November 2007 - Nr. 11
Musicians In Ordinary
THE MUSICIANS IN ORDINARY celebrate
NEW YEAR’S DAY
IN 17TH CENTURY VIENNA,
JANUARY 1, 2008 IN TORONTO
New Year’s Day in Vienna is a special day for music-lovers. And Canada’s Musicians In Ordinary have an extraordinary Viennese New Year’s Day treat.
In what may become a tradition, soprano Hallie Fishel and lutenist John Edwards present their second annual New Year’s Day concert of music from 17th century Vienna. It takes place Tuesday, January 1, 2008, 2 p.m. at the Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Ave. (north of Scollard Street in Yorkville; Bay St. subway).
Joining Fishel and Edwards are special guests Christopher Verrette and Cristina Zacharias, violins, and Laura Jones, viola da gamba. Edwards also performs on the theorbo, a large cousin of the lute.
Tickets are $20, $15 seniors and students, and may be purchased at the door. For information, call 416-535-9956, e-mail musinord@sympatico.ca or visit www.musiciansinordinary.ca.
Last year’s New Year’s Day Concert from 17th Century Vienna was such a success the hall was filled to overflowing. Instead of the traditional Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s frothy mix of waltzes, polkas, marches and 19th century operetta, audiences were regaled with corenti, gagliardi and excerpts from 17th century operas celebrating Hapsburg imperial weddings.
As John Edwards says, "The Vienna Phil has been playing Trisch-Trash and Blue Danube for nearly 70 years now. We’re starting a similar tradition, but we’ll give our audience a chance to hear some "new" old music by composers less well known, who worked in or wrote for the Viennese court in the 1600s. How did the Austrian capital get so Italian? It’s easy: all of the musicians who were working there were Italian in that century."
The January 1 concert includes music by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), the father of opera, who dedicated prints of his music to the Emperor; as well as less familiar names Giovanni Felice Sances (ca 1630-1679), a Neapolitan who was head of music in Vienna; violin composer Giovanni Buonamente (late 16th century-1642); archlute and theorbo composer Pietro Paolo Melli and others.
There will also be a violin sonata by Schmelzer and a Viola Bastarda decorated version of Suzanne Un Jour – the original chanson of which was written by the famed Orlando di Lasso – with the viola divisions by Spanish-born Bartolomeo De Selma y Salaverde, who worked in Innsbruck and Vienna. (The Spanish kings and the Holy Roman Emperors were all Hapsburgs at the time, so that kind of movement was common.)
MIO’s guest string players are accomplished specialists in this early Baroque repertoire. Violinists Christopher Verrette and Cristina Zacharias are both members of Tafelmusik, Canada's Baroque Orchestra. Verrette is also a founding member of Ensemble Ouabache in Indianapolis and the Chicago Baroque Ensemble. Zacharias collaborates frequently with musicians and ensembles of all descriptions, in Canada, the US and Europe. Laura Jones is a regular member of the Talisker Chamber Players, L’Intemporel Baroque Ensemble, and the Ossia Ensemble, as well as being principal cellist and gambist of the Nota Bene Period Orchestra, and assistant principal cellist of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.
