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Friday 12th March at 7.30 p.m. in St. Mary's Church

Le Jardin Secret
Elizabeth Dobbin soprano, Sofie Vanden Eynde theorbo & baroque guitar,
David Blunden harpsichord & organ, Romina Lischka viola da gamba

Veiled – baroque music for Holy Week

In association with The Arts at Dartington

The ensemble Le Jardin Secret presents the wonderful treasure of Baroque solo vocal literature accompanied by the full colour and beauty of original continuo and obligato instruments. With soprano Elizabeth Dobbin, the ensemble performs a wide range of 17th and 18th century repertoire with dedicated attention to historical context and to the possibilities of creative continuo playing and improvisation.

The music is intimate and highly expressive, exploiting the powerful and contrasting affects of the poetry to which it is set, welcoming the listener into the most secret places of the heart. Le Jardin Secret (in French a metaphor for the heart) is a place of sensual beauty and delight, of mystery and contemplation, of lament, grief and suffering, of amusement and assignation. It is the aim of the ensemble to bring to life the emotive energy of the music, opening the door to the aesthetic world of the Baroque in all its beguiling beauty.

In 2007, the ensemble won both the first prize and the audience prize in the Early Music Network International Young Artists’ Competition in York, England. It's first CD for the English label CORO (entitled "Musique pour Mazarin! - qui a le coeur a tout") was greeted with enthusiastic reviews in the press and was awarded the prestigious 5 star rating by Goldberg magazine. "Auf Wiener Art", the ensemble's second CD is due for release in September 2009.


Elizabeth Dobbin soprano
Elizabeth was born in Sydney, Australia where she began her musical training with piano. After graduating with first class honours in Arts/Law from the University of Sydney, she decided to devote herself full-time to singing. In 2006 she completed a degree in Early Music from the Royal Conservatory, The Hague in the Netherlands where she studied baroque singing with Jill Feldman, Michael Chance, Peter Kooij and Diane Forlano. Elizabeth works regularly as a soloist in performances of oratorios, cantatas and early opera in Holland, Germany, Austria and Belgium. With L’Arpeggiata she has appeared at the world-famous Early Music Festivals of Utrecht, Antwerp and Bruges. In the coming season she will appear in solo concerts with the New Dutch Academy and will record with Il Concerto Barocco the role of Magdelena in the world-premiere recording of Johann Heinrich Schmelzer’s baroque masterpiece, 'Stärcke der Lieb'.

Sofie Vanden Eynde theorbo and baroque guitar
Sofie was born in Lommel, Belgium in 1978. She studied guitar from an early age and began her formal musical studies at the Brussels Conservatory. Her interest for the poetic music of Renaissance and Baroque led her to study lute and theorbo. She graduated with honours in 2002 at the Ghent Conservatory, where she studied with Philippe Malfeyt. She transferred to the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and studied with Hopkinson Smith. Sofie has gained an international reputation as a specialist in historical plucked instruments. She appears together with La Cecchina, Les Cornets Noirs, Capriccio Basel, Nutmeg&Ginger, Naoki Kitaya and many singers. With the soprano Rebecca Ockenden she concentrates on lute songs. In 2006 she was awarded her home town’s prize of artistic recognition.

David Blunden harpsichord
Born in Sydney, David began his musical training with piano and organ studies. He won a scholarship to study the organ with David Rumsey at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he completed his studies in 1997. A keen interest in early music led David to post graduate studies at the renowned Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland where he studied organ with Jean-Claude Zehnder, harpsichord with Andrea Marcon and Improvisation with Rudolf Lutz, completing his studies in 2002 with the rarely awarded "Summa cum laude". In September 2001 he won the prestigious Innsbruck International Organ Competition. Living in Basle, David has established a lively career in Europe as a soloist, ensemble musician and accompanist appearing in major festivals, cities, theatres, and churches throughout the continent. As an ensemble musician, David appears regularly as a continuo player in numerous baroque orchestras and ensembles both in Europe and in Australia.

Romina Lischka viola da gamba
Romina first encountered the gamba at the age of thirteen while studying classical guitar in her native Austria. Inspired by early music, she took her first gamba lessons with Jorge Daniel Valencia and attended masterclasses with Wieland Kuijken and Jordi Savall. She completed her studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Paolo Pandolfo and in Brussels with Philippe Pierlot. In 2000, Romina won the “Prima la Musica” competition in Austria. In 2004 she was selected to take part in the Académie Européenne d'Ambronay, conducted by Christophe Rousset. Romina is a member of Les Flamboyants directed by Michael Form, the Ludovice Ensemble and performs with the Ricercar Consort. Her concert activities take her to Switzerland, Belgium, France, Austria, Holland, England, Portugal and Germany.

lejardinsecret.com

www.the-sixteen.org.uk/recordings for their latest CD.

Click here for Programme

Tickets £10 The Arts at Dartington members £9 Juniors & students £5 from the Dartington Box Office 01803 847070 or at the door.

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Saturday 10th April at 7.30 p.m. in St. Mary's Church

London Baroque

Ingrid Seifert violin, Charles Medlam cello, Steven Devine harpsichord

Music for Kings

A tour through the courts of London, Madrid, Brussels, Berlin and Paris with music written for Charles I, Philipp IV, the Archduke Ferdinand, Queen Christina, Frederick the Great and Louis XIV and XV

This concert is sponsored in loving memory of Dierdre Crapper

Formed thirty years ago in 1978, London Baroque enjoys the position of being one of the most experienced and long-lived baroque chamber groups around. London Baroque, regarded worldwide as one of the foremost exponents of baroque chamber music, remains loved and appreciated by audiences as much today as twenty years ago. "We are used to the high standard of these players. The tireless variation of phrasing and dynamics of the individual parts, the perfectly coordinated agogic detail together with the highly imaginative approach lead to wonderfully lively music-making." (Aug 2001); "... the performances were immaculately controlled, at all times a delight to the ear -- supple, flexible playing which touched the heights of virtuosity and the depths of emotion" Financial Times, 1980.

London Baroque continues to give vital and enriching performances with all the technical perfection and musical maturity their public has come to expect. They have performed in most of the major European festivals, appeared frequently on TV and radio the world over, and tour regularly in Japan and the USA. Their repertoire spans a period from the end of the sixteenth century up to Mozart and Haydn with works of virtually unknown composers next to familiar masterpieces of the baroque and early classical eras.

The 08/09 season contains programmes ranging from early English music to Mozart and contemporaries. With the four core players there will be appearances in England, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Abu Dhabi and Canada. In addition there will be concerts with Emma Kirkby in England, France, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Korea, China, Turkey and Singapore. London Baroque has performed at the Salzburg, Edinburgh, Bath, Beaune, Innsbruck, Utrecht, York Festivals, and the Stuttgart, Ansbach and Lausanne Bach festivals.

Recording now for BIS (after a long and fruitful collaboration with Harmonia Mundi, France) London Baroque's recent releases have received great critical acclaim; "Sympathetic and alert..with some finely poetic playing. These performances seem to me model." (Gramophone, Sept 2001) and "They have never made a better disc and neither have I heard a superior performance of any Handel trio sonata." (Goldberg, July 2001) -- both of their disc with Emma Kirkby of Handel sacred cantatas. And of their release of Vivaldi Op. 1 trio sonatas; "London Baroque bring their customary virtues to these performances, including excellent internal rapport and blend, a richly mined string tone, passion and intensity." (Gramophone, March 2001)

London Baroque has appeared on television in England, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Holland, Spain, Sweden, Poland, Brazil, Estonia, Hungary and Japan.

www.londonbaroque.com
 

Ingrid Seifert was born in Austria and studied the violin in Salzburg and Vienna.  Her interest in early music started while finishing her studies at the Salzburg Mozarteum.  After playing occasionally with Concentus Musicus, Wien and a period of study in Holland she co-founded London Baroque with Charles Medlam.  She now works exclusively with the group and  plays on a Jacobus Stainer made in 1661.

Charles Medlam studied the cello in London, Paris, Vienna and Salzburg before becoming interested in the bass viol and early performing styles.  After a year lecturing and playing in the resident string quartet at the Chinese University of Hong Kong he returned to Europe and studied with Maurice Gendron at the Paris Conservatoire, Wolfang Herzer in Vienna and subsequently cello with Heidi Litschauer and performance practice with Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Salzburg.  After grauduating with distinction from the Mozarteum he pursued his interest in the viol on frequent courses with Wieland Kuijken. He founded London Baroque with Ingrid Seifert in 1978.  His bass viol is an English instrument from around 1680, possibly by Barak Norman, which has had a seventh string added for the French repertoire.  

Steven Devine studied music at Oxford University and harpsichod with the late John Toll.  As conductor he works regularly with the Mozart Festival Orchestra, New Chamber Opera in Oxford  and was recently appointed Associate Music Director of Opera Restor’d.  Steven is the Co-Principal keyboard player with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which he directs from time to time. Ever since his schooldays, Steven has been associated with the Finchcocks Collection of historic keyboard instruments in Kent and was recently promoted to the post of Director of Education.  He has been Professor of Fortepiano at Trinity College of Music since 2003 and joined London Baroque in 2007.

Click here for the Programme

Non-members tickets £10 Juniors & students £5 available at the door.

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