelharpa
The multi-instrumentalist Clare Salaman presents a programme all about a once popular early instrument with Swedish origins that has all but dropped off the musical landscape in this country. However, the nyckelharpa (or 'keyed fiddle') makes a sound that delights audiences. Clare has delved into the best and most rare recordings of the instrument to cast some light on the nyckelharpa's beautiful and mysterious sound-world.
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24-Feb-2014
The Early Music Show - The Cardinall's Musick at 25
Lucie Skeaping plays recordings of the Cardinall's Musick and talks to its director Andrew Carwood as the group celebrates its 25th anniversary. Music played includes works by Byrd, Fayrfax, Ludford and Sheppard. (photo: Dmitri Gutjahr).
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17-Feb-2014
The Early Music Show - Bach's The Art of Fugue
Lucie Skeaping takes expert advice from Simon Heighes to explore the background, purpose and music of JS Bach's last great masterpiece - The Art of Fugue. At the end of his life Johann Sebastian Bach set out to create a great summary of his thoughts and ideas about an intellectual musical form he'd made very much his own - the fugue. The result is the "Art of Fugue" which he left unfinished at his death - or did he? How should we regard this work? Was it intended for performance and if so, how? Who was it written for? Lucie pulls together various recordings of the work and, in conversation with Bach expert Simon Heighes, unpicks some of the thinking behind this extraordinary composition.
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10-Feb-2014
The Early Music Show - Purcell's Schooldays
The birth of Henry Purcell coincided with a hugely turbulent time in English political history, and went almost completely unnoticed. There are no baptismal records and we're not absolutely sure who his parents were, although it's likely that he was born in a house just a few hundred yards from Westminster Abbey, the place were he would eventually make much of his career and reputation. During his early years, the young Purcell came under the influence of several composers and church musicians, who were to shape his musical future. Lucie Skeaping traces the schoolboy years of the man who would grow to be England's greatest composer.
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03-Feb-2014
The Early Music Show - Ensemble Turicum at the 2013 Zurich Early Music Festival
Lucie Skeaping is joined in the studio by Portuguese music expert António Jorge Marques to introduce sacred music by the 18th-century composer Marcos António Portugal, including his Missa a quatro in F and movements from his Vésperas de Nossa Senhora. The performers are Ensemble Turicum, recorded at the 2013 Festival Alte Musik Zurich. Portugal: Dixit Dominus (Vésperas de Nossa Senhora) Portugal: Magnificat (Vésperas de Nossa Senhora) Portugal: Missa a quatro in F Ensemble Turicum Mathias Weibel and Luiz Alves da Silva (directors) Recorded in September at St Peter's Church, Zurich, as part of the 2013 Festival Alte Musik Zurich.
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27-Jan-2014
The Early Music Show - Composer Profile: Perotin
Lucie Skeaping presents recordings of music by the 13th-century European composer Perotin, including performances by the Hilliard Ensemble, The Orlando Consort and Ensemble Organum. Probably French in origin, Perotin's music embodies the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style.
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20-Jan-2014
The Early Music Show - European Union Baroque Orchestra
Lucie Skeaping presents a concert of music by Bach, Rameau and Leclair given by the European Union Baroque Orchestra and director Lars Ulrik Mortensen at MediaCityUK in Salford. JS Bach: Suite No 2 in B minor, BWV.1067 (flute soloist Anne Freitag) Leclair: Concerto for Flute in C major, Op.7 No.3 (flute soloist Anne Freitag) Rameau: Suite from Acanthe et Céphise.
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14-Jan-2014
The Early Music Show - Inspiring Lutenists
Lucie Skeaping talks to lutenist Elizabeth Kenny about two of the performers who most inspired her: Robert Spencer and Nigel North. Music is taken from recordings by both performers, including works by composers such as John Dowland and J.S Bach. (Photo: Richard Haughton).
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30-Dec-2013
The Early Music Show - Seasonal Music with Emma Kirkby
Early music stalwart, the soprano Dame Emma Kirkby is today's guest presenter of The Early Music Show, and chooses some of her favourite seasonal music from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque. (photo: Bibi Basch).
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09-Dec-2013
The Early Music Show - Academy of Ancient Music - 40th Anniversary
Lucie Skeaping celebrates the 40th anniversary of the UK's pioneering period orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music, in the company of Music Director Richard Egarr. Together they look back over the orchestra's history and listen to some of its most important recordings.
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18-Nov-2013
The Early Music Show - The Tallis Scholars at 40
Lucie Skeaping's guest is Peter Phillips, director of the Renaissance choral group the Tallis Scholars, which maintains its world wide popularity 40 years after it was founded. Over the years, many of their 60 or so CD recordings have reached iconic status and Peter will be choosing some of the highlights as he talks about the group's history, the important part it played in the early music revival during the 70s and 80s, and how they are now broadening their horizons by commissioning and performing works by contemporary composers. This programme will also launch the 2014 National Centre for Early Music's Composers' Competition in partnership with The Tallis Scholars and BBC Radio 3.
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11-Nov-2013
The Early Music Show - Philomel at the 2013 Brighton Early Music Festival
Lucie Skeaping makes another visit to the Brighton Early Music Festival with a concert of sixteenth-century songs and popular tunes by performed by Philomel directed by Emma Murphy. Philip Thorby, David Hatcher, Alison Kinder, Sharon Lindo and Emma Murphy ? collectively known as Philomel ? perform a programme of secular and sacred Renaissance music from Josquin, Palestrina, Victoria, Rore, Lassus and Certon in this lunchtime concert recorded at Brighton University's Sallis Benney Theatre.
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04-Nov-2013
The Early Music Show - Brighton Early Music Festival 2013: Later from Brighton
Lucie Skeaping introduces music from the Brighton Early Music Festival "Club Night": "Later From Brighton". A host of young musicians give an informal evening of music from the Renaissance to the 19th Century. The pick of BrEMF's "New Generation Artists" come together for an informal evening of music from the Renaissance to the 19th Century in the spectacular setting of Brighton's St Bartholomew's Church. In an innovative format which aims to bring in new audiences to the early music scene, this evening involves three separate stages and freedom to move between sets, which adds a very relaxed ambience to the performances. Performers include the Little Baroque Company (baroque chamber group), Il Nuovo Chiaroscuro (sackbut quartet), I Flautisti (recorder quartet), plus Alison Kinder (bass viol), and singers Esther Brazil and Greg Skidmore, and the evening is compered by recorder player Piers Adams.
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28-Oct-2013
The Early Music Show - The John Marsh Journals
Lucie Skeaping explores the extensive journals of the English gentleman composer John Marsh, which represent one of the most important musical and social documents of the Eighteenth Century. With the journals' editor Brian Robins.
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21-Oct-2013
The Early Music Show - Erik Bosgraaf Profile
Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of the extraordinary young Dutch recorder player, equally at home in early and contemporary repertoire. With music by Bach, Blow, Handel and Wassenaer, recorded at this year's Ryedale Festival and featuring the harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani.
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30-Sep-2013
The Early Music Show - Scarlatti's Vocal Music
Catherine Bott looks at the vocal and choral music of Domenico Scarlatti, best known today for his 555 keyboard sonatas. Having grown up in Italy with a rather domineering opera composer as a father, it was inevitable that Scarlatti should have picked up some of his musical influences from the stage, and from the church. By the time Scarlatti settled in Lisbon in the 1720s to work for the Portuguese royal family, he was already one of the best-known opera composers in Europe and had a reputation for his sacred works, approved by the Vatican. Now, most of his vocal and choral music is lost (a good deal of it in the disastrous earthquake which hit Lisbon in 1755), and his reputation rests on the more than five hundred keyboard sonatas he wrote for his famous pupil, Princess Maria Barbara of Portugal. This programme includes excerpts from Scarlatti's operas "La Dirindina" and "La Constesa delle Stagione", and from his Stabat Mater, Salve Regina and Te Deum.
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23-Sep-2013
The Early Music Show - Sound of Cinema: Tous Les matins du monde
The revered French actor Gérard Depardieu is frequently in the news these days and not always for his acting. In the early 1990s Depardieu gave a brilliantly nuanced performance as the 17th/18th-century composer and viol player Marin Marais. The acclaimed film "Tous les matins du monde" was one of the few movies to celebrate and popularise early music. Lucie Skeaping remembers the film and considers some of the music.
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22-Sep-2013
The Early Music Show - Sound of Cinema: Farinelli - The Movie
As part of the Sound of Cinema season, Catherine Bott looks at the story and the soundtrack of the 1994 film "Farinelli" - a biopic of the great 18th century castrato and his colourful relationships with women, with his older brother and with the composers Handel and Porpora. It's been a long time since we had a real life castrato singer in our midst, and the only recording we have of one is Alessandro Moreschi, who died in 1922 and was already at the end of his performing career when the rather primitive recordings were made. No-one today really possesses the vocal range of a castrato ? which could be as much as three and a half octaves, so, when Belgian film director Gerard Corbiau decided to turn Farinelli's colourful life into a full-length biopic, he charged music director Christophe Rousset with coming up with a way to create as near to the castrato sound as he could. The solution was to combine the voices of Polish soprano Ewa Mallas-Godlewska and American countertenor Derek Lee Ragin, so that Derek would sing the lower passages and Ewa the highest. During the precision editing, the voices of the two singers were relayed, from the notes to the highest, in order to cover the tessitura and also demonstrate the castrato's virtuosity. The resulting tape included nearly 3000 editing points. It was then necessary to "homogenise" the two singers' timbres in order to give Farinelli his own voice, both new and, at the same time, respectful of the original voices. The film soundtrack includes performances by the "combined" voices with Christophe Rousset's own ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, in glorious music by Handel, Porpora, Hasse, Pergolesi and Farinelli's own older brother (and protagonist of the film), Riccardo Broschi.
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20-Sep-2013
The Early Music Show - Sound of Cinema: The Harpsichord and Film
As part of the BBC's Sound of Cinema season, Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of the harpsichord in film scores. #BBCSoundofCinema Lucie looks back on the pioneering work of Wanda Landowska in stimulating a renewed interest in the instrument in the first third of the 20th Century, and how the distinctive sound of the instrument quickly found a use in the cinema. She considers how the harpsichord has been used in film to suggest a sense of the past; a sense of the present; and how its created a particularly effective colour in the world of horror films. Featured film scores include: "Wuthering Heights"; "Papillon"; "Restoration"; "Henry V"; "Love Story"; "Rosemary's Baby"; "The Vampire Lovers"; "Pirates of Caribbean"; "The Corpse Bride" and "Amelie".
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20-Sep-2013
The Early Music Show - Sound of Cinema: A-Z of Baroque at the Box Office
Catherine Bott gives us a whistle-stop A-Z tour of how early music has been featured in mainstream films to both poignant and ironic effect; from Allegri and Albinoni to Zadok and Zoolander. #BBCSoundofCinema.
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09-Sep-2013
The Early Music Show - Gesualdo
The infamous life of the Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo is full of drama, intrigue and death. Among accusations of a double murder, witchcraft and masochism stands an extraordinary body of music with its own tortured chromatic sound world. To mark the 400th anniversary of the composer's death, Catherine Bott talks with renowned Gesualdo expert Professor Glenn Watkins to explore whether an understanding of the time in which the isolated Prince lived can cast any further light on his seemingly bizarre life.
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08-Sep-2013
The Early Music Show - The Other Water Music
Virtually unknown a few decades ago, Georg Philipp Telemann's orchestral suite 'Hamburger Ebb' und Fluth' (Hamburg Ebb and Flow) is fast becoming a rival to Handel's 'Water Music'. Written in 1723 to celebrate the centenary of the Hamburg Admiralty it tackles watery subjects such as the sea deities Thetis, Neptune and Triton, sporting Naiads and even the city's drainage channels! Lucie Skeaping explores the work and its musical context. Contains a complete performance of the suite by Ensemble Zefiro, directed by Alberto Bernardini.
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02-Sep-2013
The Early Music Show - Mazovia goes Baroque!
Lucie Skeaping introduces highlights from the Polish early music festival - Mazovia goes Baroque! The programme includes performances recorded in November of music by Vivaldi, Castaldi, Matteis and Machaut.
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01-Sep-2013
The Early Music Show - Christophe Rousset at the Edinburgh Festival
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights from a concert recorded at the Edinburgh International Festival. World-renowned harpsichord virtuoso Christophe Rousset showcases the magnificent instruments preserved in Edinburgh's St Cecilia's Hall Museum with a programme of music by Purcell, Couperin, Rameau, and Froberger. The instruments, some more than 400 years old, are often as spectacular to look at as they are to listen to. Rousset performs music that historically may have been played on them, revealing how developments in instrument design and in musical style are often interlinked.
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26-Aug-2013
The Early Music Show - Jacques Arcadelt
At the Hermitage in St Petersburg hangs one of Caravaggio's most famous paintings: the Lute Player. An androgynous young man looks out at us as he plucks the strings of this most iconic of Renaissance instruments, and a music book lies in front of him. Close inspection reveals that not only has Caravaggio carefully painted a real piece of lute music, but we can even identify its composer - Jacques Arcadelt. Today Lucie Skeaping explores the life of Jacques Arcadelt, one of the most mysterious, fascinating, and significant figures in 16th century music. Many biographical details of his life are sketchy; but from being born in what we now know as Belgium, in the first decade of the 16th century, Arcadelt found his way to Italy where he became a driving force in the rise and popularity of the madrigal. Arcadelt's several books of madrigals were among the most prolifically-published books of the entire Renaissance - the soundtrack to a film about the period's many great artists would unquestionably need to feature a great deal of music by him. Michelangelo's paintings were barely dry when Arcadelt began singing in the Sistine Chapel, and there's every suggestion that being at the heart of the Renaissance must have been a vital source of his creative inspiration. All of Arcadelt's music is vocal, and covers a vast range of styles, from light songs to entire Masses, and also a setting of the epic Lamentations of Jeremiah. In this programme Lucie focuses on madrigals performed by the Hilliard Ensemble, the Orlando Consort, the Fires of Love; and religious music performed by the Josquin Capella from a disc released just last year. Lucie also reflects on an intriguing aspect of Arcadelt's work, namely that although he wrote no instrumental music, other composers of the period were all too ready to adapt it for instrumental performance. The picture of Arcadelt that emerges is of a musician whose senses of enterprise and adventure led to a stellar career as composer and performer, reflected both in his service of distinguished patrons including the Medici family and the Vatican, and also in the huge popular esteem in which he was so obviously held.
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25-Aug-2013
The Early Music Show - Profile: Wieland Kuijken
Catherine Bott talks to the legendary Dutch viola da gamba player Wieland Kuijken about his life in music, interspersed with highlights of his recent concert at the 2013 York Early Music Festival. Featuring music by Couperin, Forqueray and Marin Marais.
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19-Aug-2013
The Early Music Show - Matthias Weckmann
Catherine Bott presents a profile of the German composer and organist Matthias Weckmann, who flourished in Dresden and Hamburg during the 17th century. Weckmann was a pupil of Henirich Schütz, and the organist and composer Praetorius, and who made a major contribution to the musical life in Protestant Germany. Although few compositions survive, Weckmann wrote some exceptional music, including several beautiful sacred vocal concertos, settings of devotional texts for voices and instruments: Catherine Bott plays a recording by the Ricercar Consort of a couple of these concertos, in addition to a selection of other organ and ensemble works.
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18-Aug-2013
The Early Music Show - Time Will Tell
The singer Donald Greig has established a long career performing with groups such as the Tallis Scholars and the Orlando Consort, of which he is a founder member. Last year he wrote his first novel - Time Will Tell - which recently came out in paperback. It tells parallel stories set in the 1990s world of modern early music performance, and in the 16th century world of Franco-Flemish composers and musicians including Josquin and Ockeghem. Donald Greig talks to Catherine Bott about his novel and selects music featured in the story.
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12-Aug-2013
The Early Music Show - York Early Music International Young Artists Competition 2013
Catherine Bott introduces highlights from this year's York Early Music International Young Artists' Competition which has proved an inspirational launchpad for early music performers across the world. Past winners have included Florilegium; Paul Goodwin and Nicholas Parle; The Locke Consort; I Fagiolini; The Palladian Ensemble; Mhairi Lawson and Olga Tverskaya; Savadi; and Le Jardin Secret. This year's competition drew on ensembles from America and Europe. Catherine offers a chance to hear from all ten finalists including the announcement of this year's winners.
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11-Aug-2013
The Early Music Show - Cipriano de Rore Parody Mass
Josquin's motet - Praeter rerum seriem - proved to be very popular with younger composers of 16th century and in this programme Lucie Skeaping takes a look at how two of them - Cipriano de Rore and Roland de Lassus - paid a compliment to Josquin by using material from the motet in their own music. Nowadays song writers and composers "sample" music from elsewhere all the time but the idea is not a new one. "Parody" masses were very popular in the 16th century, sometimes being controversial in the choice of material if it was not sacred. De Rore's mass and a Magnificat by Lassus, along with the original Josquin motet, have been specially recorded for the Early Music Show by the BBC Singers conducted by Peter Phillips, who talks to Lucie Skeaping about why this music fascinates him.
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05-Aug-2013
The Early Music Show - Dowland
The Renaissance English composer John Dowland was a prolific writer of songs accompanied by the lute, and the performance of those songs has sustained and informed the careers of many great singers and lute players over the decades. Lucie Skeaping takes a look back at how the interpretation and performance style of Dowland songs has evolved over the last century and plays a selection of recordings from singers and lute players past and present. To help her are studio guests Jacob Heringman, currently one of Britain's foremost lutenists, and the singer Emma Kirkby, whose seminal recordings and performances of Dowland songs have enchanted audiences for many years.
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04-Aug-2013
The Early Music Show - Dowland's Grand Tour
As part of the celebrations of the 450th anniversary of the birth of John Dowland, Catherine Bott talks to American lutenist Paul O'Dette about Dowland's travels around Europe, and the lutenist-composers he met en route, such as Melchior Neusidler, Simone Molinari and Gregorio Huwet. The music comes from O'Dette's late night solo recital at the National Centre for Early Music, as part of the York Early Music Festival.
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23-Jul-2013
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival: Ensemble Medusa
Catherine Bott presents music performed at the 2013 York Early Music Festival featuring the group "Ensemble Medusa" in a revealing programme of works reflecting the life and times of Lucrezia Borgia. The figure of Lucrezia has gained notoriety due to the Borgias' reputation for ruthlessness and excess. Yet Lucrezia was a strong woman who maintained a passion for all of the arts. Including music by Juan del Encina, Guillaume Dufay, Niccolo Patavino, Rossino Mantovano and others. ENSEMBLE MEDUSA Patrizia Bovi: director,voice, harp Crawford Young: lute, viola da mano Leah Stuttard: gothic bray harp Gabriele Miracle: hammered psaltery, percussion. PLAYLIST: *Poetic texts (ottave) recounting the life of Lucrezia, written by Valeria Molini, are indicated with an asterisk Rome 1480–98 *Possan le Muse darmi voc’ e core (text sung over music by ?Benedetto Gareth c.1450–1514) Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Composer: Hayne van Ghizeghem: Amours amours Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Composer: Juan del Encina Title: Levanta Pasqual Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Marriage to Giovanni Sforza, 1493 *Fanciulla mai non fu ma infant’ e sposa (text sung over music by ?Benedetto Gareth) Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Composer: Anonymous Title: Bassadanza Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Composer: Guillaume Dufay Title: Departes vous male bouche Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Marriage to Alfonso d’Aragon, 1498 *Nuovi sponsal’ le recano gran gioia (text sung over music by ?Benedetto Gareth) Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Composer: Niccolo Patavino Title: Non Ú tempo di tenere Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Composer: Domenico da Piacenza Title: Pizochara Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Assassination of Alfonso d’Aragon, 1500 Composer: Henricus Isaac Title: Morte che fai? Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Composer: Juan de Urrede Title: Nunca fue pena mayor Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Composer: Anonymous / Crawford Young (instrumental elaboration) Title: AhimÚ sospiri - ‘cantasi come’ lauda (contrafactum) Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Composer: Anonymous Title: AhimÚ sospiri (ornamented version) Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Rivalry with Isabella – games and celebrations at court *Ella mi guarda ed Ú‘‘si furiosa (text sung over music by ?Benedetto Gareth) Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Composer: Rossino Mantovano Title: Perché fai donna el gaton Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Composer: Loyset Compere Title: Scaramella Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Composer: Anonymous Title: Tientalora Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Final retreat into spirituality and solitude *Cavami l’alma fora dai peccati (text sung over music by Marchetto Cara) Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) Composer: Tromboncino Title: Vergine bella Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp) *Ora che dal viso tu m’hai tolto (text sung over music by Marchetto Cara) Performers: Ensemble Medusa, Patricia Bovi (director/voice/harp)
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21-Jul-2013
The Early Music Show - Jacques-Martin Hotteterre
Lucie Skeaping enlists the expertise of Baroque flautist and recorder player Peter Holtslag to celebrate the life and music of Jacques-Martin Hotteterre "Le Romain"; performer, writer and pedagogue who died 250 years ago this week and did more than any other to enhance the popularity of the "new" transverse flute. Hotteterre's music reflects his career, achievements and enthusiasms and we'll hear performances of complete works alongside demonstrations of the instrumental techniques and ornamentation he pioneered.
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15-Jul-2013
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2013: York Early Music Festival: 2. La Risonanza - 'Voicing Corelli'
Catherine Bott introduces highlights from a concert given by La Risonanza and Fabio Bonizzoni at the 2013 York Early Music Festival. The theme of this year's York Early Music Festival is "Rome - The Eternal City". In the second of this weekend's programmes inspired by Corelli we look at vocal music by the composer - even though Corelli never left us with any music composed for voices! Corelli was known and much admired throughout Europe, but his published output was small, and restricted entirely to instrumental music. That nothing existed for voices was particularly frustrating for publishers - so a solution was sought. Fabio Bonizzoni's award-winning ensemble La Risonanza have created a unique programme of vocal duets on sacred texts ingeniously adapted from Corelli's trio sonatas by his contemporary admirer Antonio Tonelli.
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14-Jul-2013
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2013: York Early Music Festival: 1. Musica Antiqua Roma 'Approaching Corelli'
Catherine Bott introduces highlights from a concert given by Musica Antiqua Roma at the 2013 York Early Music Festival. The theme of this year's York Early Music Festival is "Rome - The Eternal City". Arcangelo Corelli is a crucial figure in Rome's musical history, seen in his day - the 18th Century - as the 'Orpheus of our age'. His instrumental chamber works and concertos were ground breaking. Yet this music, which played a major part in defining the musical language of the 18th century, did not spring from nowhere. In this concert Riccardo Minasi and his ensemble, Musica Antiqua Roma consider music that formed the background to Corelli's achievements, performing works by some of his brilliant but less well-known Roman predecessors and contemporaries.
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08-Jul-2013
The Early Music Show - Live at the 2013 York Early Music Festival
Catherine Bott presents a live programme from the 2013 York Early Music Festival outlining some of this year's festival highlights. Performances include music from harpsichordist Fabio Bonizzoni, lutenist Thomas Dunford, the Rose Consort of Viols and soprano Bethany Seymour.
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07-Jul-2013
The Early Music Show - A Day in the Life of Louis XIV
Lucie Skeaping recreates a possible day in the life of King Louis XIV. Upon waking in his sumptuous bedchamber, the king follows a busy schedule before entertaining guests at supper and retiring late in the evening. At every part of the day, musicians were on hand to entertain him, to soothe him or to trumpet his arrival. Olivier Baumont - harpsichordist and expert on French Baroque music - guides Lucie through the palace of Versailles to illustrate some of the music the king may have heard.
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01-Jul-2013
The Early Music Show - Vermeer and Music
The National Gallery's exhibition of paintings by Vermeer and his Dutch 17th-century contemporaries - every one of which depicts musicmaking of one kind or another - opened earlier this week. Lucie Skeaping takes a tour of the exhibition with curator Marjorie E. Wieseman, and chooses music to go with it, including works by Sweelinck, Van Eyck and Johann Schop.
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30-Jun-2013
The Early Music Show - Gregynog Festival - Parthenia
As we celebrate British Music throughout the month of June, Lucie Skeaping presents a recital by Mahan Esfahani recorded at the Gregynog Festival in mid-Wales, of music by Byrd, Gibbons and Bull from the Parthenia: the first musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls (1613). Lucie talks to Mahan about this ground-breaking publication and the music therein.
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24-Jun-2013
The Early Music Show - Radio 3/National Centre for Early Music Composers' Award Result
Lucie Skeaping presents a concert recorded at the Bath International Music Festival, featuring the two winning entries of the Radio 3/National Centre for Early Music Composers' Award performed by the group Florilegium. The theme of this year's competition was "dance music" and young composers aged 25 and under were invited to compose a short dance inspired piece especially for period instruments, and especially for the members of Florilegium. The instruments they could choice from were baroque flute and recorders; baroque violin or viola d'amore; baroque cello or piccolo cello; harsichord or organ. The competition prompted a large response and in today's programme listeners are offered a chance to hear the two winning entries from two different age categories, as performed by Florilegium as part of the Bath Festival. The programme also features dance music by Leclair and Rebel, performed at the festival by Florilegium.
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23-Jun-2013
The Early Music Show - Richard III
Lucie Skeaping and musicologist David Skinner consider the music that might have been heard by Richard III. In September last year archeologists from Leicester University made the exciting discovery in a car park of a Medieval skeleton which was later proved to be that of King Richard III. Thanks largely to Shakespeare's portrayal of Richard as a dysfunctional, ambitious and murderous villain, the character of the Yorkist king has been much discussed over the centuries, in spite of the fact that he was only on the English throne for two years before being killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. For this edition of The Early Music Show, the Cambridge musicologist and director of the vocal ensemble Alamire - David Skinner - takes Lucie Skeaping to the Northamptonshire village of Fotheringhay, where Richard III was born, and talks about the kind of music he might have heard during his lifetime, which spans an exciting and fast moving period in the history of musical composition in England.
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17-Jun-2013
The Early Music Show - Britten and Purcell: Episode 2
Catherine Bott continues her comparison of two of the greatest setters of the English language, Benjamin Britten and Henry Purcell.
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16-Jun-2013
The Early Music Show - Britten and Purcell: Episode 1
In the first of two programmes in the Britten centenary year, Catherine Bott looks at the musical relationship between Benjamin Britten and Henry Purcell.
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10-Jun-2013
The Early Music Show - William Byrd: Episode 2
As part of Radio 3 Celebrating British Music, Catherine Bott introduces the second of two programmes about the life and music of William Byrd, in conversation with conductor Andrew Carwood of St Paul's Cathedral and The Cardinall's Musick. Byrd is arguably one of the most prolific and versatile composer of the English Renaissance, who wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard (the so-called Virginalist school) and consort music. Catherine Bott and Andrew Carwood present a comprehensive profile of the man and some of his most glorious music.
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09-Jun-2013
The Early Music Show - William Byrd: Episode 1
As part of Radio 3 Celebrating British Music, Catherine Bott introduces the first of two programmes about the life and music of William Byrd, in conversation with conductor Andrew Carwood. Byrd is arguably one of the most prolific and versatile composer of the English Renaissance, who wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard (the so-called Virginalist school) and consort music. Catherine Bott and Andrew Carwood present a comprehensive profile of the man and some of his most glorious music.
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02-Jun-2013
The Early Music Show - The Private Musick
Celebrating British music, Lucie Skeaping samples the sounds that would have been heard in the inner circles of the English royal courts from Henry VIII to George III. Includes works by Henry VIII himself, plus Lawes, Purcell and JC Bach.
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27-May-2013
The Early Music Show - Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music 2013: Episode 2
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert given by Ensemble La Fenice with the soprano Claire Lefilliâtre, under director and cornettist Jean Tubéry, recorded at St John's Smith Square as part of the 2013 Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music. The Festival's theme this year is music inspired by and reflecting nature, and today's programme has an avian flavour: 'Il canto degli Uccelli' - The Song of the Birds. The music includes a range of vocal pieces and instrumental works by Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, Merula, among others.
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26-May-2013
The Early Music Show - Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music 2013: 1. Imaginarium Ensemble
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert by the Imaginarium Ensemble from the 2013 Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music. Featuring performances of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, with director Enrico Onofri as soloist, interspersed with the sonnets on which these works are based. It's not known whether Vivaldi himself wrote the sonnets, but the music he wrote reflects each season's essence: birdsong in spring, a stormy summer, harvest revelries and winter's chill. The poems are read by our very own Catherine Bott.
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20-May-2013
The Early Music Show - Wagner 200: Mastersingers of Nuremberg
Immortalised by Wagner in his famous opera, Lucie Skeaping looks back on the life and music of the real Hans Sachs and his fellow Mastersingers in 17th Century Germany. First broadcast in March 2007.
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19-May-2013
The Early Music Show - Art and Early Music Month: 6. The Gardens of the Villa d'Este
The Villa d'Este's gardens are a triumph of Baroque architecture and design. Catherine Bott travels to Tivoli to explore the many fountains there and the music connected with the gardens and the man who commissioned them: Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este, patron of many composers, among them a no lesser figure than Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. First broadcast in March 2009.
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13-May-2013
The Early Music Show - Tonus Peregrinus
The vocal group Tonus Peregrinus was founded 23 years ago by the composer Antony Pitts and has since managed to fill a niche market in the recording industry with recordings of contemporary, newly composed music and early music going back to the Medieval era. Catherine Bott chooses some tracks from the group's back catalogue of recordings and talks to director, founder and composer Antony Pitts. (photography of Tonus Peregrinus by Ian Dingle)
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12-May-2013
The Early Music Show - Artist Profile: David Wulstan
On today's Early Music Show Catherine Bott talks to David Wulstan, a pioneering figure in the understanding and interpretation of early music in general, and of music of the Tudor period in particular. In the 1960s and 1970s David Wulstan created The Clerkes of Oxenford. With this group of singers he worked tirelessly to produce revelatory recordings of the music of Tallis, Sheppard, Gibbons, Tye, White, and others, which revolutionized the way it was interpreted, and the way we now hear it today. The debt owed to David Wulstan by many of today's performers and practitioners of early music is immense, and many important figures, such as Harry Christophers, began their careers studying or performing with him. One of those people joins in today's conversation: Sally Dunkley, the singer and scholar who first encountered David Wulstan at a University of Oxford entrance interview, studied with him, and has continued to work with him and share his friendship until today. David Wulstan is a fascinating, erudite and colourful contributor to the appreciation of early music. When the word musicologist is mentioned, he threatens to make use of his martial arts skills. How will Catherine Bott fare...? (photography of David Wulstan by Lyndon Jones)
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06-May-2013
The Early Music Show - Music from Stockholm
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights from a concert given as part of Stockholm's prestigious Early Music Festival. Rinaldo Alessandrini directs his ensemble Concerto Italiano in a programme that includes chamber music by Corelli, Vivaldi, Alessandro Scarlatti, Giovanni Platti and Alessandro Besozzi. It was recorded at the German Church in Stockholm's Gamla Stan - "Old Town".
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05-May-2013
The Early Music Show - Watteau and Music
Lucie Skeaping looks at music and the 18th-century French painter Antoine Watteau. No fewer than a third of Watteau's canvases depict musical scenes. The Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels is currently running an exhibition of Watteau's work "underscored" by musical items chosen by the great French Early Music specialist, William Christie. With this in mind, this programme examines the "musical" world of the 18th-century's artistic master of evocative sensuality and the fete galante.
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28-Apr-2013
The Early Music Show - Campra - the Rebel of Notre Dame
Catherine Bott presents a profile of Andre Campra - a musical innovator, and something of a rebel at the turn of the 18th Century. His stint as Music Director of Notre Dame Cathedral was wracked with controversy, thanks to Campra's wishes to branch out into music for the theatre...a pastime which was abhorred by the ecclesiastical authorities. When Campra produced the first ever opera-ballet in 1697, he did so under a thinly-disguised pseudonym, but the acclaim he received as a result of the success of "L'Europe Galante" catapulted him into Parisian celebrity and set him up for a glittering operatic career which lasted for another 40 years. Recordings of Campra's motets and operatic dances are played from Paul Agnew, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants.
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28-Apr-2013
The Early Music Show - Notre Dame
To celebrate the 850th anniversary of the first stone of Notre Dame de Paris being laid, Catherine Bott explores the beginnings of music in the great cathedral.
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15-Apr-2013
The Early Music Show - Composer Portrait: Torelli
Catherine Bott presents a programme of music by the 17th century Italian composer and virtuoso violinist, Giuseppe Torelli. Most famous for his trumpet concertos, Torelli also wrote many wonderful pieces for his own instrument and was at the forefront of the early development of the Concerto Grosso.
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14-Apr-2013
The Early Music Show - The Treaty of Utrecht
Catherine Bott looks at music marking the ceremonial signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, with celebration pieces by Handel and William Croft. Handel's "Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate" was written to celebrate the Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, ending the War of the Spanish Succession. The treaties between several European states, including Spain, Great Britain, France, Portugal, Savoy and the Dutch Republic, helped end the war. The treaties were concluded between the representatives of Louis XIV of France and Philip V of Spain on the one hand, and representatives of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, the Duke of Savoy, the King of Portugal and the United Provinces on the other.
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08-Apr-2013
The Early Music Show - Carmina Burana
Catherine Bott explores the diverse music associated with the Medieval texts of the Carmina Burana. She talks about the difficulty of turning the original manuscript into music and the variety of interpretations that have ensued. Although commonly associated with drinking and bawdiness the Carmina Burana also contains religious texts. Marcel Peres's extensive research into these has resulted in some deeply emotive music that is not to be missed.
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07-Apr-2013
The Early Music Show - Renaissance Wind Music
Lucie Skeaping considers the importance of wind music in the middle ages, through the work of one of today's award winning period ensembles. The ensemble of shawms, bombards and trumpet or sackbut (trombone), known as the alta capella, was one of the most striking and influential ensembles of the middle ages. It was the ensemble most often heard in mediaeval cities, and one of the first ensembles to be placed on the civic payroll. The alta capella was the nearest that the middle ages had to our symphony orchestra. Lucie Skeaping reflects on the work and music of the alta capella, focusing on one of today's foremost ensembles in this field - Les haulz et les bas. The multi national ensemble, Les haulz et les bas, are: David Yacus (USA/Italy) - buisine, slide trumpet, sackbut Andrea Piccioni (Italy) - tamburello Gesine BÃnfer (Germany) - shawm, bombard, bagpipe Michael Metzler (Germany) - percussion Ian Harrison (GB) - shawm, bombard, bagpipe Christian Braun (Swiss) - buisine, slide trumpet, sackbut.
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01-Apr-2013
The Early Music Show - A Sure Foundation
Chorales, or German hymn tunes, played a central role in the sacred music of German composers right from the time of Martin Luther (who wrote some of them himself) up to that of JS Bach. Lucie Skeaping explores some of the ways in which these composers used them, with examples from Praetorius, Pachelbel and Bach, including a complete performance of Bach's Advent cantata Nun komm, der heiden Heiland, BWV62, by the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner.
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31-Mar-2013
The Early Music Show - Baroque Spring: Music for the Baroque Theatre
Catherine Bott makes some selective entrances and exits into the world of English, Spanish and French Baroque music for the spoken theatre. Featuring music by Purcell, Arne, Lawes, Lully, Charpentier and others.
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25-Mar-2013
The Early Music Show - Art and Early Music Month: 8. The Baroque Theatre of Cesky Krumlov
Lucie Skeaping visits the Baroque Theatre of Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic, where she is given a guided tour of the auditorium, backstage areas and museum by the theatre historian Iain Mackintosh. The theatre - part of Cesky Krumlov castle - was built in 1766 to celebrate the wedding of Prince Adam von Schwarzenburg, and is recognised as arguably the best-preserved example of baroque theatre spaces in Europe. The original trompe l'oeil painting throughout is quite breathtaking, and the detailed set designs, costumes and working machinery are remarkable. Music is taken from disc, and includes works by Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Rameau, Zach, Myslivecek, Tuma and Mozart. First broadcast in March 2009.
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24-Mar-2013
The Early Music Show - East European Baroque
In today's edition of the Early Music Show, and as part of Radio 3's Baroque Spring season, Catherine Bott goes in search of the unknown baroque. Vivaldi, Handel, Bach and the Scarlattis are familiar names to us, composers synonymous with one of the richest periods in musical history. But Venice, Leipzig, and London weren't the only places experiencing the ear-shock of baroque music - Prague, Warsaw, and Ljubljana were home to composers whose names haven't had quite the same impact on posterity, but who were also playing a key part in shaping this musical revolution. So today familiar names give way to others such as Erlebach, Pekiel, Posch and Zarewutius, as Catherine Bott looks to eastern Europe in search some of the baroque's hidden musical riches. The programme includes an interview with Eamonn Dougan, Associate Conductor of the Sixteen, about the choir's new disc featuring the music of Bartlomiej Pekiel.
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18-Mar-2013
The Early Music Show - Baroque Spring: Monteverdi Opera
As part of Baroque Spring Catherine Bott uses the themes of gods and monsters to look at the brilliant characterisation in Monteverdi's operas. Looking specifically at L'Orfeo and L'Incoronazione di Poppea Catherine shows how Monteverdi treats works of mythological stories with very modern dramatic devices. Broadcast as part of Radio 3's "Baroque Spring".
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17-Mar-2013
The Early Music Show - Baroque Spring: Monteverdi on the Cusp
As part of Baroque Spring Catherine Bott explores how Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 show the composer at a musical crossroads: between the renaissance and the baroque. Through different recordings Catherine looks at the various devices Monteverdi uses to acknowledge the musical past as well as confronting the future. Broadcast as part of Radio 3's "Baroque Spring".
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11-Mar-2013
The Early Music Show - Baroque Spring French Weekend: 2. Rameau and La Poupeliniere
As part of Radio 3's Baroque Spring season and in the second of this weekend's Early Music Shows dedicated to French Baroque music, Lucie Skeaping explores the relationship between Jean-Philippe Rameau and his main patron Alexandre Le Riche de la Poupelinière.
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10-Mar-2013
The Early Music Show - Baroque Spring French Weekend: 1. Lully and Louis
As part of Radio 3's Baroque Spring season, Lucie Skeaping introduces the first of two Early Music Shows this weekend dedicated to French Baroque music. Today, Lucie explores the relationship between King Louis XIV and his favourite composer - Jean-Baptiste Lully.
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04-Mar-2013
The Early Music Show - Baroque Spring: Live from MediaCity
Catherine Bott launches Radio 3's month-long Baroque Spring season live from MediaCity UK in Salford. Laurence Cummings directs The English Concert in music by Handel, Bach, Purcell and Vivaldi, all of whom will feature as Composer of the Week during this focus on the Baroque. Throughout March, Radio 3 is celebrating all things Baroque, with a season of music, live discussion, masterclasses, comedy and poetry put together to bring alive one of the most significant periods of musical development and discovery.
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25-Feb-2013
The Early Music Show - The Salve Regina
Lucie Skeaping finds out how the Marian hymn "Salve Regina" fascinated European composers throughout the Renaissance era. The original chant is itself an exquisitely beautiful melody and it inspired several generations of composers to write soaring polyphonic settings around it, including Guerrero, Ockeghem, Victoria, Lassus and many others. As well as the chant itself, Lucie Skeaping introduces a selection of these settings and talks to Dr Owen Rees, Reader in Music at Oxford University, about how the chant became popular, its liturtigal significance and its musical legacy.
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24-Feb-2013
The Early Music Show - Telemann the Everyman
Catherine Bott explores the idea of Telemann the Everyman: how he absorbed and excelled at so many musical styles, and purposely made his music available and appealing to the widest possible audience. She's joined by musicologist, flautist and all-round Telemann expert Steven Zohn.
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18-Feb-2013
The Early Music Show - Frescobaldi - Fingers, Mind then Ears
Catherine Bott and harpsichordist Fabio Bonizzoni, probe the celebrated Toccatas and Partitas for keyboard by the highly influential late renaissance composer, Girolamo Frescobaldi. Fabio Bonizzoni has recently recorded the Toccatas and Partitas on disc, to great acclaim. In his opinion these are Frescobaldi's masterpieces, a series of pictures in music. "Each piece", says Bonizzoni, "paints a sentiment." But the collection - some of the earliest extended pieces of pure instrumental music - require a real feel for fantasy and expressive freedom. Fabio Bonizzoni explains to Catherine how he sets about interpreting the music.
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17-Feb-2013
The Early Music Show - The Marriage of Princess Elizabeth Stuart and Frederick, Elector Palatine
Lucie Skeaping explores the wedding of Princess Elizabeth Stuart and Frederick V, Elector Palatine, which took place in Whitehall 400 years ago this Valentine's Day. The celebrations were organised by Sir Francis Bacon, and included over a week of lavish entertainments including music by, among others Robert Johnson, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Campion and John Coperario, their contributions heard alongside popular ballads, catches and toe-tapping dance tunes with John Donne waxing lyrical: 'Since thou dost this day in new glory shine, may all men date Records from this thy Valentine'.
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11-Feb-2013
The Early Music Show - Musica Reservata
Lucie Skeaping focuses on a refined, intensely expressive 16th century vocal music for connoisseurs known as Musica Reservata. Musica reservata in this context, sometimes known as musica secreta, was a style of vocal music that first appeared in the 1550s, involving refinement and intense emotional expression. Composers of musica reservata included Nicola Vicentino, Philippe de Monte and, above all, Orlando di Lassus, whose highly chromatic Prophetiae Sibyllarum may represent the style at its peak. Lucie draws on various recordings illustrating the musica reservata, including a complete performance of Lassus's Prophetiae Sibyllarum.
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10-Feb-2013
The Early Music Show - Jennens - Handel's librettist
Catherine Bott visits the Handel House in London where Ruth Smith has curated an imaginative exhibition on the life of Handel's librettist, Charles Jennens. It was Jennens who created the libretto for Handel's Messiah, he might even have suggested the idea to Handel, and he also furnished the composer with words for several other of his oratorios including Saul, Belshazzar, L'Allegro and perhaps Israel in Egypt. As such, Jennens often features as a footnote in Handel's biography, but the academic and author Ruth Smith believes more credit should be given to Jennens for the contribution he made to 18th century artistic life in this country. Not only did he provide Handel with libretti, he was also one of the first to faithfully edit the works of Shakespeare. Ruth Smith has curated an exhibition about Jennens at the Handel House in London and Catherine Bott visits and Dr Smith to find out more about the man and his achievements.
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04-Feb-2013
The Early Music Show - The Other Purcell Boy
For centuries it's been widely accepted that the composer Daniel Purcell was the younger brother of the more celebrated Henry. Now, though, it's thought that they may actually have been cousins rather than brothers. Apart from a much loved Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis, Daniel Purcell's music has remained largely in the shadow of his older relative, but thanks to a handful of recent recordings, it's now being considered much more on its own merits. Lucie Skeaping looks at the life and music of Daniel Purcell, with performances from the Parnassian Ensemble, Chichester Cathedral Chor, and violinist Hazel Brooks and harpsichordist David Pollock, who have recently released some of Purcell's previously unrecorded chamber music.
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03-Feb-2013
The Early Music Show - BBC Singers: Dalmatian Music
Catherine Bott presents a programme of little-known Renaissance & Baroque music from Croatia & Dalmatia. Robert Hollingworth conducts the BBC Singers in specially made recordings of pieces by the Italian-born Tommaso Cecchino as well as home-grown composers Julije Skjavetic, Vinko Jelic and Ivan Lukacic. Much of their music was written for churches in Dubrovnik, Sibenik, Split and on the island of Hvar.
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28-Jan-2013
The Early Music Show - Tous Les Matins du Monde
The revered French actor Gerard Depardieu is frequently in the news these days and not always for his acting. In the early 1990s Depardieu gave a brilliantly nuanced performance as the 17th/18th Century composer and viol player Marin Marais. The acclaimed film "Tous Les Matins du Monde" was one of the few movies to celebrate and popularise early music. Lucie Skeaping remembers the film and considers some of the music.
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21-Jan-2013
The Early Music Show - Bring Back the Summer: 2. Bring Back The Summer Weekend (Sunday)
Catherine Bott tries to bring some sunshine back into our lives as she continues her weekend of highlights of last year's summer early music festivals. Today she introduces highlights of the Oude Muziek festival in Utrecht. Featuring music by Kuhnau, Scheidt and Bach performed by ensembles including Il Gardellino, Bach Collegium Japan and Skip Sempe's Cappriccio Stravagante.
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20-Jan-2013
The Early Music Show - Bring Back the Summer: 1. Bring Back The Summer Weekend (Saturday)
Catherine Bott tries to bring some sunshine back into our lives as begins a weekend of Early Music Shows featuring highlights of some of last summer's early music festivals. Today, she introduces highlights of the Summer Festivities of Early Music in Prague. Featuring music by Telemann, Marcabru and José Mauricio performed by ensembles including Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, Forma Antiqua and the Unicorn Ensemble.
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14-Jan-2013
The Early Music Show - Accademia di Arcadia
Lucie Skeaping explores the Accademia di Arcadia, a literary academy founded in the late 17th Century which boasted musician members including Corelli, Scarlatti and Pasquini.
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13-Jan-2013
The Early Music Show - Baroque Instruments
The Baroque era saw some of the most significant developments in the history of western musical instruments, not least the appearance of the modem violin family which superceded the viols as the dominant string group. Not all the developments were as long lasting as the violin though. Catherine Bott looks back on the story and the music of the viola d'amore - or the "love viol" - an instrument much loved in the baroque for its distinctive tonal colours.
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07-Jan-2013
The Early Music Show - Hesperion XXI at the 2012 Fontfroide Festival
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights from Hesperion XXi's concert at the Fontfroide Festival in Narbonne, including dance music from the English Tudor golden age, by Anthony Holborne, John Dowland, Christopher Tye, Orlando Gibbons and William Byrd.
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06-Jan-2013
The Early Music Show - Hitting the Heights
Catherine Bott explores the early days of the tenor voice with two notable modern-day exponents, John Potter and James Gilchrist.
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30-Dec-2012
The Early Music Show - The Danish Court of Christian IV
Catherine Bott talks about some of the composers who worked at the court of the colourful Christian IV of Denmark. The music includes works by imports to the court including Dowland, Bertolusi and Schutz, but also homegrown composers such as Hans Nielsen, Mogens Pederson and Soren Terkelsen.
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24-Dec-2012
The Early Music Show - The Ministry of Angels
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights from a concert performed by The Society of Strange & Ancient Instruments, featuring everything from dulcimer and oud to nyckelharpa and Hardanger fiddle, recorded earlier this month at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
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23-Dec-2012
The Early Music Show - Trinity Carol Roll
Catherine Bott is in Cambridge for a look at the Trinity Carol Roll, one of the earliest sources of English polyphonic carols. She visits the Wren Library where the manuscript is kept and talks about the music and the significance of the collection with David Skinner who has recently recorded it all with his group Alamire. The thirteen works preserved in this manuscript include the patriotic 'Agincourt' carol, celebrating Henry V's victory over the French in 1415, and the most famous of all early English carols 'Ther is no rose'.
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16-Dec-2012
The Early Music Show - Cristobal de Morales
Lucie Skeaping explores the life and work of Cristóbal de Morales, by all accounts a difficult man to work with, but the greatest Spanish composer of his age, and the first Spanish composer of international renown.
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10-Dec-2012
The Early Music Show - Torquato Tasso
Catherine Bott explores the life and musical settings of the work of the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, who was one of the most widely read writers in 16th Century Europe. His words were set by the great composers of the day and for many centuries after his death, but he was a troubled man who suffered from mental illness and died just days before he was due to be crowned as the king of poets by the Pope. Featuring Tasso settings from Monteverdi, Gesualdo and Handel among others.
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09-Dec-2012
The Early Music Show - NeoBarock
A programme of Baroque chamber music from Austria and South Germany by Biber, Muffat and others performed by the acclaimed German group, NeoBarock. Presented by Lucie Skeaping. NeoBarock was founded in 2003 by the violinists Maren Ries and Volker Möller with the cellist Ariane Spiegel, the group found its present line-up in 2007 with the arrival of the harpsichordist Fritz Siebert. NeoBarock specialises in the music of the 16th and early 17th Century, combining informed ideas about period performance with contemporary aesthetics. As a result they undertake a lot of work with artists and writers from other disciplines. Here, though, is a chance to hear them in a more traditional setting, performing music by Muffat, Biber, Marini, Fontana and Kerll - highlights from a concert recorded in Bremen.
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03-Dec-2012
The Early Music Show - Music for Advent
On the first Sunday of Advent, Catherine Bott introduces a selection of early music for the Advent season. Including music from Bach, Charpentier and Praetorius and lesser known composers Vaclav Karel Holan Rovensky and Thomas Stoltzer.
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02-Dec-2012
The Early Music Show - BBC Singers: Hans-Leo Hassler
Lucie Skeaping introduces a programme of sacred choral music by the German composer Hans-Leo Hassler, who died 400 years ago this year. The music was specially recorded for the programme by the BBC Singers, conducted by Andrew Griffiths. Hassler was highly influenced by the two Gabrielis and by Orlando de Lassus. He wrote for both the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches, although he himself was a Protestant. As well as his music for the church, he also wrote a large quantity of secular music, including Italian madrigals in five or six voices, instrumental works and dance songs that are highly rhythmic.
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26-Nov-2012
The Early Music Show - Charles Burney's German Journey
In July 1772 Dr Charles Burney set off on his second European journey to gather information for his proposed mighty publication of A History of Music. Lucie Skeaping interviews musician and publisher Ian Gammie about Burney's musical perambulations through Germany and The Netherlands, and chooses music by some of the composers he met along the way, including Gluck, Hasse and Quantz.
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18-Nov-2012
The Early Music Show - Performer Profile: Benjamin Bagby
Catherine Bott talks to the vocalist, harpist and scholar, Benjamin Bagby, about his career that has spanned more than 30 years. He founded the ensemble Sequentia with the late Barbara Thornton in 1977, a versatile group specialising in the performance and recording of Western European music from the period before 1300. They discuss his many projects with the ensemble and play music from his recordings including Hildegard of Bingen, Philippe le Chancelier and the 'Lost Songs' project - a collection of anonymous Latin and German songs copied into a manuscript a thousand years ago.
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12-Nov-2012
The Early Music Show - 2012 Greenwich Early Music Festival and Exhibition
Lucie Skeaping live from the 2012 Greenwich Early Music Festival and Exhibition with music from His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts, and recorder-player Eva Fegers and her ensemble.
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12-Nov-2012
The Early Music Show - The Muiderkring
The Muiderkring or Muider Circle was a group of contributors to the arts and sciences in the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, when Dutch trade, science and art was among the most important in the world. Chief among this group was the historian, poet and playwright Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, who was appointed as Sheriff and Bailiff for the Gooiland, the area around Hilversum, in 1609, and was given a medieval moated castle to live in, the Muiderslot. Over the next four decades, he spent his summers there, entertaining house parties of distinguished friends from the worlds of art, music and philosophy. They discussed current affairs, read their poetry to each other, debated philosophical and moral issues and of course, made music. Hooft seems to have had impeccable taste and his guestlist reads like a who's who of the Dutch cultural elite: with the poets Caspar Barlaeus and Hooft's great friend Joost van den Vondel, the wealthy merchant and poet Pieter Roemers Visscher and Constantijn Huygens among the castlist. In today's Early Music Show, Catherine Bott investigates this mysterious cultural group.
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05-Nov-2012
The Early Music Show - Passions on the Death of Prince Henry
400 years ago Prince Henry, the elder son of James I of England, died at the age of 18 after contracting typhoid he developed after an ill-advised dip in the River Thames. There was a national outpouring of grief and many composers wrote musical tributes, including several settings of the text 'When David Heard'. Catherine Bott introduces some of this music, performed by the vocal ensemble Gallicantus and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny, under director Gabriel Crouch, recorded earlier this year at the York Early Music Festival.
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04-Nov-2012
The Early Music Show - Florilegium and the Baroque Dance Suite
Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of the Baroque group Florilegium with their director Ashley Solomon and takes a look at the character and nature of the baroque dance suite. Florilegium have a reputation as one of this country's most outstanding early music groups. Founded in 1991 by the recorder player and flautist Ashley Solomon, the group specialises in baroque music and they have appeared in some of the most prestigious concert halls around the world. Lucie joins Ashley Solomon for a look at the group's work and ethos, and together they explore a major form of the baroque era, the dance suite, in preparation for the launch of the 2013 NCEM/Radio 3 Young Composers' Award. *** Lucie Skeaping appears on BBC Radio 2's Jools Holland show this coming Monday, 5th November at 23:00.
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29-Oct-2012
The Early Music Show - The Devil's Trill
'One night I dreamed I had made a pact with the devil; he was my servant and anticipated my every wish. I had the idea of giving him my violin to see if he might play me some pretty tunes...'. Lucie Skeaping explores the life and works of Giuseppe Tartini, one of the great violin virtuosos of the 18th century and composer of one of its most celebrated and demonic instrumental works, yet also of some of its sweetest melodies.
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28-Oct-2012
The Early Music Show - Highlights from the 2011 Boston Early Music Festival
Catherine Bott presents highlights from six concerts recorded at the 2011 Boston Early Music Festival - arguably the most important and influential early music event in the world. The programme includes performances by lutenist Paul O'Dette, harpsichordists Kristian Bezuidenhout and Luca Guglielmi, and ensembles such as Quicksilver, Solamenti Naturale and Les Voix Baroques, in music by Aquila, Bach, Buxtehude, Castello and Louis Couperin alongside some lively traditional music from Hungary.
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22-Oct-2012
The Early Music Show - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was undoubtedly the most powerful man in 16th Century Europe. He was also a notable patron of the arts, employing such musical luminaries as Pierre de la Rue, Thomas Crecquillon and Nicholas Gombert. In this programme, Catherine Bott traces his life through the music which he would have heard and with which he surrounded himself.
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21-Oct-2012
The Early Music Show - Domenico Zipoli
Domenico Zipoli was thought to have disappeared from European musical life just as he made his mark with the publication of his first work, the Sonate d'intavolatura per organo e cimbalo. Did his early promise fade and leave him resigned to a life of obscurity? Well, no. Scholars had known for a while that there was another Domenico Zipoli, active just after this time in Paraguay, but it wasn't until the 1950s that it was realised that the two composers were in fact one and the same. Zipoli had joined the Jesuit reductiones and gone to South America - music played a pivotal role in in the missions, fulfilling the Jesuits' aim of transmitting the idea of God to the natives. The music he composed there was thought to be lost, until at the beginning of the 1960s when a mass for three-part choir (without bass), soloists, two violins, organ and continuo was located, reading: "copied in Potossi, in the year 1784", that is 58 years after the composer's death. The fact that over half a century after Zipoli's death his works were still performed in Argentina and in Higher Peru clearly reflect his importance. Then, in 1972, 5000 pages of manuscript music were accidentally discovered in East Bolivia, among them a large number of complete works by Zipoli. They were being used as toilet paper in the bathroom of the church sacristy! Catherine Bott explores the life and music of this amazing man, wrongly thought to have disappeared from musical life as quickly as he had appeared.
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15-Oct-2012
The Early Music Show - Period Piano: Episode 2
As part of the Piano Season on the BBC, Lucie Skeaping presents the second of two programmes about the development of the piano during the eighteenth century. Lucie continues her survey of the development of the period piano, ending in the early nineteenth century with instruments for which Beethoven and Haydn wrote music which were recognisable precursors of the modern concert grand piano. With contributions from Steven Devine Professor of Fortepiano at Trinity College of Music, and Robert Levin.
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14-Oct-2012
The Early Music Show - Period Piano: Episode 1
As part of the Piano Season on the BBC, Lucie Skeaping presents the first of two programmes about the development of the piano during the eighteenth century. Lucie looks at the development of the piano from its origins in Florence with Bartolomeo Cristofori. With contributions from the period instrument restorer Kerstin Schwarz, and Steven Devine, Professor of Fortepiano at Trinity College of Music.
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08-Oct-2012
The Early Music Show - "...A Piano Sensation..."
Jan Ladislav Dussek was a Bohemian composer and pianist of the late 18th Century. He was the first great touring piano virtuoso paving the way for the likes of Franz Liszt. It was Dussek who first thought of playing the piano sideways on to the audience - the better to show off his noble profile. Lucie Skeaping looks back on his life and music - much of which seems to anticipate the innovations and ideas of Beethoven and Schubert. Broadcast as part of the Piano Season on the BBC.
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07-Oct-2012
The Early Music Show - Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music: Kimberly Marshall
Catherine Bott meets American organist Kimberly Marshall and introduces highlights from a concert she gave in London earlier this year.
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01-Oct-2012
The Early Music Show - Louis XIV's Composer Competition
We may think of talent contests as a modern day phenomenon, but in 1683, King Louis XIV instituted an extraordinary competition to find four new composers suitable for his Chapelle Royal in Versailles. The successful applicants would each be given a season of the year to compose for the Chapel and the contest was advertised in a French gazette of the time. It attracted applications from the greatest French composers of the day, but ended in controversy with some sections of the press accusing Louis' court composer Lully of influencing the results. Lucie Skeaping investigates the competition and the composers involved.
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30-Sep-2012
The Early Music Show - The Duke of Chandos
Catherine Bott tracks the amazing rise and fall of the one-time patron of Handel, James Brydges, who, in ten short years, amassed great wealth and a palatial mansion with a thirty piece orchestra, only to descend from these dizzy heights just as quickly.
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24-Sep-2012
The Early Music Show - Ensemble Meridiana Performs Telemann
Lucie Skeaping presents a programme of music recorded earlier this year at the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music performed by Ensemble Meridiana. The five members of the group come from four different countries across Europe and have specialised in performing Telemann; their combination of instruments - recorder, bassoon, oboe, violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord - suiting Telemann's chamber works. In today's programme Lucie introduces chamber repertoire by Rebel, Prowo and Telemann.
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23-Sep-2012
The Early Music Show - St Hildegard
Catherine Bott chats to Fiona Maddocks about the remarkable life of the German abbess, visionary, poet and composer Hildegard of Bingen who died on 17th September 1179. Hildegard wrote that she experienced visions from an early age and as a child entered the monastery at Disibodenberg on the Rhine; Hildegard was later to found monasteries in Rupertsburg and later in Eibingen. Throughout her life, Hildegard continued to have visions and later began to record what she experienced, 'Scivias', which contains 14 lyric texts that appeared with music. Hildegard extensive musical settings of her own poetry dated back at least to the 1140's, and totals over 70 songs, antiphons, responses, sequences, and her 'Ordo virtutum', possibly the oldest surviving morality play. Catherine Bott and writer Fiona Maddocks discuss this fascinating character, whose Saint's Day falls on September 17th.
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17-Sep-2012
The Early Music Show - Purcell's Dido
Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of one of the earliest and best-known English operas - Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas", the love story of the Queen of Carthage and her Trojan hero. Set to a libretto by Nahum Tate, Dido and Aeneas was first performed in Chelsea in July 1688, and although it wasn't staged again in the composer's lifetime, it received a brief revival in 1700 and then disappeared completely as a staged work, with only sporadic concert performances until 1895 when the first staged version in modern times was performed by students of the Royal College of Music at London's Lyceum Theatre to mark the bicentenary of Purcell's death. It has since become one of the most frequently staged operas all over the world.
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16-Sep-2012
The Early Music Show - Edinburgh International Festival 2012: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
Catherine Bott presents a concert of Giovanni Gabrieli's glorious music for brass ensemble, given by His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts and Concerto Palatino as part of the 2012 Edinburgh International Festival.
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10-Sep-2012
The Early Music Show - Padre Antonio Soler
Catherine Bott presents a portrait of the intriguing Spanish monk and composer, Padre Antonio Soler. A disciple of Domenico Scarlatti, Soler entered the monastery at El Escorial, near Madrid, in 1752, where he remained for the last 31 years of his life, composing keyboard sonatas, chamber music and choral works.
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09-Sep-2012
The Early Music Show - The Music of the Musketeers
Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin are two of the central figures in Alexandre Dumas's novel, "The Three Musketeers". Together with readings from Dumas' novels, Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert given by L'Arpeggiata exploring some of the music connected with Anne and Mazarin, in particular Italian music performed at her court, from composers such as Monteverdi and Luigi Rossi.
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03-Sep-2012
The Early Music Show - Harry Bicket
Catherine Bott profiles harpsichordist & conductor Harry Bicket - regular at Glyndebourne & the New York Metropolitan Opera, and current musical director of The English Concert - about his career and his recordings. Music includes works by Handel, Bach, Pergolesi and Gluck in performances by Renée Fleming, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Susan Graham, Andreas Scholl and Elizabeth Watts.
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02-Sep-2012
The Early Music Show - Acis and Galatea
Lucie Skeaping looks in detail at one of Handel's most popular and enduring works: Acis & Galatea. With extracts from recordings by Trevor Pinnock, John Eliot Gardiner and Adrian Boult, among others.
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27-Aug-2012
The Early Music Show - A Funeral Fit for a Queen
Catherine Bott explores the musical elements of the lavish 40-day 16th Century funeral of Anne of Brittany, twice Queen of France and the richest European woman of her time. It became the model for all French royal funerals for two hundred years, and included the combined efforts of the King and Queen's royal chapels, including composers such as Jean Mouton, Claudin de Sermisy, Pierre Moulu and Antoine Divitis.
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26-Aug-2012
The Early Music Show - Baldassare Galuppi
Catherine Bott explores the life and music of the once celebrated but now forgotten 18th Century Venetian composer Baldassare Galuppi, with the help of writer, critic and self-confessed Galuppi enthusiast Jonathan Keates.
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20-Aug-2012
The Early Music Show - Handel and Zachow
In the second of a weekend of early music shows exploring some of the music of Handel's teacher FW Zachow, Catherine Bott introduces a concert given at the Halle festival by the Rheinische Kantorei and Das Kleine Konzert conducted by Hermann Max. They perform Handel's earliest autograph Dixit Dominus together with music by Zachow himself.
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19-Aug-2012
The Early Music Show - FW Zachow
Primarily remembered today as the teacher of Handel, the German musician FW Zachow was a renowned composer in his own right. In the first of a weekend of early music shows exploring some of his music, Lucie Skeaping explores his life and influence on Handel's music alongside a variety of Zachow's works.
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13-Aug-2012
The Early Music Show - Giovanni Gabrieli: Music for San Rocco
Lucie Skeaping presents a programme featuring music by one of the most engaging and important Venetian composers, Giovanni Gabrieli, who died in August 400 years ago in 1612. Gabrieli spent his life working in Venice and held the esteemed position of organist at both St. Marks and San Rocco, so some of the musicians and singers must have worked in both establishments too. It is unclear exactly what compositions Gabrieli wrote specifically for the Scuole di San Rocco, but there are some interesting clues left to us by the English traveller Thomas Coryat (featured in yesterday's Early Music Show). Lucie Skeaping introduces a selection of Giovanni Gabrieli's music including the 10-part 'Jubilate Deo' from his Symphoniae Sacrae, 'In Ecclesiis' in 14 parts, and some instrumental works including canzonas and the Sonata con tre violini.
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05-Aug-2012
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2012: Profeti della Quinta
Catherine Bott presents a programme of music from the winners of last year's York Early Music Festival Young Artist Award: Profeti della Quinta. They'll be singing music by the Italian Jewish composer Salamone Rossi "Il Mantovano Hebreo", who was served at the court of Mantua from 1587 to 1628.
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23-Jul-2012
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2012: Florilegium, Arkaendar Bolivia Choir, Ashley Solomon
Catherine Bott introduces highlights of a concert from York Early Music Festival 2012. Florilegium with the Arakaendar Bolivia Choir directed by Ashley Solomon perform 17th and 18th Century Bolivian music from the Chiquitos & Moxos Indians.
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22-Jul-2012
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival: Ensemble Villancico
Catherine Bott introduces highlights from a concert given by the acclaimed Swedish group, Ensemble Villancico who made their UK debut with a programme of music from which they have earned a global reputation. Musicians and dancers combine to celebrate a time when African rhythms and Indian folk melodies met European Renaissance and Baroque traditions to create distinctive early music from Ecuador. Broadcast as part of the Early Music Show's relays from the York Early Music Festival 2012.
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16-Jul-2012
The Early Music Show - Robert ap Huw
Catherine Bott looks at the tradition of music making pre-1700 in Wales with a feature on the 17th century Robert ap Huw manuscript - one of the most important collections of Welsh early music. With contributions from Bangor University's Sally Harper, and harpists Bill Taylor and Paul Dooley.
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15-Jul-2012
The Early Music Show - La Venexiana
Lucie Skeaping presents the first of two Early Music Shows this weekend focusing on music from Wales. Today, highlights of a concert of Monteverdi madrigals given by the acclaimed Italian vocal ensemble La Venexiana as part of this year's Gregynog Festival.
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09-Jul-2012
The Early Music Show - Live from the 2012 York Early Music Festival
Catherine Bott presents a live show from the opening weekend of the 2012 York Early Music Festival. Festival director (and director of the National Centre for Early Music) Delma Tomlin pops in to chat about the forthcoming festival highlights and there's music from L'Avventura London and their director Zak Ozmo, who perform a selection of 18th-century Portuguese and Brazilian Modinhas.
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08-Jul-2012
The Early Music Show - Notker the Stammerer and the Abbey of St Gall
Lucie Skeaping explores the Abbey of St Gall, its role in the development of medieval chant, and how one of the Abbey's most famous sons - a young monk named "Notker the Stammerer" - came to write a revolutionary kind of music there.
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02-Jul-2012
The Early Music Show - National Centre for Early Music Composers Award 2012
Highlights from a concert given by the Tallis Scholars from Durham Cathedral featuring the winning two entries of the NCEM/R3 Composers Award 2012 . Lucie Skeaping introduces sacred choral music by Gabrieli and Taverner recorded in one of the most inspiring of English cathedrals, alongside two short pieces specially composed for the Tallis Scholars. These were submitted by young composers as part of the annual National Centre of Early Music/BBC Radio 3 Composers Award. The two pieces took as their starting point the In Nomine section from the Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas by John Taverner, and the sound and style of The Tallis Scholars. Also featured in the programme is the Choir of Durham Cathedral who join forces with Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars in music by Palestrina.
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01-Jul-2012
The Early Music Show - Michael Praetorius
Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of the 16th Century German composer Michael Praetorius, most famous for his many Lutheran chorales and song arrangements, and for his compendium of more than 300 instrumental dances: "Terpsichore". Music includes recordings by David Munrow's Early Music Consort of London, Paul van Nevel's Huelgas Ensemble and Philip Pickett's New London Consort.
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25-Jun-2012
The Early Music Show - Rousseau
"Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains" - words made famous by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. But Rousseau was more than just a writer of philosophy. He was also a keen composer and musician; amongst his musical output are seven operas. He also wrote about music and at times earned his living as a music copyist. Catherine Bott explores his intriguing musical life in the week of the 300th anniversary of his birth.
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24-Jun-2012
The Early Music Show - Philadelphia's Tempesta di Mare Ensemble
Lucie Skeaping introduces a focus on the Philadelphia-based baroque ensemble Tempesta di Mare, which celebrates its first decade of music making during this 2012 season. The programme features performances from three of their recent concerts, including music by Vivaldi, Pisendel, Telemann, Dall'Abaco and Fasch. Tempesta di Mare performs baroque music on baroque instruments with what the Philadelphia City Paper describes as "zest and virtuosity that transcends style and instrumentation." Led by artistic directors Gwyn Roberts and Richard Stone with concertmaster Emlyn Ngai, Tempesta's repertoire ranges from staged opera with full orchestra to chamber music. The group performs all orchestral repertoire without a conductor, as was the practice when this music was new. Tempesta di Mare is named for baroque master Antonio Vivaldi's concerto meaning "storm at sea," a title reflecting music's power to evoke drama. Hailed by the Philadelphia Inquirer for its "off-the-grid chic factor," Tempesta's Greater Philadelphia Concert Series has enjoyed a rapid rise to prominence since its launch in 2002, with press endorsements from Philadelphia to Paris.
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18-Jun-2012
The Early Music Show - Greek Myths
From the early years of Renaissance, composers portrayed subjects from Greek mythology. These stories provided particular inspiration as the new operatic genre took hold in the early 17th century. The 18th century saw the philosophical revolution of the Enlightenment spread throughout Europe and accompanied by a certain reaction against Greek myth, there was a tendency to insist on the scientific and philosophical achievements of Ancient Greece. The myths, however, continued to provide an important source of raw material for dramatists and composers. Lucie Skeaping introduces a diverse selection of early music inspired by these Greek myths, including works by Monteverdi, Handel, Purcell, Cavalli, Rameau and Gluck.
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11-Jun-2012
The Early Music Show - Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music 2012: Episode 2
Continuing this weekend of music recorded at this year's Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, Lucie Skeaping introduces highlights of a concert of French music by Francois Couperin. The concert was given by Musica ad Rhenum under director and flautist Jed Wentz. The Canadian soprano Andreanne Paquin joins the ensemble in a cantata by Francois Colin de Blamont.
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10-Jun-2012
The Early Music Show - Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music 2012: Episode 1
The Early Music Show launches its coverage of the 2012 Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music with highlights of a concert of staged madrigals, or "miniature operas" from 17th-century Venice, as the performers, Ensemble Savadi, have conceived them. Lucie Skeaping presents.
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04-Jun-2012
The Early Music Show - Early Music in the '50s
When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in 1952 it sparked a wave of creative interest in the first Queen Elizabeth and her times. Catherine Bott looks at how this coincided with the work of the early music movement in this country. In particular she looks at the work of some of the great early music pioneers of the time such as Thurston Dart, Robert Donnington and Walter Bergmann.
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03-Jun-2012
The Early Music Show - Beverley at 25
Catherine Bott presents highlights from a concert performed at Beverley Minster as part of this year's 25th Beverley Early Music Festival. Grand Desir perform a selection of their own arrangements of medieval songs and dances including repertoire by Dufay and Binchois.
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28-May-2012
The Early Music Show - The Art of the Violin in Rome and Venice
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert from the early music ensemble L'Estravagante exploring the Art of the Violin in Rome and Venice at the turn of the 18th Century. Featuring music from Corelli and Vivaldi's collections of Violin Sonatas.
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27-May-2012
The Early Music Show - Alfred Deller Centenary
Catherine Bott presents a programme to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the pioneering countertenor, Alfred Deller, who was born May 31st 1912. Catherine is joined in the studio by 3 countertenors, James Bowman, Robin Blaze and Alfred's son Mark, to discuss some of the many facets of Alfred's art. They play a selection of Alfred's many recordings dating from the 1950s, including some from the early days of Alfred's Deller Consort, one of his most important contributions to the early music movement. Catherine and Mark also chat about Stour Music, the Festival which Alfred founded and which celebrates its 50th anniversary this June. Music in the programme includes lute songs by Dowland and Campion, a scene from Handel's opera Orlando, and the 50 year old recording of father and son, Alfred and Mark, singing Purcell's Sound the Trumpet.
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21-May-2012
The Early Music Show - Handel's Italian Cantatas
Handel first went to Italy in 1706 and during those first few years there he was given great support and encouragement to develop his innate talent as a composer of dramatic works. Handel wrote over eighty vocal cantatas during this time, and they are full of glorious music. In today's programme, Catherine Bott features music from 3 of these cantatas, including a complete performance of 'Delirio amoroso' HWV 99 -possibly the first cantata Handel wrote in Rome - in a recording with soprano Roberta Invernizzi and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment directed by Matthew Truscott.
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20-May-2012
The Early Music Show - The Stylus Fantasticus
Lucie Skeaping presents a focus on the "stylus fantasticus" genre of programmatic music which flourished in Bohemia during the 17th Century. It was the style favoured by the Bishop of Olomouc-Kromeriz, in what's now the Czech Republic. An enormously sociable fellow - and also a Prince - he spent his summers entertaining friends and relations in the fabulous Kromeriz Castle where he laid on for them lavish feasts, plays, ballets and concerts. The root of the music was the ground-breaking toccatas by the Venetian organist & composer Claudio Merulo, and through him, other keyboard composers such as Girolamo Frescobaldi and Johann Jakob Froberger who took the style further. The stylus fantasticus or "fantasy style" developed under the Prince Bishop's patronage and was perfect for the light-hearted summer entertainments at the Kromeriz Castle parties. The most famous practitioner of the "stylus fantsaticus" was Heinrich Biber, whose colourful "Battalia" invokes a military encampment by means of trumpet and drum motifs - full of imagination and wit. We hear eight drunken musketeers singing their native songs, officers engaging in elegant fencing, horses and cavalry, a battle complete with trumpet flourishes and shots, and finally the lament of the wounded musketeers.
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14-May-2012
The Early Music Show - The Wild, the Lame and the Indifferent
A journey through the multi-faceted solo keyboard music that the 18th Century Jean-Philippe Rameau composed in his long career, introduced by Lucie Skeaping. Rameau's first compositions were for the harpsichord and throughout his life he produced a rich and varied collection of short works for the instrument, many of which represent some of the greatest solo keyboard music of the French Baroque. Some of the pieces are dances; others are explorations of compositional and keyboard techniques; while others again are "character pieces" with colourful titles such as "The Wild", "The Lame" and "The Indifferent". Lucie Skeaping looks back over the music, explaining a little about the ideas and background to the pieces, and introduces a range of recordings from Sophie Yates, Christophe Rousset, Celine Frisch and Alexandre Tharaud amongst others.
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13-May-2012
The Early Music Show - Sweelinck's Vocal Music
In the month of 450th anniversary of the composer's birth, Catherine Bott explores the extensive vocal compositions of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, known as the "Orpheus of Amsterdam". Although perhaps best known for his keyboard works, Sweelinck wrote over 250 vocal works and, surprisingly for a composer so associated with his homeland, none of these settings are in his native tongue. Instead, the language which predominates in his vocal output is French.
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06-May-2012
The Early Music Show - Gainsborough's Georgian England
Thomas Gainsborough had a deep love of music and many of his portraits include musical themes. He was himself a keen amateur player of the gamba and he had many musicians as friends, and feautured them as subjects for his portraits. Catherine Bott meets art historian and author of several books on the artist, Michael Rosenthal of Warwick University, for an exploration of what the Gainsborough portraits tell us about the role of music in the late 18th Century. The programme includes comment about Gainsborough's portraits of Karl Friedrich Abel; Johann Christian Bach; and the Linley family, as well as paintings of some notable amateurs from the English gentry such as William Wollaston and the redoubtable Anne Ford.
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30-Apr-2012
The Early Music Show - Music for Prague
Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of music in Prague: a political, cultural and economic focus of central Europe for more than 1100 years, and home to composers such as Brixi, Regnart, Myslivecek and Brentner; as well as many famous musical visitors like Machaut, Mozart and Gluck.
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29-Apr-2012
The Early Music Show - Highlights from the 2012 Resonanzen Festival in Vienna
Highlights from the 2012 Resonanzen Festival in Vienna introduced by Catherine Bott, including music heard in Vienna over several centuries, composed by Nicola Mattheis, Heinrich von Biber, Antonio Maria Bononcini and Neidhart von Reuental. The Resonanzen Festival was established in Vienna twenty years ago and quickly established itself as one of Europe's most important early music events. Catherine Bott looks at the history of the festival, the ideas behind it, and introduces some of this year's highlights, including performances from the medieval group Unicorn; Concerto Italiano and Rinaldo Alessandrini; and Turchini di Antonio Florio.
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23-Apr-2012
The Early Music Show - JS Bach: Who Do You Think You Are?
Lucie Skeaping presents a programme exploring JS Bach's musical ancestors. Music by some of JS Bach's sons is often heard these days, but today, Lucie traces the Bach family tree back to his great-great grandfather, Veit Bach, who was a baker in Wechmar and whose son Johann in turn produced 3 musical sons. The programme includes motets and instrumental music by some of the composers in this great musical dynasty.
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22-Apr-2012
The Early Music Show - Piffaro
Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of the Renaissance wind ensemble Piffaro, based in Philadelphia. This wonderfully colourful, virtuosic ensemble have been together for over 25 years. During the programme Lucie talks to the two artistic directors, Joan Kimball and Robert Wiemken about their work. The music in the programme is from the ensemble's many recordings, using a wide variety of instruments and repertoire, and includes arrangements of French chansons and Flemish dances, and music inspired by the ensemble's recent trip to Bolivia.
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16-Apr-2012
The Early Music Show - Martin Peerson and John Milton
Catherine Bott meets Richard Rastall who has been revisiting music by two little known 17th Century English composers: John Milton, the father of the famous poet, and Martin Peerson. The programme includes recordings of some of the music by Ex Cathedra, Sophie Yates and Fretwork with countertenor Michael Chance.
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15-Apr-2012
The Early Music Show - The Faithul Shepherd
Giovanni Battista Guarini's Il Pastor Fido was one of the most famous plays of the 17th Century and 300 years ago London saw the premiere of Handel's Opera based on Guarini's text. However, Handel was far from the first to use this play as inspiration for his music. Il Pastor Fido had already sparked the imaginations of numerous composers. Catherine Bott explores the play and some of it's musical offsprings, including music by Monterverdi, Schütz and and Sigismondo d'India. Handel's "Il Pastor Fido" is one of the featured works at this year's London Handel Festival which runs from 15th March to 24th April.
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09-Apr-2012
The Early Music Show - An Early Easter
Lucie Skeaping introduces a selection of early music for Easter, mixing popular compositions for Passiontide with some lesser-known works.
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08-Apr-2012
The Early Music Show - Lassus at Easter
A selection of music for Easter by one of the most revered composers of the sixteenth century, Orlando de Lassus. The music of Lassus is not as well known today perhaps, as that of his Italian contemporary Palestrina, but in the sixteenth century, Lassus was thought the greater master. Catherine Bott looks back on the life and music of this remarkable Belgian with particular reference to some of his highly charged and affecting music for Easter.
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19-Mar-2012
The Early Music Show - Lully Lullay
Lucie Skeaping explores the tender art of the lullaby, from ancient melody to Elizabethan song, and discovers how this most intimate of forms offers inspiration to the world of early music. The act of rocking a child to sleep with a gentle tune is one of our most simple and natural forms of music-making. They are common to all cultures and ages, and though they are varied, they all share remarkable similarities. Their words are soothing, using onomatopoeic and nonsense sounds, like the 'ninna nanna' of Italy and the English 'lulla lulla'. Often these lullabies are passed down from generation to generation and are known throughout regions and countries. But they are also transformed by this oral transmission. Many look outward to nocturnal themes, or to daily chores and the baby itself. Religious themes are also widespread. By its very nature, the lullaby has a certain gentle spirituality and its serenity is particularly suited to the Nativity. It reminds us of Mary's pure devotion to the baby Jesus, her gentle care and the universality of this particular kind of miracle. Many Christmas carols incorporate gentle rocking rhythms, simple structures, repetitive motifs or common phrases, like the 'Lully Lullay' of the well-known Coventry Carol. Many were also well-known secular tunes that were given devotional subjects in an attempt to lead audiences away from profane subjects. Others depict holy figures in easily-recognised scenes from daily life - Joseph rocking the cradle or Mary washing nappies. As well as featuring traditional music, and anonymous composers from around the world, the programme features pieces by English composers Anthony Holborne, William Byrd and John Bennet.
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18-Mar-2012
The Early Music Show - Highlights from the 2011 Kilkenny Arts Festival
Catherine Bott marks St Patrick's Day with highlights from two concerts given at the 2011 Kilkenny Arts Festival. The programme includes music by Bach, Telemann, Ravenscroft & Byrd alongside traditional Irish tunes. The performers are Camerata Kilkenny and soprano Niamh McCormack with recorder player Laoise O'Brien, guitarist John Feeley, gamba-player Sarah Groser, fiddle player Odhran O Casaide and Francesco Turrisi on percussion.
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12-Mar-2012
The Early Music Show - Bach in Leipzig
After his time working for Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cöthen, Johann Sebastian Bach took a substantial drop in salary and public standing to work as Cantor in Leipzig. The role primarily involved teaching at St Thomas School, but also meant that Bach was responsible for the music in the German town's four churches. Lucie Skeaping takes a closer look at Bach's time in the German town, where Bach remained from 1723 until his death in 1750.
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11-Mar-2012
The Early Music Show - Performer Profile: Montserrat Figueras
Catherine Bott talks to harpist Andrew-Lawrence King about Catalan soprano and early music specialist Montserrat Figueras, who passed away late last year. Featuring some of the best of her many recordings.
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27-Feb-2012
The Early Music Show - Polish Weekend: Episode 2
The "Polish Baroque" - Lucie Skeaping, aided by Polish music expert Adrian Thomas, explore a rich vein of 17th and early 18th Century vocal and instrumental music from Poland, as performed by the group Retrospect directed by Matthew Halls. In the second of two programmes exploring early music from Poland, Lucie reflects on highlights from a concert given by Retrospect recorded at last year's Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, which featured music by Mikołaj Zieleński, Adam Jarzębski, Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki, Stanisław Sylwester Szarzyński and Damian Stachowicz. Performers in the Retrospect Ensemble: Sopranos: Julie Cooper, Ildiko Allen; Counter-tenor: David Martin; Tenor: Richard Rowntree; Basses: Charles Pott, Richard Savage; Violins: Dan Edgar, Nia Lewis; Cello: Sarah McMahon; Double Bass: Kate Aldridge; Trumpets: Neil Brough, John Hutchins.
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26-Feb-2012
The Early Music Show - Polish Weekend: Episode 1
Lucie Skeaping presents the first of two programmes this weekend, looking at the "Golden Age" of Polish music. The programme includes sacred works and lute miniatures by composers including Bartłomej Pękiel, Franciszek Lilius, Mikołaj Zieleński & Wojciech Długoraj as well as music by some of the Italian masters brought to Poland in the 17th Century by King Sigismund Augustus II. In tomorrow's programme, there are highlights from a concert given at the 2011 Lufthansa Festival by Retrospect and Matthew Halls, with contributions from Polish expert Adrian Thomas.
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20-Feb-2012
The Early Music Show - Francisco Guerrero
Catherine Bott explores the life and music of the Spanish prodigy Francisco Guerrero, who worked in Spain and Portugal, and had a series of eventful trips abroad, including a journey to the Holy Land. He became one of the most renowned composers of the Spanish "Golden Age of Polyphony" alongside Victoria and Morales and his music remained popular for hundreds of years.
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19-Feb-2012
The Early Music Show - Joao Rebelo: Friend of the King
Lucie Skeaping explores the life of Joao Lourenço Rebelo, childhood friend of King Joao IV of Portugal with accompanying music from a concert given by the Huelgas Ensemble who perform Rebelo's Vespers and Lamentations.
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13-Feb-2012
The Early Music Show - The Roman de Fauvel
Le Roman de Fauvel is a 14th Century text satirising the tendency of the State and Church towards misrepresentation and fraudulent behaviour. It reads like a great drama divided into two parts. In the first part Fauvel, who is a horse, determines to leave his stable and with the aid of Dame Fortune, take over his master's house. In the second part he is encouraged by Dame Fortune to marry a character called Vain Glory. The Roman de Fauvel was a huge hit in its day and prompted one copy - now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France - which attracted a wealth of music, written out alongside the lavishly illumined text. One of the composers is known to have been the great French musician Philippe de Vitry. The importance of Le Roman de Fauvel is profound. The culmination of European Gothic Art. It is one of the best examples from the medieval world of a spoken drama with music, and is often referred to as the starting point of Philippe de Vitry's Ars Nova. Catherine Bott looks back on the story and history of the book with the medieval expert Emma Dillon, who has written a book about Fauvel - and features a recording of its music by the Boston Camerata directed by Joel Cohen. Translations from the text are read by Scott Handy and Caroline Martin.
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06-Feb-2012
The Early Music Show - Freiburg Baroque Orchestra - Bach, Zelenka
Lucie Skeaping introduces highlights of a concert given by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra directed by Petra Müllejans, given at the Konzerthaus in Freiburg. The bass Johannes Weisser joins them in music by JS Bach and a setting of the Lamentations by Jan Dismas Zelenka. The programme also includes Bach's Double Concerto for oboe and violin in D minor BWV 1060, played by Ann-Kathrin Brüggermann and the orchestra's director, the violinist Petra Müllejans.
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05-Feb-2012
The Early Music Show - Cathedral Life
Catherine Bott visits Lincoln to explore what it would have been like to be in a cathedral choir in the days of the "Father of English Music" William Byrd. Was the life of a 16th-century chorister so different to that of a 21st-century one?
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30-Jan-2012
The Early Music Show - Merula and Uccellini
Lucie Skeaping introduces music by two less well-known composers of the 17th century: Tarquinio Merula and Marco Uccellini. Both Italian and violinists, they were also at the forefront of compositional developments, and new violin techniques. Music in the programme includes some of their canzonas and sonatas performed by the ensemble La Ciaconna from a concert they gave in 2011 in Geneva, and also repertoire from recordings by Ensemble Fitzwilliam, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and Romanesca.
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29-Jan-2012
The Early Music Show - Kitty Clive
Lucie Skeaping talks to musicologist Berta Joncus about the one of the 18th Century's colourful characters, the soprano Kitty Clive. Clive was born in London in the early 18th century, and rose to become London's top singer and comic actress, and a celebrity in her day. Berta Joncus is currently writing a book about Kitty Clive, and how she fascinated audiences for decades. The programme includes music she made famous, including Arne's 'Rule Britannia', and also music written for her by Handel.
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23-Jan-2012
The Early Music Show - At the Court of Frederick the Great
A keen flautist himself, Frederich II of Prussia also patronised and employed some of the finest composers of the age. In the week of the 300th anniversary of his birth, Lucie Skeaping explores the musicians of Frederick the Great's court, including music by Agricola, Quantz, CPE Bach, Fasch, Graun and Frederick himself.
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16-Jan-2012
The Early Music Show - Fretwork and winners of the National Centre for Early Music Composers Award
Lucie Skeaping introduces highlights from a concert given by Fretwork at Kings Place in London last month, featuring actor Sir Tom Courtenay and the winners of the Radio 3/NCEM Young Composers' Award. Composers under the age of 25 were invited to write a short piece especially for Fretwork and the winning three entries were given their first official performance in this concert. The other music in the programme reflects the theme of the Winter Solstice through appropriate music and poetry. Also in this edition of the Early Music Show, Lucie Skeaping announces the details for the 2012 Radio 3/NCEM Young Composers' Award.
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15-Jan-2012
The Early Music Show - Mozart's Pilgrimage
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights from a concert given by The Cardinall's Musick at the 2011 Bath Mozartfest. Mozart spent many years travelling across Europe absorbing the music he heard and learning from the musicians he met. This concert features choral music by some of the composers Mozart admired or may have met on his travels, including pieces by William Boyce, Antonio Lotti, Gregorio Allegri, Giovanni Palestrina, J.S. Bach and Mozart himself.
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08-Jan-2012
The Early Music Show - The Students of William Byrd: 'Father of British Musick'
Upon his death, the great English composer William Byrd was acclaimed as the "father of Musick". But what was his musical legacy? Catherine Bott explores the lives and music of some of the great composer's students, featuring music from Thomas Tomkins, Peter Philips, Thomas Morley and John Bull.
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02-Jan-2012
The Early Music Show - Akademie fur Alte Musik, Berlin
Catherine Bott presents a profile of the chamber orchestra, the Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, who celebrate their 30th anniversary this year. The programme includes repertoire by Telemann and JS Bach, recorded at last years Stockholm Early Music Festival, as well as music by Porpora from a recording featuring mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux and guest director Rene Jacobs.
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01-Jan-2012
The Early Music Show - Red Priest - Nightmare in Venice
Lucie Skeaping presents a concert given by Red Priest at the 2011 Bath International Festival. The theme of the event was "Nightmare in Venice" and featured all sorts of music associated with "the dark side". Quite a lot of baroque composers were fascinated by themes of the 'night' - ghosts, demons, witches and fairies, the strange, the ethereal and the fantastical. This concert was designed to give the audience at Bath's Guildhall a glimpse into some of the more feverish corners of the minds of the baroque masters, and includes music by Vivaldi, Leclair, Purcell, Gluck, Tartini and van Eyck.
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26-Dec-2011
The Early Music Show - A Christmas Anthology
Catherine Bott presents an anthology of early music telling the Christmas story through a selection of chants, motets and carols written for the Annunciation, Advent, and the Nativity. Music includes repertoire by Palestrina, Anerio and anonymous motets from 14th Century manuscripts.
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25-Dec-2011
The Early Music Show - Charpentier and Christmas
Lucie Skeaping's thoughts turn to Marc Antoine Charpentier who wrote some of the most engaging Christmas music of the French Baroque including the celebrated Messe de Minuit - a midnight mass for Christmas Eve based on popular French carols. A remarkably gifted composer from the reign of Louis XIV, Charpentier spent much of his life pushed into the shadows by the all-powerful and controlling Jean-Baptiste Lully. Much of his life was spent in the service of Mlle de Guise and for the Jesuit College in Paris for whom he wrote many of his wonderful Christmas pieces inspired by popular French carols.
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18-Dec-2011
The Early Music Show - The Worshipful Company of Musicians
Lucie Skeaping explores the history of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, founded in 1500. Lucie talks to two Past Masters, Paul Campion and Richard Crewdson. Richard has written a book, "Apollo's Swan and Lyre", which charts the history of the Musicians' Company. The programme looks back to the roots of the organisation, which provided protection for professional musicians in the City of London, and the Act of Incorporation of the Company in the 17th Century. The programme explores the world of London's medieval minstrels, and the guild's relationship between the Royal Household and the City Waits.
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12-Dec-2011
The Early Music Show - Composer Portrait: Nicola Porpora
Lucie Skeaping looks at the life and works of the composer and teacher Nicola Porpora, whose early career was overshadowed by the successes of Alessandro Scarlatti in his native Naples.
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05-Dec-2011
The Early Music Show - Princess Maria Barbara
A profile of Maria Bárbara, the Portuguese Infanta and Spanish Queen, and the muse of Domenico Scarlatti, on the 300th anniversary of her birth. Catherine Bott looks back on the life of one Europe's most musically talented royal figures, the inspirational Maria Madalena Bárbara Xavier Leonor Teresa Antónia Josefa (4 December 1711 - 27 August 1758), whose gifts as a keyboard player and great love for music inspired Domenico Scarlatti to devote the best part of his life serving her and prompted him to compose at least 550 sonatas for her to play. Maria Bárbara's name often appears alongside Scarlatti's when talking about his music, but little is usually said about her, her court and her times. Catherine Bott takes the three hundredth anniversary of her birth to review the Scarlatti story from a different perspective.
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04-Dec-2011
The Early Music Show - Regensburg Early Music Days Festival 2011
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights from the 2011 Regensburg Early Music Days festival in Germany, featuring performances by Concerto Köln, Ensemble Perlaro, Stile Antico, Ensemble Caprice, The Harmony of Nations Baroque Orchestra and The Brabant Ensemble. The programme includes music by Morales, J.S. Bach, Telemann, Jean-Fery Rebel, Philip van Wilder and Paolo da Firenze.
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28-Nov-2011
The Early Music Show - James Oswald - Scottish Composer
Lucie Skeaping presents a programme about the 18thC Scottish composer James Oswald, who rose from humble beginnings in Fife to be the official chamber music composer to George III. The programme includes recordings by Concerto Caledonia, soprano Catherine Bott, tenor Iain Paton, the Broadside Band and guitarist Rob MacKillop.
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27-Nov-2011
The Early Music Show - The English Concert
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert given at the year's York Early Music Festival by the English Concert directed by Harry Bicket. Their programme reflects some of Handel's early works as he arrived in London, and includes a cantata and operatic arias sung by soprano Lucy Crowe.
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21-Nov-2011
The Early Music Show - A Hidden Faith
Catherine Bott explores the remarkable publication of the three settings of the Mass written by the English composer William Byrd, written at a time when the Catholic faith was outlawed in this country. This was music written to be sung in secret, when anyone who was not seen to take part in Anglican worship could be charged with popish recusancy and punished by fines, property confiscation, and imprisonment.
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20-Nov-2011
The Early Music Show - The Jew without the Yellow Badge: Salamone Rossi and the Song of Solomon
Lucie Skeaping explores the life and extraordinary music of Salamone Rossi, a 17th Century Jewish composer based in Mantua. He wrote a collection of psalms and motets in Hebrew, for the Synagogue, drawing on the Italian polyphonic style of composition employed by the Christian Church. In a period of intense anti-Semitism, when the Jewish community in Italy were required by law to wear on their clothing a yellow 'badge of shame', Rossi's musical skills were highly regarded by the Mantuan court. His collection was not only the first of its kind; it would also remain unique for more than two hundred years.
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13-Nov-2011
The Early Music Show - Greenwich International Early Music Festival 2011
Catherine Bott is live from the 10th Greenwich International Early Music Festival and Exhibition with news, chat and music from L'Arpeggiata, Pantagruel and Red Priest. The Greenwich Festival boasts one of the most important exhibitions of early music instruments and instrument making in the world. It also plays host to a lively festival of music making in the beautiful setting of the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. Catherine introduces live performances from some of this year's top international acts and reflects on some of the ideas and aims of the festival in this, its tenth-anniversary year.
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07-Nov-2011
The Early Music Show - The Early Symphony
As part of Radio 3's month long celebration of Symphony, the Early Music Show traces the early history. Catherine Bott reflects on the trail-blazing work of the pioneering symphonists of the 18th century such as Sammartini, the Stamitz family, Holzbauer, JC Bach, Monn and Wagenseil. The 18th century saw a creative explosion in the development of instrumental music and in particular, one of the great innovations of the century was the orchestral symphony. Many of its origins can be traced to Italy but it quickly became a pan European phenomenon with every major cultural centre boasting its own symphonist or "school" of symphony composers, each of which was bursting with its own creative reponses to this new and exciting kind of music. As part of the BBC "Symphony" season, Catherine Bott reflects on some of the major pioneering figures in the development of the symphony, casting her net across many of Europe's major cities - from Milan to Mannheim, Hamburg and Dresden, Paris, Berlin, London and Vienna. The programme considers some of the novel innovations that were introduced into the symphony as the century progressed and by dwelling on some of the music of lesser known composers it provides a context for the musical world that we've come to associate with Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Many of the symphonists featured in this programme can also be heard in complete performances across the following week on Radio 3's Afternoon on 3.
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06-Nov-2011
The Early Music Show - The Symphonie
The Early Music discovers the origins of Symphony, as part of Radio 3's month long celebration. We all know what is now called a Symphony, but the term has had many varied uses. Lucie Skeaping tracks down the origins of the Symphonie and encounters medieval hurdy-gurdys, spinets and virginals, a tale that the dulcimer is as old as the Bible and a royal wedding, not to mention a whole host of overtures, interludes, sonatas, canzonas and concertos.
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31-Oct-2011
The Early Music Show - Telemann and the Gypsies
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights from a concert of music by Telemann given by Ensemble Caprice at the 2011 Lufthansa Festival inspired by the gypsy music he encountered in Poland. In the early 1700s Georg Philipp Telemann, one of the foremost and most talented composers of his day, was appointed Kapellmeister to Reichsgraf Erdmann II at his castle in Western Poland. In 1706 the Great Western War caused the entire court to flee and as a consequence Telemann found himself in Krakow and Pless where he encountered the local Moravian folk music alongside some of the distinctive music of the gypsies. This music made a huge impact on Telemann and inspired him to incorporate elements of it into his own compositions. In this concert, recorded at the 2011 Lufthansa Festival, Ensemble Caprice under their director, the recorder player Matthias Maute and with the singer Belinda Sykes, recreate the sounds of the Polish gypsy music alongside some of Telemann's compositions from the period.
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30-Oct-2011
The Early Music Show - Andrew Parrott on Reconstructions
Catherine Bott talks to scholar, musicologist and conductor Andrew Parrott about the complex process of reconstructions, including his most recent project: the reconstruction of JS Bach's Trauer-Music (Funeral Music). This work was composed in 1728 when Bach's patron, Prince Leopold of Cöthen, suddenly died at the age of 33, but the score has almost completely disappeared. Andrew talks to Catherine about how he reconstructed this work through various clues in other of Bach's works, and plays music from his new recording with his Taverner Consort and Players.
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22-Oct-2011
The Early Music Show - Brighton Early Music Festival 2011
Catherine Bott presents a live programme from the Sallis Benney Theatre at the University of Brighton, as part of the 2011 Brighton Early Music Festival. There will be music from disc as well as live performances from two young ensembles: Les Mélomanes and the Musicians of London Wall.
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17-Oct-2011
The Early Music Show - Venice Baroque Orchestra
Catherine Bott introduces highlights of a concert recorded at the Grand Hall of the Konzerthaus in Vienna, given by the Venice Baroque Orchestra under the ensemble's founder and conductor Andrea Marcon. They are joined by the French coloratura soprano Patricia Petibon in repertoire by Handel, Scarlatti and Tarquinio Merula.
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16-Oct-2011
The Early Music Show - Isabella d'Este - The First Lady of the World
Lucie Skeaping explores the life and musical passions of one of the most important and influential women of the Italian Renaissance, Isabella d'Este. Featuring music from, amongst others, Ockeghem, Josquin, Cara and Tromboncino.
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10-Oct-2011
The Early Music Show - Dom Dinis: King of Portugal
Catherine Bott explores the musical legacy of King Dinis I of Portugal. He was a remarkable man, born in the year 1261, and ruled Portugal for 46 years during which time he consolidated both his country's economy and its frontiers, limiting the powers of the aristocracy and resolving conflicts in the church. He was known for his wisdom, prudence and passion for justice, and not only was his court a refuge for poets and minstrels from all over the Iberian peninsula and beyond, he also joined them with his own poetry and music.
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09-Oct-2011
The Early Music Show - The Wode Collection
Catherine Bott takes a look at the Wode Psalter, a hugely significant collection of part books that give a fascinating insight into Scottish music-making in the 16th Century. The collection was initially the work of Thomas Wode, a monk and cleric from St Andrews, who was commissioned to produce a series of harmonisations of psalm tunes for a protestant Scottish Psalter. Wode was more ambitious however, and he took it upon himself to gather as much of the music he then heard being played in Scotland, in the fear that otherwise music from the nation might be lost to us for ever. The highly decorative series of part books, which make up the Wode Collection, has been scattered across the world for centuries, but the books have recently been brought back together for a special exhibition at Edinburgh University. Catherine Bott visits the exhibition and is shown around by curator Dr Noel O'Regan. Music for the programme is taken from a recent recording of items from the Wode Collection by the Dunedin Consort.
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03-Oct-2011
The Early Music Show - Tinkler, Sailor, Composer, Spy? The Peter Philips Story
In 1593 one of the great Tudor composers of keyboard music and vocal polyphony, Peter Philips found himself imprisoned in the Hague under allegations of being involved in a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth. In the composer's 450th anniversary year, Lucie Skeaping explores his life and work, and speculates on the allegations against him.
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02-Oct-2011
The Early Music Show - Arte dei Suonatore
Catherine Bott introduces highlights of a concert recorded at the 2011 Spitalfields Festival, given by the Polish ensemble Arte dei Suonatori. The group was joined by recorder virtuoso Dan Laurin in a programme of music by Vivaldi and Telemann, and included a performance of Laurin's arrangement of Vivaldi's Concerto "Summer", from the Four Seasons, for recorder and strings.
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26-Sep-2011
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival Young Artists Competition 2011 - The Next Generation
Catherine Bott is joined by harpsichordist Laurence Cummings, Director of the National Centre for Early Music Delma Tomlin and conductor Matthew Halls for a round-table discussion about the future of early music performance in the UK. The programme will also feature recordings from this year's York Early Music Festival Young Artists Competition.
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25-Sep-2011
The Early Music Show - Shakespeare's Musical Collaborator: A Profile of Robert Johnson
Lucie Skeaping examines the career and music of Shakespeare's regular musical collaborator, Robert Johnson, who famously created the music for The Tempest in 1611, as well as many other plays by the leading playwrights of his day. As well as music by Johnson the programme features an extract from Jericho House Theatre Company's new anniversary production of the Tempest, and comment from its director, Jonathan Holmes, who is also a Shakespeare scholar and who believes that Robert Johnson's influence on Shakespeare might have been greater than he's often given credit for.
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19-Sep-2011
The Early Music Show - King George III - Mad about Music: Episode 2
King George III is now often remembered only as "the mad King", but he and his Queen Consort were passionate supporters of the arts and both loved music. In the second of two programmes, Catherine Bott continues her virtual tour of London, tracing the legacy of George's artistic patronage through his reign. Featuring music from Handel, Purcell and Steffani.
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18-Sep-2011
The Early Music Show - King George III - Mad about Music: Episode 1
King George III is widely remembered as the British monarch who suffered a temporary, debilitating period of "madness" as depicted in the play and film by Alan Bennett, "The Madness of King George", but he was also a highly cultured man; he and his Queen Consort were passionate supporters of the arts and both loved music. In the first of two programmes, Catherine Bott begins a virtual tour of London to trace the legacy of George's artistic patronage through his reign. Featuring music from Handel, JC Bach and Mozart.
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12-Sep-2011
The Early Music Show - Composer Profile: William Boyce
On the 300th anniversary of the birth of William Boyce, Lucie Skeaping and Jeremy Barlow explore some of the places in London where he lived and worked. Their journey takes them from a church in central London where he had his first job, to the public gardens in south London where his music was enjoyed by many.
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11-Sep-2011
The Early Music Show - Lecons de Tenebres
Lucie Skeaping presents a concert given by Les Talens Lyriques at the 14th century Parish Church of St. Peter & St. Paul in Aldeburgh, as part of the 2011 Aldeburgh Festival. The programme features sopranos Céline Scheen and Eugénie Warnier with Isabelle Saint-Yves on the viola da gamba and Christophe Rousset on the organ and harpsichord, performing some of the moving "Leçons de Ténèbres" by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and François Couperin.
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07-Sep-2011
The Early Music Show - Performer Profile: Gustav Leonhardt
Gustav Leonhardt is one of the most important figures in the Early Music movement. A keyboard player, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor, his approach to Early Music performance has helped to define what period performance is today. Catherine Bott talks to Leonhardt about his life in music, his great love of Bach and about a variety of early music issues whilst featuring some of his many recordings, including music by JS Bach, Louis Couperin, and Sweelinck.
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29-Aug-2011
The Early Music Show - Louis Couperin
Lucie Skeaping explores the life and musical legacy of the 17th Century French harpsichordist, organist and composer Louis Couperin, with contributions from Christophe Rousset and performances by Rousset, Bob van Asperen, Davitt Moroney and Glen Wilson.
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28-Aug-2011
The Early Music Show - The Story of the Collegium Musicum
Catherine Bott explores the history of the Collegium Musicum, the amateur music ensembles whose performances in Germany under such illustrious directors as Telemann and Bach paved the way for public concert series.
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21-Aug-2011
The Early Music Show - 11th-Century Fraud: Ademar's Apostolic Mass
Lucie Skeaping explores the extraordinary story behind the earliest known medieval composer for whom a compositional autograph survives: Adémar de Chabannes and his 11th Century Mass for St Martial.
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15-Aug-2011
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2011: 4. Neal Peres da Costa, Daniel Yeadon
Catherine Bott catches up with two of the founder members of Florilegium, harpsichordist Neal Peres da Costa and gamba player Daniel Yeadon at the York Early Music Festival. Neal Peres da Costa and Daniel Yeadon are two highly experiences and sought after early music performers, for a long time associated with the celebrated ensemble Florilegium. They left this country several years ago and now spend a large amount of their time living and working in Australia. Catherine Bott caught up with the pair in The Gallery at Harewood House, on a return visit to these shores, where they were featured artists at this year's York Early Music Festival. In conversation, Catherine looks back on their career; on early music in Australia, and introduces items from their York Festival recital, which featured music by Handel, Abel, JC Bach and Lanzetti.
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14-Aug-2011
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2011: 3. The City Musick, Jason Darnell
In the second weekend of music recorded at this year's York Early Music Festival, Catherine Bott presents a selection of music performed by The City Musick and tenor Jason Darnell. Their programme was designed to evoke a musical evening that Queen Elizabeth the First would have enjoyed when she visited the Duke of Hertford in Elvetham in 1591. The music in the concert was taken from Morley's Consort Lessons, and from Walsingham's Consort Books - and included works by Thomas Morley, John Dowland and the less familiar Guillaume Tessier. Catherine Bott introduces highlights from this concert, and short interviews with the ensemble's lutenist, Elizabeth Kenny, and their director, William Lyons.
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08-Aug-2011
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2011: York Early Music Festival 2011: 2. Brabant Ensemble and Stephen Rice
Catherine Bott presents the Brabant Ensemble directed by Stephen Rice from the York Early Music Festival 2011 exploring music from the time of Henry VIII. The succession of King Henry VIII marked a mood of new optimism for the English people not dissimilar to the post-War revival engendered by the 1951 Festival of Britain - which is the theme of the 2011 York EM Festival. But Henry's reign was constantly beset by the threat of war with Francois I's France and Spain under the Emperor Charles V. These regal rivals not only forged endlessly shifting treaties with each other, but tried to outdo each other in the splendour of their musical establishments, not least the music of their private chapels. This programme explores the different styles of sacred music with motets and mass movements by the French Pierre Moulu and Jean Mouton, the English John Taverner and King Henry himself, and with Francisco de Penalosa and Cristobal de Morales.
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07-Aug-2011
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2011: 1. Sacred Music from Medieval England
Catherine Bott presents the first of four concerts recorded at this year's York Early Music Festival in St George's Church. Today's programme features a concert given by the Orlando Consort, who performed a programme of medieval sacred music, including works by Dunstable. The theme of this year's York Early Music Festival marks the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain, and the Orlando Consort included repertoire by Dunstable and Bedyngham that was performed during the 1951 Festival.
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25-Jul-2011
The Early Music Show - Skalholt Church, Iceland
Lucie Skeaping features renaissance music recorded at last summer's Skálholt Festival in Iceland. This historic village has been a religious centre since the Middle Ages and its cathedral, perched high above the magnificent expanse of the River Hvita, plays host to many of the festival concerts. This concert features just three musicians - one Icelandic and two French: Steinunn Arnbjörg Stefánsdóttir on the piccolo cello, Mathurin Matharel on the bass violin and Brice Sailly on the harpsichord. They perform Renaissance repertoire from Italy and Spain, including music by Bartolomé de Selma y Salaverde, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Giovanni Picchi and Diego Ortiz.
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24-Jul-2011
The Early Music Show - Composer Portrait: Tomas Luis de Victoria
Catherine Bott presents a profile of the great Spanish composer, Tomás Luis de Victoria, who died in 1611. He dedicated his musical life to the Church, working both in his native Spain and in Italy; all his compositions are vocal, sacred and in Latin. Although he was not as prolific a composer as some of his contemporaries, Victoria is now generally regarded as one of the greatest of Renaissance composers, his music characterised by its emotional intensity. Catherine Bott celebrates the genius of his music, and plays recordings of some of Victoria's powerfully moving music, including settings of Marian antiphons and Mass settings.
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18-Jul-2011
The Early Music Show - Early Music Developments in Mexico
Lucie Skeaping talks to Jeffrey Skidmore about musical developments in Mexico. The programme traces musical life from the 16th century, with music by composers such as Hernando Franco, through the remarkable musical developments in the 17th century in Puebla, illustrated in the music of Padilla, and culminating in the music of Ignacio de Jerusalem and Manuel de Zumaya at the start of the 18th century.
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17-Jul-2011
The Early Music Show - Maestro Pisendel
Lucie Skeaping explores the life of Johann Georg Pisendel, a virtuoso German violinist in the late 17th & early 18th Centuries to whom composers like Vivaldi and Telemann dedicated works and whose own solo violin compositions are said to have provided the inspiration for JS Bach's own solo Sonatas and Partitas.
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11-Jul-2011
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2011
Catherine Bott presents a live edition from the National Centre of Early Music, at the start of this year's York Early Music Festival. The theme of the Festival celebrates the spirit of the 1951 Festival of Britain - 60 years on -and features concerts that reflect the then emerging 'early music' movement; music in this programme includes a selection from the English madrigal collection, the Triumphs of Oriana, performed live by the King's Singers. Catherine also chats to various performers involved in this year's Festival, and to the Festival Director, Delma Tomlin, about the Festival's theme and concerts.
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10-Jul-2011
The Early Music Show - Musica Britannica
Catherine Bott speaks to Julian Rushton, Chairman of Musica Britannica - a national collection of music founded in 1951 and which was one of the main musical sources of the modern Early Music revival in Britain. Among the music featured in the programme are works by Tallis, Byrd, Blow and Lawes.
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04-Jul-2011
The Early Music Show - Early Travel: 2. A History of Early Music Travel
Travel is such a common thing today, that one barely stops to think about the risks which it incurred before our modernised transport systems. But from Oswald von Wolkenstein to Dufay, from Bach to John Bull, composers throughout history risked life and limb to travel, for work, for study or simply for new experiences. In the second of this weekend's Early Music Shows dedicated to travel, Catherine Bott explores these early musical journeying pioneers.
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03-Jul-2011
The Early Music Show - Early Travel: 1. Thomas Coryate
In the first of a weekend of Early Music Shows exploring early travel, Catherine Bott talks to Tony Wheeler, co-founder of Lonely Planet about the extraordinary travels of Thomas Coryate. Coryate was an English eccentric who as well as being credited with introducing the table fork and the umbrella to England, journeyed to Venice and back mainly on foot, and whose travel writings provide music historians with invaluable details of the activities of the Venetian school.
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20-Jun-2011
The Early Music Show - The City of Bologna
Catherine Bott presents a programme of music written in the city of Bologna - the capital city of the Emilia-Romagna region, which is situated in the Po Valley between Po river and the Apennine Mountains. It's home to the oldest university in the world, founded in 1088 and is one of the richest cities in Italy, not only financially but also in terms of its rich history in the arts, culture and cuisine. It has been a hive of musical activity since the 15th century, and this programme features music by some of its most famous sons, including Giacomo Perti, Giuseppe Torelli, Adriano Banchieri, Giovanni Bononcini, Padre Giovanni Martini and Josef Myslivecek.
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19-Jun-2011
The Early Music Show - Academy of Ancient Music: Bach Dynasty
Catherine Bott introduces a concert given by the Academy of Ancient Music & Richard Egarr in Salford as part of the "BBC Philharmonic presents..." festival. The performance continues the AAM's series of Bach Dynasty concerts and features music by various generations of the Bach family. (photo courtesy of the Academy of Ancient Music/Marco Borggreve)
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13-Jun-2011
The Early Music Show - Claude Balbastre
Lucie Skeaping explores the life and music of the 18th Century French composer and keyboard virtuoso Claude Balbastre with harpsichord player Sophie Yates who has recently released a recording of his Pieces de Clavecin.
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12-Jun-2011
The Early Music Show - Artist Profile: Rene Jacobs
Catherine Bott talks to the Belgian singer, conductor, scholar and teacher René Jacobs. They chat about his early career as a counter-tenor before he founded the ensemble Concerto Vocale. Music in the programme includes early recordings by him singing in works by JC Bach and Steffani, and extracts from his recordings conducting operas and oratorios by Handel and Monteverdi. (image of René Jacobs: photo credit Philippe Matsas)
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06-Jun-2011
The Early Music Show - Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music 2011: 3. From Bohemia's Courts and Chapels
Lucie Skeaping introduces 18th Century Bohemian music by Brentner and Zelenka recorded at this year's Lufthansa Festival from Ensemble Inegal. Czech musicians could be found in abundance throughout Europe in the 18th Century and in this concert the Czech based group, Ensemble Inegal directed by Adam Viktoria, pay tribute to their historical musical past with a selection of music by two of its finest 18th century composers - Jan Dismas Zelenka and Johann Joseph Ignaz Brentner, as well as featuring music by a major contemporary figure of their day, Johann Sebastian Bach.
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05-Jun-2011
The Early Music Show - Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music 2011: Intimate Bach
Lucie Skeaping meets the gamba player Hille Perl, theorbo player Lee Santana and harpsichordist Patrick Ayrton for highlights from a concert of "Intimate Bach" from the 2011 Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music. It is widely believed that JS Bach composed six sonatas for the viola da gamba, although only three of them still exist. Bach often recycled his work so that the same music appears arranged for different instruments. Hille Perl wondered whether the three "missing" gamba sonatas might be found elsewhere in Bach's output, as arrangements. This set her on a quest to discover potential "new" music for gamba by Bach, and in this concert from St John's Smith Square in London, we hear official music for gamba, alongside other items by JS Bach, and the opportunity to hear what could be a restoration of sonatas for viola da gamba by Bach.
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30-May-2011
The Early Music Show - Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music 2011: 2. Life and Soul
In the second of this weekend's highlights of concert recordings from the 2011 Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, Lucie Skeaping presents music performed by countertenor Robin Blaze with lutenist Elizabeth Kenny's group, the Theatre of the Ayre. Music includes works by composers who were exploring the expressive and virtuosic capabilites of the male alto voice, such as Buxtehude and Krieger.
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29-May-2011
The Early Music Show - Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music 2011: 1. The Formidable Virtuosi
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert given by violinist Enrico Gatti and keyboard player Fabio Ciofini, recorded at this year's Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music. The Festival's theme explores music in Europe from the Hanseatic north to the Adriatic south; the repertoire in this programme reflects that theme and includes virtuoso violin and keyboard compositions by composers such as Johann Schop and Pandolfo Mealli.
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23-May-2011
The Early Music Show - The Hanseatic League
Catherine Bott explores the history of the Hanseatic League and the impact that it had for music from the 13th to the 18th centuries among the towns and ports around the Baltic. This programme provides the background to one of the main themes of this year's Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, highlights from which will feature in the Early Music Show over the next two weeks.
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22-May-2011
The Early Music Show - Composer portrait - Nicolo Jommelli
Lucie Skeaping plays a selection of music by Nicolo Jommelli. Considered a pathfinder, steering music from the traditions of Baroque opera to the immediacy of Mozart's stage works, Jommelli's operatic reforms in the mid-eighteenth century made him a widely regarded figure in his day - ground-breaking and influential. His true significance is only now starting to be valued.
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16-May-2011
The Early Music Show - Accademia Bizantina and Ottavio Dantone
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of two concerts given by Accademia Bizantina directed by Ottavio Dantone at the Torroella de Montgri Music Festival in Spain last summer. They are joined by soprano Sandrine Piau in music by Handel and Vivaldi.
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15-May-2011
The Early Music Show - Performer Profile - John Eliot Gardiner
Catherine Bott talks to conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner about his illustrious career in the music industry, and includes recordings by his own Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestra Revolutionnaire et Romantique, as well as performances from the Göttingen Handelfest and Opera de Lyon - both of which he has been an integral part of. Sir John Eliot also reflects on his achievements with the Bach Cantata pilgrimage from the year 2000 and the Monteverdi Choir's amazing musical journey along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. (image of John Eliot Gardiner courtesy of Simon Way)
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09-May-2011
The Early Music Show - Concerto Copenhagen
Catherine Bott talks to the Danish harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen about his role as artistic director of Concerto Copenhagen - the exciting period ensemble which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The music is taken from their extensive discography as well as some live recordings kindly provided by Danish Radio. It includes pieces by Telemann, Handel, Bach and Haydn as well as music from less well-known Scandinavian-based composers such as Johann Scheibe and Ferdinand Zellbell.
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08-May-2011
The Early Music Show - Purcell's The Fairy Queen
Lucie Skeaping presents a programme exploring Purcell's semi-opera, The Fairy Queen, based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Purcell did not set any of Shakespeare's original text, and instead added self-contained masques in each of the acts, which include some of Purcell's finest music. Lucie plays musical extracts from each of the masques from various recordings, directed by Ton Koopman, Roger Norrington, Harry Christophers and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
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03-May-2011
The Early Music Show - La Capella Ducale and Musica Fiata, Köln
Catherine Bott presents a concert by Musica Fiata and La Capella Ducale, directed by Roland Wilson, in the Chapter House of York Minster as part of the 2010 York Early Music Festival. Their programme consists of German wedding music from the time of the Thirty Years War, by Scheidt, Schein and Schutz. During this turbulent time in North European history, composers found it very difficult to get their music printed, but rich patrons were still keen to commission special music for weddings, which they would then see published. As a result several composers of the time adapted their best pieces to suit the wedding theme in the hope that their music would then reach a wider audience. This concert reflects some of that music.
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01-May-2011
The Early Music Show - Royal Wedding Music
To celebrate the most recent Royal Wedding, Catherine Bott and James O'Donnell, Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey and someone who played a major part in the performance of the music at the ceremony, discuss the early music of previous royal weddings. They talk about the choice of venues and composers, and play music by, among others, Handel and Boyce, and also movements from a mass by Tomas Luis de Victoria - some of the music that was performed in the marriages of George III, and a more recent Royal Wedding in Spain which featured much Baroque music.
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25-Apr-2011
The Early Music Show - Handel's Easter Oratorio
Lucie Skeaping examines the background and music to Handel's moving 'Easter Oratorio' - La Resurrezione - which he wrote in his early twenties during his formative years in Rome. Composed for Easter Day 1708, for a gala performance at the opulent Ruspoli Palace, featuring the finest musicians to hand, including an orchestra led by Archangelo Corelli, La Resurrezione (The Resurrection) is a dramatic recollection of events following Christ's crucifixion. In recent years Handel's "Easter Oratorio" as it's sometimes referred to, has attracted renewed interest and spawned several recordings. Lucie relates the background and story of this youthful Handelian masterpiece, and illustrates the programme with a cross-section of performances taken from CD.
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24-Apr-2011
The Early Music Show - The Lamentations of Jeremiah
Catherine Bott looks at the historical and liturgical context of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, including several musical settings of these very dark and desolate poems which are still an integral part of the Jewish and Christian faiths. The programme includes contributions from Graham Knowles - The Dean of St Paul's, Rabbi YY Rubinstein and Cambridge scholar Kim Phillips, as well as readings from actor James Quinn. The music includes settings of the Lamentations by William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Antoine Brumel, Giovanni Palestrina and Jan Zelenka.
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17-Apr-2011
The Early Music Show - Du Mont - Petit or Grand
Lucie Skeaping explores the musical achievement and legacy of the 17th Century French composer Henry Du Mont, featuring highlights of a concert given in Belgium by Soloists with Les Folies Françoises and the Namur Chamber Chorus directed by Patrick Cohën-Akenine.
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11-Apr-2011
The Early Music Show - The Passacaglia
Lucie Skeaping traces the history and development of the dance-based form, from its origins in Iberian street music to the great organ works by Bach. The word passacaglia derives from the Spanish 'pasar' and 'calle' - meaning 'to walk' and 'street'. The musical form probably originated as music performed whilst promenading, most likely with a guitar. With the rise in popularity of the 5 string Spanish guitar, the passacaglia quickly crossed Europe and was readily adopted into song, instrumental music and even into the theatre. Repertoire in the programme includes music from an opera by Lully, Monteverdi's lament par excellence "Lamento della Ninfa" and one of Bach's greatest works for organ.
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10-Apr-2011
The Early Music Show - Le voir dit: Machaut et Peronne
Guillaume de Machaut was one of the greatest composers and poets of the Middle Ages and Le Voir Dit is one of his most extraordinary works. Containing 9,094 lines of verse and 8 musical settings, it tells the tale of a blossoming love between the elderly Machaut and a young admirer: Péronne d' Armentières. Catherine Bott explores Machaut's "The True Story".
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04-Apr-2011
The Early Music Show - Ferrabosco Dynasty
Lucie Skeaping presents a programme of music by members of the Ferrabosco family, Alfonso I and II - father and son. They were a family of Italian musicians who worked in England for many years at the Elizabethan court. Repertoire in the programme includes fantasias for viols performed by Phantasm, a setting of the Lamentations, and song settings of poems by John Donne and Ben Johnson.
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03-Apr-2011
The Early Music Show - The Golden Three
Music at the Russian Imperial Court in the mid 18th century was largely provided by itinerant Italian masters like Paisiello, Galuppi & Manfredini, but by the end of the century a group of three talented Ukrainians began to take St Petersburg by storm. Maxim Berezovsky, Artemy Vedel and Dimitri Bortniansky became known as The Golden Three, and provided 4 successive monarchs with chamber music, choruses and operatic entertainments. Lucie Skeaping looks at the lives and music of these three, now uncelebrated composers, alongside the music of some of their western European teachers.
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28-Mar-2011
The Early Music Show - Chansons de femmes
Catherine Bott presents a programme of music and the texts written by the trobairitz, a small group of female troubadours. Very little of their works has survived, mainly the poetry, and there is only one extant song with both the text and music written by Comtessa de Dia, who was one of the most celebrated of the trobairitz. Catherine Bott explores some of the text settings and considers the differences between their music and poetry and that of the male troubadours. During the programme, Catherine also meets the crime writer Sara Paretsky whose latest novel has taken inspiration from the works of the trobairitz. Music in the programme includes recordings by Sinfonye, Hesperion XX and Sequentia.
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27-Mar-2011
The Early Music Show - BBC Singers - Profile of Dominique Pinot
Lucie Skeaping presents a programme about the rather shadowy life and the music of 16th century French composer Dominique Phinot, with recordings made by the BBC Singers, conducted by David Hill. We actually know very little about Phinot - not even when he was born, although the general consensus is that it was around 1510. There's evidence that Phinot spent some time in northern Italy during the mid 1540s, at both the court and the cathedral in Urbino, just south of Venice where some of his music was published. He made several settings of French poetry - witty, and occasionally salacious chansons, but most of Phinot's surviving works are for the church. There are a couple of masses, a handful of magnificats, and almost 100 motets, which served to be the inspiration for future generations of composers like Palestrina and Lassus. Sources suggest that Phinot was executed in Lyon in around 1556, for homosexual practices - which means his punishment may have been to be beheaded and burned. If that really was the horrible fate that befell Dominique Phinot, it may explain why he's been 'out-of-mind' for so long.
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21-Mar-2011
The Early Music Show - Music from the Habsburg Court: 2. The Fruits of Parnassus - A Portrait of Johann Joseph Fux
Catherine Bott reflects on the life and music of the largely forgotten 18th Century court composer Johann Joseph Fux. He was immensely prolific and enjoyed one of the most prestigious musical positions in Europe, as composer to the Habsburgs in Vienna. JS Bach regarded him as the finest of his contemporaries; and Fux's treatise on musical counterpoint - "Gradus ad Parnassum" - proved a huge influence on Haydn and Beethoven, and is still studied today. Catherine outlines the life, takes a brief look at "Gradus" and presents a range of recordings from Fux's output giving a flavour of the sound of the Hapsburg court in Vienna in the early 18th Century. This is the second of two programmes focusing on the music of the Habsburgs. The programme includes readings from “Steps to Parnassus: The study of counterpoint” by Johann Joseph Fux (translated and edited by Alfred Mann with the collaboration of John St Edmunds), pub. J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
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20-Mar-2011
The Early Music Show - Music from the Habsburg Court: 1. The Musicians of Maximilian I
Lucie Skeaping presents a programme portraying the opulent musical life at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. He was the first of the Habsburg rulers to support the arts, and was devoted to establishing a thriving musical legacy at his court. Music in the programme includes repertoire by some of the important composers Maximilian employed, including Heinrich Isaac, Ludwig Senfl and Paul Hofhaimer. This programme is the first of two across the weekend focusing on music from the Habsburg court.
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14-Mar-2011
The Early Music Show - Bach's Greatest Enigma - The Mass in B minor
On April 10th 1859, a choral society in Leipzig, the Riedel-Verein, gave the probable premiere of a large-scale composition by Johann Sebastian Bach. Parts of it had been sung and played before but this is thought to have been the first performance of the whole thing, more than a century after Bach's death. The publisher of the first edition had proclaimed it as "the Greatest Work of Art of All Times and All Nations" and many people would agree with that assessment today, but it's still a musical and liturgical enigma. Why did a pious Protestant write a Catholic Mass? Was it meant to be performed all in one go? Catherine Bott explores Johann Sebastian Bach's greatest enigma: his Mass in B minor.
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13-Mar-2011
The Early Music Show - Bartolomeo the Murderous Trombonist
Catherine Bott explores the scandalous life, and music of the Italian trombonist and composer Bartolomeo Tromboncino, who murdered his adulterous wife and her lover a century before the infamous musician Carlo Gesualdo did the same.
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13-Mar-2011
The Early Music Show - The Death of Henri IV
On 14 May 1610, France fell into a month and a half of mourning. Le bon roi Henri, King Henri IV of France was dead. Catherine Bott explores the life of the King they called the Green Gallant and the music which accompanied both his life and his death.
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07-Mar-2011
The Early Music Show - Ensemble Meridiana
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert given by Ensemble Meridiana at the 2010 York Early Music Christmas Festival. Ensemble Meridiana were the winners of the York Early Music International Young Artists Competition in 2009. Lucie talks to a couple of members of the ensemble to find out what they have been up to since their success in York, and introduces highlights from the concert, chamber music by Telemann and Corelli.
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28-Feb-2011
The Early Music Show - King Joao IV of Portugal
Catherine Bott talks to Owen Rees about the musical legacy of King Joao IV of Portugal and the so-called Golden Age of Portuguese polyphony. In 1578, the young king of Portugal, Sebastian led an ill-considered crusade against the Moors of Morocco. He was routed at the battle of Alcazar-Quivir and disappeared without trace, leaving his succession and the fate of his nation on a knife-edge. Of the six claimants to the Portuguese monarchy, the most powerful was Philip II of Spain, whose invading army conquered the country in 1581. Neither Philip nor his two successors acknowledged Portugal's cultural or ethnic independence and treated her as nothing more than a province of Spain. Portugal's considerable foreign revenue enriched the Spanish treasury, while her dominance in trade & sea power was successfully challenged by the English & the Dutch, thus loosening her grip on her colonies in Africa, Asia and South America. This period of external domination & subsequent economic decline lasted for nearly 60 years until the Portuguese nobility reached the end of its tether and led a revolt against their oppressors in 1640, as a result of which, the Duke of Braganza was declared the new & rightful king of Portugal & the Algarves. One of King Joao IV's first actions was to lead his countrymen in a protracted war of restoration against the Spanish, whose armies were finally driven out of Portuguese lands after four more years of fierce fighting. Joao o Restaurador - John the Restorer - was not just a successful troop-leader, though. He was also a generous supporter of the arts, and a considerably talented musician & composer himself. And, by the time of his death in 1656 he had amassed the biggest music library in the world.
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27-Feb-2011
The Early Music Show - The Siege of Vienna
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert given in Bruges by the Sarband Ensemble and Armonico Tributo, which evokes the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683. The music includes works by Johann Schmelzer, Georg Muffat and Johann Kerll as well as Turkish music from the 17th century.
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27-Feb-2011
The Early Music Show - Clemens non Papa
Lucie Skeaping explores the music of the 16th century Flemish composer Jacobus Clemens non Papa. In the hierarchy of the Flemish school, you could say that Clemens was of the fourth generation - if Dufay is taken as the first, Ockeghem as the second, Josquin the third, with Orlando di Lassus still to come. He was one of the few successful Flemish musicians not to travel to Italy, he spent his entire life in Flanders, working in towns such as Bruges, Dordrecht and Ypres. Also unlike most other composers of that period, Clemens non Papa seems never to have been employed by the church - at least not on a permanent basis. It's unclear as to how Jacobus Clemens came to adopt the epithet "non Papa" - in fact, it has been the subject of much conjecture. The most widely accepted version is that it meant "not the Pope" Clement - presumably because Pope Clement VII was in the Vatican at the time. Pope Clement VII died in 1534, though, so it's possible that he may have been given the nickname in childhood and it simply stuck with him for the rest of his life! Certainly, the Antwerp-based publisher Tielman Susato, with whom he had a lucrative business partnership, seemed to find the papal suffix amusing! His name is much less well known now, but in the late 1500s, Clemens non Papa was one of the most frequently published composers of the time.
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21-Feb-2011
The Early Music Show - Utrecht Festival 2010: Musica ad Rhenum
In the second of this weekend's programmes featuring music recorded at the 2010 Utrecht Festival of Early Music, Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert given by the ensemble Musica ad Rhenum. The repertoire includes a suite by Telemann, harpsichord music by Geminiani and Francois Couperin, and the ensemble is joined by the baritone Maarten Koningsberger in a cantata by Campra, 'Les femmes', from his French Cantatas, Book I. Musica ad Rhenum is directed from the baroque flute by Jed Wentz.
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20-Feb-2011
The Early Music Show - Utrecht Festival 2010: Festival Highlights
Catherine Bott introduces highlights from the 28th annual Utrecht Festival of Early Music in The Netherlands, which last year chose French Baroque music as its theme. This programme includes music by André Grétry, Marin Marais, François Couperin, Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Féry Rebel, in performances by the French baritone Pierre-Yves Pruvot with Les Agrémens, viol-player Wieland Kuijken, harpsichordist Aurélien Delage, the chorus & orchestra of Le Parnasse Français, and the Ricercar Consort.
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20-Feb-2011
The Early Music Show - Antonio Caldara
Catherine Bott presents a programme looking into the life and music of the Venetian born Baroque composer, Antonio Caldara.
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14-Feb-2011
The Early Music Show - Fretwork Weekend: 2. The World Encompassed
As part of the Early Music Show's "Fretwork Weekend", Catherine Bott traces Sir Francis Drake's heroic circumnavigation of the Globe through a mixture of new and old music written and compiled by Orlando Gough and performed on viols by Fretwork. "The World Encompassed" was commissioned by Fretwork, inspired by the knowledge that Drake had with him on board his ship, The Golden Hind, his own consort of viols, who would play for prayers and for entertainment. Fascinated by the diverse range of cultures and the different kinds of music that Drake would have witnessed, Fretwork invited composer Orlando Gough to blend a mixture of period viol pieces alongside new music that would evoke the period and the places and the adventures that Drake and his crew were known to have encountered. The result is a large scale piece called "The World Encompassed"; a depiction of Drake's voyage in music for viols. The programme features highlights from the piece. Catherine Bott talks to Orlando Gough about the work, and about some of the colourful events from Drake's voyage. The music was recorded at a live concert given by Fretwork as part of the 2010 York Early Music Festival, from the Gallery of Harewood House. As well as items by Gough, "The World Encompassed" includes 16th Century music by John Taverner, Robert Parsons, Luys Milan, Orlando Mudarra and Christopher Tye.
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13-Feb-2011
The Early Music Show - Fretwork Weekend: 1. Fretwork - Profile
In the first of this weekend's programmes featuring the viol consort Fretwork, Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of the ensemble, and talks to founder member Richard Boothby. Since they formed in 1985 Fretwork has explored a wide range of music, from the core English consort repertoire, to arrangements of JS Bach's keyboard works, to commissioning many new works. Lucie and Richard chat about the ensembles diversity of interests and play music from some of their recordings. The programme also includes a look at how to compose for a viol consort, to coincide with the launch of this year's NCEM Young Composers' Award.
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13-Feb-2011
The Early Music Show - Settings of Poets and Texts
Catherine Bott is joined by the author Jonathan Keates to discuss some of the poets and texts that Purcell set. The music in the programme illustrates Purcell's versatility as a composer for poets, and includes examples of settings of non-biblical religious texts, the poetry of the odes, and some of the individual art songs.
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07-Feb-2011
The Early Music Show - The Manuscript of Zeghere van Male
Catherine Bott reflects on the four Flemish songbooks of the 16th Century chronicler, Zeghere van Male and introduces performances of the music by Ensemble Clement Janequin. The 'Songbooks of Zeghere van Male' are some of the most intriguing Western-European musical manuscripts. The four large part books contain over 1200 pages, each of which features one or more illuminated vignettes of extraordinary quality. The books feature over 200 different compositions, mainly songs, and give a fascinating overview of the kind of music that flourished in first half of the 16th century around Bruges, including French chanson, church masses and Latin motets. The songbook also includes some Italian madrigals and several Dutch polyphonic songs and instrumental works. The composers range from international figures such as Josquin, Mouton, Willaert, and Sermisy to lesser known regional figures such as De Hondt and Hellinck. The books appeared in Bruges in 1542 and take their name from their owner, Zeghere van Male, a prominent tradesman in the city.
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06-Feb-2011
The Early Music Show - Don Fernando de las Infantas
Robert Hollingworth talks to musicologist Tess Knighton about the music of the 16th Century Spanish composer Don Fernando de las Infantas, with performances by the BBC Singers. Born to a notable family in Córdoba in 1534, Fernando enjoyed a privileged education, and then spent 25 years living in Rome, voluntarily giving his services to a hospital for the poor. He was constantly involved in theological debate and frequently came into conflict with the church. Indeed, his 1601 Treaty on Predestination brought the charge of being an illuminist, if not a quietist, and the attention of the Spanish Inquisition. At the end of his life, overwhelmed by his theological enemies he was reduced to beggary and died in poverty.
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31-Jan-2011
The Early Music Show - The Dufay Collective: The Recordings
It is twenty years since the Dufay Collective's influential disc of medieval dance music, A L'Estampida, first appeared. Catherine Bott considers the impact of the disc and the achievements of the group with founder member Bill Lyons. PLAYLIST: Anonymous: La Rotta (from first release 'A L'Estampida') The Dufay Collective Continuum CCD 1042 Track 8 Anonymous: Istanpitta 'Ghaetta' (from second release 'A Dance in the Garden of Mirth') The Dufay Collective Chandos CHAN 9320 Track 1 Anonymous: Miri it is (from 'Miri it is') The Dufay Collective Chandos CHAN 9396 Track 1 Segue to: Anonymous: Of All the Birds (from 'Johnny, cock thy Beaver') The Dufay Collective Chandos CHAN 9446 Track 23 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: excerpt from 'Shamas-Ud-Doha, Badar-Ud-Doja' Real World RWCD3 Excerpt from Track 1 Anonymous: Al alva venid, buen amigo from (Cancionero) The Dufay Collective Avie AV 0005 Track 24 Segue to: Anonymous: Quen boa dona (from 'Miracles - 13th Century Spanish sacred songs') The Dufay Collective Chandos CHAN 9513 Track 7 Anonymous: Bailemos nos ja Todas Tres (from 'Alfonso the Wise') The Dufay Collective Harmonia Mundi HMU 907390 Track 7 Segue to: Anonymous: The Prophecy (final section from 'Play of Daniel') The Dufay Collective Harmonia Mundi HMU 907479 Tracks 31-34 John Williams: Hagrid the Professor (from sound-track to 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban') Conducted by John Williams WARNER 7567 837115 Excerpt from Track 11 Anonymous: Saltarello (from 'A L'Estampida') Continuum CCD 1042 Track 12.
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30-Jan-2011
The Early Music Show - Lully's Bellerophon
Catherine Bott samples Lully's opera "Bellérophon" with Christophe Rousset and his group Les Talens Lyriques who recently gave the first performance in modern times of this hugely successful tragedie en lyrique by Lully, in the sumptuous Opera Royal at Versailles, after Rousset's discovery of missing pages of the score in a bookshop in Paris. Rousset talks about his find, and about the qualities that make Lully's opera stand out as a masterpiece. Lully was one of opera's most significant figures and this opera was one of his most successful. It originally ran for nine months when it was given at the Palais Royal on 31st January 1697. But non-French speaking audiences often encounter difficulties appreciating Lully's dramatic style and some of the subtleties of his declamatory word setting. Rousset offers some insights as to why these pioneering and influential works are worth wider appreciation. The programme includes comments from Rousset and from Bellérophon himself - tenor Cyril Auvity - as well as highlights from the Versailles performance. Libretto by Thomas Corneille. Recorded in the Opera Royal of the Chateau de Versailles, France, and featuring: Cyril Auvity, Bellérophon Céline Scheen, Philonoé Ingrid Perruche, Sténobeé Jennifer Borghi, Argie/Pallas Evgeniy Alexiev, Pan/Jobate (Le Roy) Jean Teitgen, Apollon/Amisodar Robert Getchell, Bacchis/La Pythie With the Chamber Choir of Namur and Les Talens Lyriques directed by Christophe Rousset. Music played: 1. Overture 2. Prologue - Chorus: "Chantons le plus grand mortels" 3. Act 1 Scene 5 - Chorus of Amozones & Soloymes: "Faisons cesser nos alarmes" 4. Act 2 Scene 6 - Scene with Amisodar and Chorus of Magiciens: "Que ce jardin se change" 5. Act 2 Scene 2 - Duet for Bellérophon and Philonoé: "Que tout parle, a l'envy" 6. Act 3 Scene 5 - Sacrificial scene: "Le malheur qui nous accable" 7. Act 2 Scene 3: Bellérophon and Stenobeé: "Ma présence ici te fait peine" 8. Act 5 Final Scene: "Connoissez le fils de Neptune"
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30-Jan-2011
The Early Music Show - Andreas Scholl on Oswald von Wolkenstein
Lucie Skeaping interviews the charismatic countertenor Andreas Scholl about his successful career as a live performer and as a recording artist, and chooses some recordings from his impressive discography. The programme ends with a focus on Scholl's recent project "Songs of Myself": a semi-staged production with the ensemble Shield of Harmony which includes songs by the 14th Century diplomat, poet and composer Oswald von Wolkenstein.
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23-Jan-2011
The Early Music Show - Apollo's Fire
Catherine Bott introduces highlights of the London debut concert given by Apollo's Fire, from the Wigmore Hall. The Cleveland based ensemble is directed by its founder, the harpsichordist Jeannette Sorrell, and were joined in this concert by the soprano Sophie Daneman. Repertoire from the concert includes vocal and instrumental works by Vivaldi, Handel and Rameau.
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19-Jan-2011
The Early Music Show - Profile of Hopkinson Smith
Catherine Bott meets the American lutenist Hopkinson Smith and introduces highlights from a concert he gave at the National Centre for Early Music in York. Following early studies with the Catalan guitarist Emilio Pujol, Hopkinson Smith found himself in the 1970s, taking a particular interest in early music, and with Jordi Savall he founded the celebrated group Hesperion XX. Since then he has been in much demand around the world both as a soloist and an ensemble player on the vihuela, Renaissance lute, theorbo, and Renaissance and baroque guitars. He has made over 20 solo recordings. Catherine Bott caught up with him in York and together they discussed his early career and his philosophy of music making. The programme also features highlights from a recital that he gave of 16th Century music by Luis Milan and Francesco da Milano.
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19-Jan-2011
The Early Music Show - Harmonic Inspiration
Lucie Skeaping looks at Vivaldi's groundbreaking Op.3 set of concertos for one, two or four violins entitled "L'Estro Armonico", which were published 300 years ago. Vivaldi had them published in Amsterdam, which meant they were readily available throughout northern Europe. The 8 partbooks even landed on the desk of JS Bach, who found them so inspirational he set about making transcriptions of some of them for keyboard instruments. We'll hear some of Vivaldi's concertos in recordings by The English Concert and I Musici, as well as one of Bach's transcriptions - the Concerto for 4 Harpsichords in a performance by Bach Collegium Stuttgart conducted by Helmuth Rilling.
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27-Dec-2010
The Early Music Show - Review of the Year 2010: Review of the Year - Part 2
Catherine Bott and Lucie Skeaping meet up in London to look back on the year's Early Music Shows, including previously unheard live recordings from 2010. They also look ahead to some of the Early Music anniversaries to be celebrated in 2011.
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26-Dec-2010
The Early Music Show - Review of the Year 2010: Review of the Year - Part 1
In the first of the Christmas weekend's programmes, Catherine Bott and Lucie Skeaping meet up in London to look back over the year's Early Music Shows, including previously unheard recordings from some of the 2010 Early Music Festivals. Catherine and Lucie chat about some of their own highlights, including some of this year's musical anniversaries.
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19-Dec-2010
The Early Music Show - Opera Profiles: 9. Rameau - Platee
In the final monthly focus on a baroque opera, Lucie Skeaping looks at Jean Philippe Rameau's comic masterpiece, Platee. Rameau wrote the opera when he was in his sixties, for an entertainment at a court wedding at Versailles. The story tells of a foolish and ugly nymph who believes she is loved by Jupiter. The sense of the absurd permeates Rameau's score, with the composer and his librettist managing to create a wonderfully imaginative and colourful piece which turn many of the operatic conventions of the time on their head. Rameau's contemporary Melchior Grimm considered the piece "sublime" while for Jean Jacques Rousseau it was a "divine" work. Even today it succeeds in firing the imaginations of opera producers and conductors, not least the French conductor Marc Minkowski who explains why in the programme.
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13-Dec-2010
The Early Music Show - Monteverdi's Fifth Book of Madrigals
Robert Hollingworth explores Monteverdi's Fifth Book of madrigals. This book was a pivotal work in the development of the madrigal; Monteverdi developed the expressive and dramatic style from his previous book of madrigals, and he introduced instruments to the 5-voice ensemble, the beginning of the 'madrigale concertato' style. The forward-looking declamatory style of this book of madrigals heralded a new dramatic era; just two years later Monteverdi wrote his opera Orfeo.
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12-Dec-2010
The Early Music Show - Imaginarium with Enrico Onofri
Lucie Skeaping presents a concert of baroque sonatas given by the great Italian violinist Enrico Onofri and his group Imaginarium. Onofri is one of the most revered masters of the baroque violin, and one of the foremost Italians in today's early music scene. Well known for his work with the group Il Giardino Armonico, he later founded a chamber group - Imaginarium - to focus on baroque chamber music, and the group has gone on to win numerous awards and have appeared all over the world. Lucie Skeaping introduces a concert they gave earlier in the year as part of the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, at St John's Smith Square, London. The concert focused on the repertory of the first one hundred years of the violin and traced the development of the violin sonata, from adaptations of vocal music by Monteverdi and Rore, through transitional pieces by the likes of Castello and Fontana; to the fully-fledged chamber sonatas by Corelli and Vivaldi. The line-up of Imaginarium featured: Enrico Onofri (violin); Alessandro Tampieri (archlute and violin); Alessandro Palmeri (cello) and Luca Guglielmi (harpsichord and organ).
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06-Dec-2010
The Early Music Show - Profile: European Union Baroque Orchestra
Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of the European Union Baroque Orchestra, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Lucie talks to the current Musical Director Lars Ulrik Mortensen about the orchestra, formed each year through a rigorous audition process, and is regarded as a valuable training resource for young musicians before they embark on their professional careers. Music in the programme includes repertoire from the EUBO's recordings by JS Bach, Schmelzer and William Corbett.
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05-Dec-2010
The Early Music Show - Graupner and Bach - Filling Kuhnau's Boots
250 years ago in 1760, the German composer Johann Christoph Graupner died. He is a composer who rather languishes in obscurity today, but he is probably best-known as the man who, along with Telemann, unwittingly gave a leg-up to the musical career of Johann Sebastian Bach. In Graupner's anniversary year, Catherine Bott explores this tale of three composers vying to fill the boots of the Kantor of the Thomaskirche, Leipzig - Johann Kuhnau.
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29-Nov-2010
The Early Music Show - Legrenzi - The Forgotten Venetian
The Venetian Giovanni Legrenzi was one of the musical stars of his day, performing and composing succesfully in virtually every musical genre of the 17th Century. His church sonatas were to be copied and studied by several illustrious successors including JS Bach, and Vivaldi and yet today, his legacy is forgotten. Lucie Skeaping explores the life and music of a composer who was to go on to influence not just Bach and Vivaldi, but also such masters as Handel, Scarlatti and Purcell.
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28-Nov-2010
The Early Music Show - Opera Profiles: 8. Handel - Alcina
Lucie Skeaping continues the Early Music Show's series of opera profiles by delving into the music and history surrounding Handel's "Alcina". Based on the epic poem by Ariosto, the libretto by Antonio Marchi provided Handel with some very intense dramatic opportunities, including star-crossed lovers, dark magic and madness. Alcina was composed for Handel's first season at London's Covent Garden Theatre, and it premiered on April 16, 1735. Like many of the composer's other serious stage works, it fell into general obscurity; after a revival in Brunswick in 1738 it was not performed again until a production in Leipzig nearly two centuries later, in 1928. It has now become one of Handel's most popular operas. Lucie Skeaping talks to the American harpsichordist and musical director Alan Curtis at his home in Florence, who recorded Alcina in 2007 with his ensemble Il Complesso Barocco. That recording also starred Joyce DiDonato in the title role and Karina Gauvin as her sister Morgana (the role that was originally written for Thomas Arne's wife, Cecila Young).
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22-Nov-2010
The Early Music Show - Composer Portrait: Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
Catherine Bott presents a profile of Bach's eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, who despite being renowned as an organist and composer during his lifetime, died in poverty.
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21-Nov-2010
The Early Music Show - French Airs de Cour
Catherine Bott celebrates the delights of the Air de Cour or Renaissance French court song, an influential type of music with a distinctive and individual ambience.
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15-Nov-2010
The Early Music Show - Rites of Remembrance
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert from the 2010 Brighton Early Music Festival. The soprano Emma Kirkby is joined by the International Baroque Players, and the newly formed BREMF Consort of Voices, directed by Deborah Roberts. The concert includes music written in remembrance of the dead, laments from the Old Testament and Classical myths set by composers including Purcell and Pergolesi; Lucie Skeaping introduces a selection of music from the concert in today's programme.
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14-Nov-2010
The Early Music Show - Delights from the Pleasure Gardens
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert given by the ensemble Passacaglia at this year's Brighton Early Music Festival. The group recreates the relaxed atmosphere of London's famous 18th Century Pleasure Gardens, by performing music which may have been heard there. The concert includes works by London favourites such as Handel, Geminiani, Oswald and Arne.
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08-Nov-2010
The Early Music Show - Jordi Savall - Schwetzingen
Lucie Skeaping introduces highlights of a concert given as part of the 2010 Schwetzingen festival in Germany. It features an intriguing mix of music from all around the Mediterranean and beyond, from the Pyrennees as far east as Afghanistan! It includes examples from the Cantigas de Santa Maria alongside beautiful improvised Turkish makams and lively Italian Istampittas. The performers are an ensemble led by the gamba player Jordi Savall - not his regular early music group, Hesperion XX, but for this concert he was joined by three outstanding instrumentalists whose musical roots represent a broader culture: the Moroccan oud player Driss el Maloumi, Greek guitarist Dimitri Psonis and the Spanish percussionist Pedro Estevan.
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07-Nov-2010
The Early Music Show - Fragments for the End of Time
Catherine Bott introduces highlights of a concert given by members of the early music group Sequentia featuring texts and music from different cultures on the subject of the End of Time. "From the time of Christianity's introduction into Europe until the end of the first millennium, apocalyptic images of the End of Time and the Last Judgement were widespread, both in texts and in the visual arts. These images, based largely on the Biblical Revelation of John, at times bear a remarkable similarity to the pagan-germanic description of the world's destruction during the final battle (Ragnarök) between Odin, the gods and their mortal enemies, the giants. ...We explore the musical world of these surprising, powerful texts." This is how Benjamin Bagby - vocalist, harper and founder of the early music group Sequentia describes the content of his concert programme with Sequentia's flautist Norbert Rodenkirchen entitled "Fragments for the End of Time". Catherine Bott introduces highlights of a concert on this theme that the duo gave at the Collegiate Church in Jaroslav, Poland.
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01-Nov-2010
The Early Music Show - Opera Profiles: Opera Profile (7/9): 7. Vivaldi's 'Orlando Furioso'
Catherine Bott continues the Early Music Show's series of opera profiles by delving into the music and history surrounding Vivaldi's "Orlando Furioso". Based on the epic poem by Ariosto, the libretto by Grazio Braccioli provided Vivaldi with some very intense dramatic opportunities, including star-crossed lovers, dark magic and ultimate madness. Nowadays, Vivaldi is not remembered for his contributions to the stage, but he once claimed to have written 94 operas! Evidence has only been found of 20 of those, and much of the music was recycled endlessly from one production to another, but Orlando Furioso was arguably his most popular opera, and has been revived a number of times in recent years. The most celebrated recording, arguably, is the one made in 1978 by I Solisti Veneti with Marilyn Horne in the title role and Victoria de los Angeles as the sorceress Alcina. Today's programme focuses mainly on a more recent recording by Jean-Christophe Spinosi's Ensemble Matheus, which featured Philippe Jaroussky as Ruggiero. Jaroussky is preparing to play that role on stage in Paris in 2011, and speaks very enthusiastically about the opera, and about Vivaldi's much-neglected music for the stage.
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31-Oct-2010
The Early Music Show - Pepys's Diary
Samuel Pepys began writing his famed diary 350 years ago. As a keen amateur musician himself and a man who mixed with many important members of society, including composers, there are a wonderful breadth of musical references and anecdotes in Pepys's writings. Lucie Skeaping explores this myriad of musical mentions.
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25-Oct-2010
The Early Music Show - Naples
Catherine Bott presents a programme looking at the musical riches from the Italian city of Naples. 18th century Naples offered creative opportunities to composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti and his son, Domenico, and also to Pergolesi, Porpora and Durante who played a vital role in the development of Neopolitan music. The programme includes a variety of sacred and secular repertoire, instrumental and operatic, and also some Canzone Napoletane - popular solo street songs - by some of the composers who flourished in Naples in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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24-Oct-2010
The Early Music Show - Live from the Brighton Early Music Festival
Lucie Skeaping visits the Sallis Benney Theatre at Brighton University, as part of this year's Brighton Early Music Festival. She's joined by Eamonn Dougan and Sally Dunkley from The Sixteen, to talk about their annual "Choral Pilgrimage", and introduces live performances from three young ensembles: The Artisans, I Flautisti and Ensemble Amaranthos.
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18-Oct-2010
The Early Music Show - Scarlatti and Corelli: Music for a Bourbon
In 1702, the 19-year-old Philip V of Spain came from his native France to Naples for a month. For this occasion, the Neopolitan based composer Alessandro Scarlatti was joined by the other great Italian composer of the day, Arcangelo Corelli, with mixed results! On the 350th anniversary of Scarlatti's birth, Catherine Bott explores the stories that surround the music and entertainments put on for this occasion.
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17-Oct-2010
The Early Music Show - Artist Profile - Ton Koopman
Catherine Bott talks to the Dutch organist, harpsichordist and conductor Ton Koopman about his career. As a young student Ton was fascinated by authentic instruments and his performance style has remained steeped in scholarship. He formed his first baroque orchestra aged 25, and in 1979 he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, and then the Amsterdam Baroque Choir in 1992. Catherine Bott talks to Ton about how he balances his career as a soloist and conductor, and his championing of Buxtehude's music. Repertoire in the programme includes Biber's 32-part Dixit Dominus, a movement from a Bach cantata and from Buxtehude's cantata Membra Jesu Nostri.
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11-Oct-2010
The Early Music Show - Thomas Arne
Lucie Skeaping looks at the life and music of one of England's most misunderstood composers - Dr. Thomas Arne. Considered as one of the most creative tunesmiths of his day, Arne's fame never really reached its true potential during his lifetime. His operas were largely overshadowed by those of Handel, and his other works barely even considered. His Catholic faith held him back from Royal patronage, and his belligerent nature caused squabble after squabble with fellow musicians and collaborators. Arne's fame rests today on Rule Britannia, from his masque "Alfred", but with 100 or so stage works to his name, as well as chamber music, orchestral pieces and some exquisite songs, there's more to Arne than the Last Night of the Proms!
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10-Oct-2010
The Early Music Show - Echo du Danube: '...always a bit of madness'
Lucie Skeaping introduces highlights of a concert given as part of the Summer Festival of Early Music in Prague by the Austrian based ensemble Echo du Danube. Their concert programme journeyed across Europe exploring the origins of La Folia - one of the oldest themes to be found in European music.
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04-Oct-2010
The Early Music Show - Opera Profiles: Blow: 6. Venus and Adonis
Catherine Bott introduces a performance of John Blow's Masque "Venus and Adonis" presented at the 2010 York Early Music Festival by Theatre of the Ayre directed by Elizabeth Kenny. This broadcast is given as part of the Early Music Show's monthly celebration of baroque opera, and the BBC's year long Focus on Opera. Venus and Adonis was the last masque ever composed for the Stuart Court, and while it is in effect a miniature opera, it was intended as a vehicle for the members of the royal court to take part in. John Blow crafted an exquisite allegory on contemporary court issues around the classical myth of the goddess Venus and her thwarted love for the mortal Adonis. It became the model for Purcell's celebrated Dido and Aeneas. Catherine Bott talks to several of the participants in this production about the work, and introduces the performance which was given as the climax to this year's York festival.
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03-Oct-2010
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2010: London Baroque
Catherine Bott introduces a concert from the 2010 York Early Music Festival given by the trio, London Baroque of 18th century French music by Rameau, Leclair, Mondonville, the Forquerays and their contemporaries. The concert is described as "Marriage a la Mode" and, true to the theme of this year's festival, "musical marriages", all the pieces performed celebrate the familial ties that linked so many of Paris's major baroque composers. Catherine Bott talks the London Baroque's viol player Charles Medlam about the programme and the music.
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28-Sep-2010
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2010: Ensemble Lucidarium
Catherine Bott presents music for a Jewish wedding performed by Ensemble Lucidarium from the 2010 York Early Music Festival. In order to reflect the festival theme of "music and marriage", the Italian based medieval and renaissance group Ensemble Lucidarium devised and performed an enchanting programme of early music written to celebrate and compliment a typical renaissance Jewish wedding service, with songs and dances reflecting the different aspects of the ceremony.
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26-Sep-2010
The Early Music Show - Dimitrie Cantemir
Lucie Skeaping profiles the extraordinary life and work of the polyglot Dimitrie Cantemir. Born in Moldavia in 1673, he became one of the foremost intellectuals of Eastern Europe. Scholar, Orientalist, composer, theorist, historian, and fleetingly Prince of Moldavia, he also was a virtuoso played of the tanbur, a long-necked lute. In 1710 Cantemir compiled 'The Book of the Science of Music', a collection of about 355 compositions, 9 of which were by Cantemir himself. This collection charted the theory and forms of 17th century Ottoman music, and was written in a notation also devised by Cantemir. The music in the programme includes several works form this book, and traditional music from the Ottoman world during this time, including recordings by Hesperion XXI.
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20-Sep-2010
The Early Music Show - Ensemble Elyma
Lucie Skeaping presents a concert of Latin American music from Ensemble Elyma at Greyfriars' Kirk in Edinburgh, as part of the 2010 Edinburgh International Festival. This concert attempts the impossible: to reconstruct the sound of a colonial fiesta, in this case the Fest of Our Lady of Guadelupe, in the city of La Plata (also called Chuquisaca, and now known as Sucre, in Bolivia). The Latin American fiesta was, and remains the meeting-point par excellence of a variety of cultures, practices, expressions and people. It takes place under the guise of a religious celebration, but it is open to other kinds of expression and sometimes generates cultural tensions and contradictions. The openness of the fiesta blurs the boundaries between sacred and profane, individual and collective, and momentarily lifts social and moral barriers. In other words, the fiesta creates a space and a time that are qualitatively distinct. Much that is impossible in everyday life may become a reality during the fiesta. By the 18th Century, the Guadelupe festivities lasted for ten days and included a striking succession of events of various kinds. On the eve of the feast, the picture of Our Lady of Guadelupe was removed from its chapel and brought into the cathedral, where it remained until the end of the celebrations. For the next ten days, Masses were said almost without interruption all through the morning and daily Salve services were sung in the afternoon. The latter consisted of a Latin or bilingual Salve Regina, the Litany of Loretom and sometimes also a motet of villancico. This concert comprises four of these services, all of which present one or two large pieces by the composer Roque Jacinto de Chavarria, as well as smaller motets or villancicos.
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19-Sep-2010
The Early Music Show - Edinburgh Festival 2010: Florilegium
Lucie Skeaping introduces highlights of a concert recorded in Greyfriar's Kirk as part of this year's Edinburgh International Festival. The concert was given by the ensemble Florilegium, joined by a quartet of young Bolivian singers, in music recently unearthed from the Christian missions of Chiquitos and Moxos Indians in eastern Bolivia.
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19-Sep-2010
The Early Music Show - John Stanley
Lucie Skeaping explores the life and music of John Stanley who, despite a tragic accident that left him blind at the age of two, became very successful in the 18th-century music world, partly thanks to his remarkable memory. As a composer he wrote numerous concertos, sonatas, cantatas and anthems; as a player of both the violin and the organ he attracted listeners from far and wide - and he directed several Handel cantatas and the Messiah from memory.
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13-Sep-2010
The Early Music Show - Marie Salle
Marie Sallé was one of the most revolutionary and successful dancers of her age. She danced in several Handel Operas and in works by Rebel and Rameau among others, performing expressive, dramatic dances during a period when displays of technical virtuosity were more popular. The first woman to choreograph the ballets in which she appeared, she anticipated the late 18th-century reforms of Jean-Georges Noverre. Catherine Bott explores the life and impact of Sallé and the music to which she danced.
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12-Sep-2010
The Early Music Show - The Beggar's Opera
In this month's Early Music Show "opera profile", Lucie Skeaping looks at the inspiration, background and impact of John Gay's celebrated Beggar's Opera which appeared in London in 1728 as a reaction to the excesses and pretensions of fashionable Italian opera. Far from the exulted realms of the ancient heroes and the classical gods, the opera celebrates the worst of 18th century London street life, featuring beggars, cut-throats, thieves and prostitutes singing the popular ballad tunes of the day. Lucie considers the London lust for ballads and ballad-singing during this time, and is joined by Jeremy Barlow of the Broadside Band, at Lincoln's Inn Fields, the home to the first performances of The Beggar's Opera, to consider Gay's radical operatic satire the ballads inspired.
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08-Sep-2010
The Early Music Show - Dartington 2010: 2. Dufay Collective
Continuing the Early Music Show's weekend at the 2010 Dartington International Summer School, Lucie Skeaping introduces highlights of a concert given by the Dufay Collective in Dartington's Great Hall. The concert was entitled "One Morning in May" and traces the history of English folk music from the 13th to the 17th Centuries. Lucie also chats with the group's leader Bill Lyons about the concert programme and his relationship with Dartington.
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08-Sep-2010
The Early Music Show - Dartington 2010: Episode 1
Dartington's International Summer School grew out of the very first Edinburgh Festival in 1947 and has run every year since, attracting luminaries in the musical world to work alongside talented amateurs and professionals. 2010 is the last year which the Summer School will be under the stewardship of Artistic Director Gavin Henderson, who has been running the Summer School since 1985. Dartington has long had a strong focus on early music, and Lucie Skeaping travelled to the 2010 Summer School to speak with some of the various illustrious tutors about events there this year and about the importance of the Summer School for early music in this country.
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08-Sep-2010
The Early Music Show - The Court of Mary, Queen of Scots
David McGuinness visits Stirling Castle and the Palace of Holyrood House in Edinburgh, to trace the story of Mary Queen of Scots' reign, and the music which surrounded her. From the devotional masses and motets by Robert Carver - so popular with Mary's father, King James V, to the jolly French dances she would have enjoyed during her first marriage to Francis Dauphin of France, Mary remained a music lover throughout her short life. Queen Mary's favourite attendant and confidante during her second marriage to her cousin, Lord Henry Darnley, was an Italian musician called David Rizzio. Darnley and David Rizzio spent long hours together on the tennis court at Falkland Palace, but Darnley's jealousy grew at the Italian's familiarity with his new wife, and he planned to do away with Rizzio at the earliest opportunity. The political assassination that followed was carefully staged, with 500 armed men keeping the Palace of Holyrood House secure while Lord Ruthven and his accomplices burst in to Mary's chamber, where she and Rizzio were sharing supper with guests. Rizzio was dragged from the dinner table and stabbed more than 50 times in front of the Queen.
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30-Aug-2010
The Early Music Show - Thomas Ravenscroft - Harmony to please, varietie to delight
In 1609, one of the "most eccentric characters in an age of professed eccentics", one Thomas Ravenscroft edited Pammelia, the earliest English printed collection of rounds and catches. Lucie Skeaping explores the life and music of the man who wanted to produce "Harmony to please, varietie to delight".
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29-Aug-2010
The Early Music Show - Monteverdi Book IV
Robert Hollingworth presents a programme exploring Monteverdi's powerful 4th book of madrigals from 1603. Robert looks at, among other striking features, some of Monteverdi's extraordinary setting of the texts and their emotional impact, and he plays recordings of a selection of these madrigals by Concerto Italiano, the Consort of Musicke, I Fagiolini and La Venexiana.
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29-Aug-2010
The Early Music Show - Le Balet Comique de la Royne
Lucie Skeaping explores the origins of classical ballet, which can be found in the lavish 'balet comique de la royne', an ambitious and influential stage entertainment that was given in Paris, on 15 October 1581 in the court of Catherine de Medici, to celebrate the marriage of the Duc de Joyeuse and Mlle de Vaudemont. It was conceived and directed by Catherine's director of court festivals, Balthasar de Beaujoyeux, who sought to bring together all the art forms - including for the first time, dramatic dance - for a huge allegorical spectacle in the spirit of the ancient Greeks. The verse was by the Sieur de la Chesnaye, the scenery by Patin, and the music by the bass singer Lambert de Beaulieu, Jacques Salmon, and others. Catherine was so pleased with the event that she had all its details meticulously recorded, published and circulated, which is how we have come to know so much about it. In recent years the Swiss-based group Ensemble Elyma and their director Gabriel Garrido have researched and recorded the music of the entertainment, and it is this recording that is featured in the programme. Lucie looks back on the history of the piece, how it was performed, what it looked like and what it meant.
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23-Aug-2010
The Early Music Show - Ockeghem - A Life in Music
One of the most influential composers of his time - or any other time for that matter, Johannes Ockeghem has been called "the most original musical mind of the 15th century", and this year sees the probable 600th anniversary of his birth. He was so highly regarded by his contemporaries that many of them wrote poems and music to honour him. Catherine Bott explores Ockeghem's life together with some of these musical tributes and homages to the man who they called "Maistre et bon pere" - master and good father.
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22-Aug-2010
The Early Music Show - Marguerite of Austria
Catherine Bott presents a programme telling the unfortunate tale of Marguerite of Austria, ill-fated in love and marriage but who was a pre-eminent patron of the arts. At the age of 2, Marguerite was betrothed to the 13-year old dauphin of France, the future Charles VIII, and she moved to France at the age of 3 in 1483. 8 years later though she returned home, humiliated that Charles had married Anne of Brittany instead. In 1497 Marguerite married Juan of Spain but he died 6 months later; after a few years she married Philibert de Savoie but this marriage too ended with his untimely death 3 years later. Soon afterwards Marguerite also lost her brother, Philippe de Beau, leaving 4 children and a mentally ill wife. Music and literature flourished at her court, as well as the visual arts, and Marguerite established a very impressive library of manuscripts and books. Poets and scholars dedicated works to her and she also wrote poetry herself, often lamenting her misfortunes, and titles such as 'regrets' or 'complaintes' dominate her collection of chansons. Several notable composers worked at her court, in particular Pierre de la Rue, and the music in the programme includes compositions that appeared in some of her manuscripts by Ockeghem, Agricola, Josquin and de la Rue.
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22-Aug-2010
The Early Music Show - La Querelle des Bouffons
Lucie Skeaping looks at the background to the historically significant "musical war" - the "Querelle des Bouffons". On 1st August 1752 a performance of Pergolesi's operatic divertimento, "La Serva Padrona" by an Italian troupe of performers in Paris, sparked a great pamphlet war in the capital about the respective merits of Italian and French opera. The debate became known as La Querelle des Bouffons or the "Quarrel of the Comedians". On the surface, the 'pamphlet war' seemed little more than a debate about two contrasting operatic genres: the established "tragedie lyrique" as created in the previous century by Lully and then practised by such as Jean Philippe Rameau,; and the lighter, comic opera, that was then the rage in Italy. In reality the debate had a crucial subtext - a political, philosophical and aesthetic polarisation of the principles of King of France on one hand, and the Queen on the other; of the traditional ideals of society and thinking against the emerging philosophy of the enlightenment; of the desire to create a more immediate and less rhetorical art form. At the forefront of the debate was none other than the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Lucie Skeaping unpicks the story and draws on some of the key music featured in the debate. The programme includes operatic excerpts from works by Pergolesi, Lully, Rameau, Mondonville and Dauvergne - and significantly by Jean-Jacques Rousseau himself.
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16-Aug-2010
The Early Music Show - The Caccini Sisters
Giulio Caccini was one of the most successful composers and highly renowned singers of his age. But lesser known are his two daughters, Francesca and Settimia Caccini. Both women were highly accomplished singers in their own right, and composers as well, and they both rose to become the highest paid members of their respective courts. Francesca also holds another claim to fame, as the first ever female composer of an opera, and she has been lauded as the most important female composer between the 11th Century Hildegard of Bingen and the 19th Century. Lucie Skeaping investigates the lives of these two extraordinary women.
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15-Aug-2010
The Early Music Show - Handel the Gourmand
Lucie Skeaping talks to chef Clarissa Dickson Wright about Handel's love of food. Contemporary pictures and biographers depicted the composer as being over-interested in food, and having a 'great appetite'. From the famous London chop houses and al fresco picnics along the Thames to new spices and curries, Lucie and Clarissa explore eating and drinking habits in Handel's day.
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09-Aug-2010
The Early Music Show - Orlando Gibbons
Lucie Skeaping looks back on the life and music of the Jacobean prodigy, Orlando Gibbons. Should we be surprised that he was one of Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould's favourite composers? - the range and variety of Gibbons' remarkably accomplished output continues to inspire musicians from many different musical disciplines. Lucie Skeaping presents a cross-section of his works, not least his most famous piece, "The Silver Swan".
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08-Aug-2010
The Early Music Show - Accademia Bizantina
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights from a concert performed in May this year by Accademia Bizantina, directed by Ottavio Dantone, with soprano Roberta Invernizzi, at the Schwetzingen Festival in Germany. Music featured is by Vivaldi, Pergolesi and Handel.
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08-Aug-2010
The Early Music Show - Carl Heinrich Graun
Catherine Bott delves into the life and the intriguing music of mid-18th century German composer Carl Heinrich Graun - not necessarily a famous name these days, but in his time, along with Hasse, considered to be the most important German composer of Italian opera. As a young man, Graun had his fingers in many musical pies, and by the time he reached his early 20s, was an accomplished singer, cellist, keyboard-player and composer. He spent nine happy years in the service of the Duke of Brunswick, where, in 1733, he came onto Prince Frederick of Prussia's radar, and before long, Graun was given a plum job at Frederick's court. Soon after that, the music-loving Prince Frederick acceded to the throne, and, as Frederick the Great, began to challenge the world on all fronts. While the new emperor prepared his armies to invade Silesia, his trusty Kapellmeister Graun set off to scout the opera houses of Italy and bring back the best talent to Berlin. Frederick was an ardent opera enthusiast and was determined to turn Berlin into an international operatic centre. To that end, he commissioned two new stages from architect and painter George Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, both inaugurated within 12 months of one another, with new productions of operas by Graun. The first was Graun's setting of Rodelinda for the theatre at the royal residence in the Berliner Stadtschloss, and the second, in December 1742, was for the opera house in central Berlin, at Unter den Linden, which opened to huge critical praise with Graun's magnificent Cleopatre et Cesare. Graun's music expresses the moving, the tender and the imploring; his simplification of certain aspects of the operatic structure, like the arioso (a style of singing somewhere between aria and recitative) and even ballet, point to the next generation of composers, especially the most famous 18th-century musical reformer of all - Gluck. Playlist: Graun: Herr, ich habe lieb die Statte deines Hauses L'arpa Festante Basler Madrigalisten Fritz Naf (conductor) CPO 777 158-2 Tr 12 Graun: Trio in C for viola da gamba, keyboard and continuo (3rd mvt) Philippe Pierlot (viola da gamba) Ricercar Consort RICERCAR RIC 047025 Tr 12 Graun: Pompe vane di morte (Rodelinda) Nathalie Stutzman (contralto) The Hanover Band Roy Goodman (director) RCA 09026 61903-2 Tr 4 Graun: Overture (Cleopatre and Cesare) Concerto Koln Rene Jacobs (director) HARMONIA MUNDI HMC 901561.63 Disc 1 Tr 1 Graun: Ecco mio Ben l'istante (Cleopatre and Cesare) Cleopatra ...... Janet Williams Cesare ...... Iris Vermillion Concerto Koln Rene Jacobs (conductor) HARMONIA MUNDI HMC 901561.63 Disc 3 Tr 14 Graun: Sonata in G for flute (3rd mvt) Barthold Kuijken (transverse flute) Wieland Kuijken (cello) Bob van Asperen (harpsichord) SONY CLASSICAL SK66267 Tr 15 Graun: Der Tod Jesu (Nos 23 and 24) Klaus Mertens (baritone) Kammerchor Cantamus Halle Capella Savaria Pal Nemeth (director) QUINTANA (HARMONIA HUNDI) QUI 903061 Trs 23-24 Graun: Montezuma (Ah sol per te) Encarnacion Vasquez (Montezuma) Dorothea Wirtz (Eupaforice) Deutsche Kammerakademie Johannes Goritzki (conductor) CAPRICCIO 60 032-2 Disc 2 Tr 14.
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02-Aug-2010
The Early Music Show - Opera Profiles: 4. Hasse's Piramo e Tisbe
As part of the Opera on the BBC season, Lucie Skeaping discusses Hasse's opera Piramo e Tisbe with the conductor Michael Schneider. Johann Adolf Hasse was the most celebrated composer of opera seria for several decades of the 18th century in Italy and Germany-speaking countries. Piramo e Tisbe, Hasse's penultimate opera, was very different from any of his others and was considered quite modern for its day. The work was commissioned while he was in Vienna by an unnamed French lady, who sang the role of Tisbe in the performance in a private theatre. Lucie Skeaping and Michael Schneider talk about the striking qualities of this work, illustrated with extracts from his recording, with the title roles sung by Barbara Schlick and Ann Monoyios, and the ensemble La Stagione.
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01-Aug-2010
The Early Music Show - Dufay's Europe
Guillaume Dufay was one of the most famous and successful composers of the mid 15th century. Born in Cambrai in what is now northern France, he spent most of his career touring Europe, working in some of the most important and influential centres of his day. He found himself in the middle of many of the major political struggles comfronting the 15th century which inevitably had a profound impact both on his life and music. Lucie Skeaping reflects on Dufay's Europe.
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31-Jul-2010
The Early Music Show - Gainsborough's Georgian England
Thomas Gainsborough had a deep love of music and many of his portraits include musical themes. He was himself a keen amateur player of the gamba and he included many musicians as friends, and as subjects for his portraits. Catherine Bott meets art historian and author of several books on the artist, Michael Rosenthal of Warwick University, for an exploration of what the Gainsborough portraits tell us about the role of music in the late 18th century. The programme includes comment about Gainsborough's portraits of Karl Friedrich Abel; Johann Christian Bach; and the Linley family, as well as paintings of some notable amateurs from the English gentry such as William Wollaston and the redoubtable Anne Ford.
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25-Jul-2010
The Early Music Show - Pachelbel's Vespers
Lucie Skeaping discovers that there is a lot more to Pachelbel than his famous Canon when she talks to the director of the ensemble Charivari Agreable, Kah-Ming Ng, about their recent collaboration with the King's Singers in a recording of Pachelbel's Vespers. About three centuries after they had been written, Kah-Ming Ng resurrected the manuscripts of these Vesper movements that had been lying forgotten in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. During the programme he talks to Lucie about the style of Pachelbel's vocal music, and how these Vespers came to be written, and they play a selection of music from this recording.
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19-Jul-2010
The Early Music Show - Caravaggio and Music
2010 marks the 400th anniversary of the death of the painter Caravaggio, and on today's programme, Catherine Bott talks to the art critic, writer and broadcaster Andrew Graham-Dixon about the Italian master, and some of the musical references found in his work. In terms of religion, Caravaggio was born in troubled times, and losing many members of his family to the plague when he was a child left him psychologically scarred. Caravaggio led a rather shadowy, some might say dissolute life, and spent the last years of his life on the run after killing a man in Rome. His paintings are considered by some to be the real beginnings of Baroque art, full of light and shade, and often quite macabre and gruesome in content. Andrew Graham Dixon, who has just written a new book about Caravaggio, puts some of the painter's most famous works into the context of his fascinating life, alongside a soundtrack of music from the time by Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Cavalieri and Caccini. He and Catherine Bott also look in detail at three of Caravaggio's "musical" paintings: "The Lute Player", "The Musicians" and the troublesome "Amor vincit omnia".
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18-Jul-2010
The Early Music Show - Opera Profile: Lully's Armide
Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of Lully's 17th Century operatic masterpiece "Armide" with French conductor Hugo Reyne highlighting some of its qualities and innovations. Jean-Baptiste Lully almost single-handedly created French opera, and his Tragedie-Lyrique (tragic opera) "Armide" about a sorceress and her love for the valiant hero Renaud, was the culmination of a long and fruitful collaboration with librettist Philippe Quinault. "Armide" was instantly recognised as a masterpiece, remarkable not only for its attractive music, and affective dramatic architecture, as for its genius in setting the French language to music, and the psychological depths portrayed by its characters. As part of the BBC year long celebration of opera, and the Early Music Show's monthly profile of important Baroque masterworks, Lucie Skeaping examines "Armide" with contributions from Lully champion and conductor Hugo Reyne. Key moments from the opera are performed from CD by Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale.
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18-Jul-2010
The Early Music Show - Paving the way for the Red Priest - Venice Before Vivaldi
Catherine Bott explores the composers and the musical climate of Venice around the time of Vivaldi's birth there in 1678.
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12-Jul-2010
The Early Music Show - NCEM Young Composers Award 2010
Lucie Skeaping introduces a concert by the Tallis Scholars from Chester Cathedral given as part of the Chester Festival featuring the winning compositions of the 2010 NCEM Young Composers Award. Now in its second year, the National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award is an incentive for young people to compose a new a cappella (unaccompanied) piece for Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass which utilises the majestic ambiance of Chester Cathedral and the remarkable singing skills of The Tallis Scholars. The winners of the NCEM Composers Award 2010 are Owain Park, aged 16 from Bristol in the 18 years and under category and Alexander Campkin, aged 25 from London in the 19 - 25 category. This programme offers a chance to hear the two winning compositions as well as hear the remarkable singing skills of the Tallis Scholars under Peter Phillips in performances of music by Palestrina.
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11-Jul-2010
The Early Music Show - York Early Music Festival 2010
Catherine Bott focuses on events at this year's York Early Music Festival in a live show of performance and chat from the National Centre for Early Music. Featured artists in the programme include I Fagiolini; soprano Barbara Schlick with harpsichordist Peter Seymour; director of Musica Fiata, Roland Wilson; and counter-tenor James Bowman with lutenist David Miller. The theme of this year's festival is "Musical Marriages" and this programme will preface some of the half dozen concerts that Radio 3 will be recording for future broadcast from this year's foremost festival in the UK early music calendar.
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11-Jul-2010
The Early Music Show - La Reverdie - recorded at York Early Music Festival 2008
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert recorded in 2008 from the Chapter House in York Minster as part of the York Early Music Festival. The concert was given by La Reverdie, a 5-piece group founded by two pairs of Italian sisters, Claudia and Livia Caffagni and Elisabetta and Ella de Mirkovich who specialise in bringing to life the vast and varied repertoire from the Middle Ages. Doron David Sherwin is the fifth member of the group playing cornetto; they are all vocalists - and players of lute, vielle harp, rebec, percussion and recorder between them. The music in the concert traces Dufay's early Italian journeys, as he visited some of Italy's cultural centres.
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05-Jul-2010
The Early Music Show - Aldeburgh Festival 2010: La Nuova Musica
Lucie Skeaping presents a concert given by the ensemble La Nuova Musica at Blythburgh church in Suffolk, as part of the 2010 Aldeburgh Festival. The ensemble - founded by the countertenor David Bates in 2007 - comprises some of Europe's finest early music specialists who share a common desire to shed new light on standard repertoire and bring neglected gems to the fore. This concert features music by Giovanni Gabrieli & Heinrich Schütz. Schütz's sacred output is magnificent in sheer volume and invention. His work in Italy culminates in his Sinfoniae Sacrae III of 1650, in which his mastery of instrumental writing, his attention to word painting and seeming obsession with sonority and texture reaches unsurpassed heights. They contrast these massive works with some of Schütz's most intimate and tender motets from his Kleine Geistliche Konzerte along with the greatest instrumental and polychoral music from his Venetian music-master, Giovanni Gabrieli.
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04-Jul-2010
The Early Music Show - Edward III
Lucie Skeaping looks back on Edward III's 14th Century England with historian Ian Mortimer, focusing on the nation's life and musical culture. Edward III can be seen as a defining monarch in the history of the nation. After the disastrous reign of his father Edward II, he rebuilt the nation's confidence modelling his monarchy on the chivalric sensibilities of the legendary Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. The Hundred Years War began with Edward; he undertook a huge programme of castle building; and besides many other things, established the Order of the Garter. This was the age when the English language started to become the nation's lingua franca; it is the age of The Green Knight; Piers Plowman; and Geoffrey Chaucer. Lucie meets historian Ian Mortimer, an authority of the 14th century and Edward's biographer, to learn more about this period, and she reflects on the Englishness of the music of his age.
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04-Jul-2010
The Early Music Show - Dom Dinis - King of Portugal
Catherine Bott explores the musical legacy of King Dinis I of Portugal. He was a remarkable man, born in the year 1261, and ruled Portugal for 46 years during which time he consolidated both his country's economy and its frontiers, limiting the powers of the aristocracy and resolving conflicts in the church. He was known for his wisdom, prudence and passion for justice, and not only was his court a refuge for poets and minstrels from all over the Iberian peninsula and beyond, he also joined them with his own poetry and music.
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28-Jun-2010
The Early Music Show - Venanzio Rauzzini
Catherine Bott visits Bath to mark the bicentenary of the death of one of its most famous adopted sons - the celebrated 18th century singer, teacher and composer, Venanzio Rauzzini. Rauzzini was born near Rome, and spent the early part of his career wowing audiences in Venice, Munich and Vienna. When the 16-year old Mozart heard Rauzzini sing for the first time, he was so dazzled by its beauty and by his acting ability that he decided to write the lead role in his new opera for him. Rauzzini gave the premiere of Lucio Silla in Milan in 1772, and took the audiences there by storm - so much so, that Mozart wrote his now famous Exsultate Jubilate for him as a thankyou gift. After several successful seasons at the King's Theatre in London, Rauzzini settled in Bath, where he remained for the last 30 years of his life, running the city's musical life, virtually single-handed. Rauzzini was incredibly good-looking and charming - in fact he was quite a hit with the ladies, especially those of the nobility. It's said that one Lady Gooch offered him a vast some of money to go off with her...which, incidentally, he declined! The bass-baritone Raimund Herincx, who is something of a Rauzzini expert, believes that Rauzzini's prowess in the bedroom might suggest that he wasn't actually a castrato at all, but a natural male soprano - rather like Radu Marian and Michael Maniaci, whose voices both feature in the programme. Catherine and Raimund visit Bath Abbey - the site of Rauzzini's grave and memorial plaque - and his beautiful house in the suburb of Widcombe, where Joseph Haydn visited him in 1794.
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27-Jun-2010
The Early Music Show - The City of Salzburg
Lucie Skeaping takes a look at some of the composers who lived and worked in Salzburg, before it became the Mozartean shrine we know it as today! The city itself is the fourth largest in modern-day Austria, and sits neatly on the banks of the river Salzach, at the northern boundary of the Alps. The name Salzburg - literally "Salt Castle" - comes from the salt mines in the area that helped start the regeneration of the city in the 7th century. It was a holy man - Saint Rupert - who saw its potential - and founded the city on what was the ruined Roman settlement of Iuvavum. A hundred or so years later, barges carrying salt along the river, were subject to a toll, and as a result, the city began to flourish. Rupert was also the founder of Christianity in the region, and the cathedral which was begun there during his lifetime, now bears both his name, and his relics - although there has been a lot of building and rebuilding over the 13-hundred or so years since his demise! In the 17th & 18th centuries, Salzburg was also an important seat in the Holy Roman Empire, and for a time was even an independent state within it. The cathedral and its surroundings naturally attracted all sorts of people, including craftsmen, artists and musicians such as Heinrich Finck, Paul Hofhaimer, Johann Stadlmayr, Abraham Megerle, Heinrich Biber, Georg Muffat, Michael Haydn and Leopold Mozart.
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21-Jun-2010
The Early Music Show - Performer Profile: Paolo Pandolfo
Lucie Skeaping talks to the viola da gamba virtuoso, Paolo Pandolfo.. Pandolfo is particularly interested in the art of improvisation, and Lucie chats to him about his approach to the instrument and repertoire. Music in the programme includes a selection from his acclaimed recordings including Abel and Marin Marais, and also a movement from Pandolfo's own transcription for the viol of Bach's cello suites.
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20-Jun-2010
The Early Music Show - Opera Profiles: 2. Alessandro Scarlatti's Griselda
Griselda is the last surviving and 114th Opera by Alessandro Scarlatti, maybe the greatest composer of his generation. Written a full 42 years after his first Opera, it was curiously neglected for a long time and after the premiere of the work in 1721, it was not to receive another performance until late in the 20th Century. Catherine Bott explores Griselda and the reasons for its neglect, joined by the eminent early music expert and advocate of Scarlatti, Nicholas McGegan. This programme forms part of the Early Music Show's monthly reflections on great Baroque operas, presented as part of the "Opera on the BBC" festivities.
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13-Jun-2010
The Early Music Show - Ghostwriter: The Story of Henri Desmarest
Henry Desmarest was obviously a talented musican and composer, first boy page and then musician in Louis XIV's court, he began ghost-writing Grands Motets for one of the chapel directors Nicholas Goupillet when he was in his early twenties. After a decade, this scandal was uncovered, but it was not the last of Desmarest's woes! A few years later, he fell in love with one of his pupils, who also happened to be the daughter of a wealthy and powerful man who managed to get the composer sentenced to death, forcing Desmarest to spend the rest of his days in exile. Lucie Skeaping explores the extraordinary life and music of Henry Desmarest.
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09-Jun-2010
The Early Music Show - Mariane von Ziegler
Catherine Bott examines JS Bach's cantata collaboration with authoress Mariane von Ziegler - a unique relationship which, as Mark A Peters in his new book about the poetess argues, brought a "woman's voice to Baroque Music". In establishing his Protestant Church, Martin Luther had been very specific about the role of women - there wasn't one. It is all the more extraordinary then, that JS Bach, a devout Lutheran, and Cantor at one of the church's most prestigious institutions, St Thomas's in Leipzig, should have undertaken a collaboration with a local authoress for a series of weekly cantatas for use in the liturgy, bringing a woman's interpretation of the biblical texts into the heart of the church service. Mariane von Ziegler was a local poet who felt passionately for the intellectual rights of women. She would eventually emerge as Germany's first female Poet Laureate. Her cantata texts arguably inspired Bach to a different pattern of cantata writing. Together, in 1725, they created a sequence of nine new cantatas for St Thomas's. In this programme Catherine Bott, looks back on the life and career of Mariane, considering her achievement alongside a rich selection of music drawn from the Bach/von Ziegler collaboration.
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