Music | Birmingham Early Music Festival 2010
Birmingham Early Music Festival 2010
Friday 29 October • 7.30 pm
White Raven
Songs of Love and Death
BEMF is delighted to present the UK debut of White Raven, an exciting new group based in Switzerland and France. Each of the performers has a distinguished career in his/her own right (Kathleen Dineen recently recorded an album with Andreas Scholl; Robert Getchell is a regular on the Paris opera stage under Minkowski), but they have come together to form an extraordinary a cappella group with an absolutely captivating sound. They present a programme of English, French and Spanish music, mostly from the Middle Ages but also including some enchanting songs that reach across the centuries.
St Augustine’s Church
Thursday 11 November • 7.30 pm
John Potter and Ariel Abramovich
A Musicall Banquet
Renowned British tenor John Potter joins forces with Spanish lute and vihuela player Ariel Abramovich in a special programme to celebrate the 400th anniversary year of two publications by Robert Dowland, son of John Dowland. A Varietie of Lute Lessons is a compendium of European lute music from England, France, Germany and Italy, and contains fantasies, pavans, galliards, allemandes, courantes and voltas. The second publication, entitled A Musicall Banquet, is an extraordinary collection of songs from a golden age of English music.
The Birmingham & Midland Institute
Sunday 14 November • 3 pm
Le Basile
Finding Chaucer's Voice
This young international group presents a charming afternoon concert that highlights the cultural relationships between England and France in the 14th and 15th centuries. The programme is built around the towering figure of Geoffrey Chaucer and will include readings from his works. Artistic links will be traced from Machaut (the most famous French poet-composer of the 14th century, whose works were a huge influence on Chaucer) to works by English composers such as Walter Frye (who was greatly influenced by Chaucer).
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Wednesday 17 November • 7.30 pm
Susanne Rydén and Mark Tatlow
The Way of Angels
The Swedish soprano Susanne Rydén is one of the most sought-after artists in Europe, as soloist, opera singer and recitalist. For BEMF 2010 she joins up with Mark Tatlow, an English harpsichordist who is currently the artistic director of the Drottningholm Court Theatre in Stockholm. They will present a programme of works by Handel and Johann Helmich Roman (1694-1758), known as the ‘father of Swedish music’, who spent five years in London (1716-21), where he played in Handel's opera orchestra. Like Handel, he wrote Italian cantatas, but he was also one of the first composers to write music for the Swedish language, so this will be a rare opportunity to hear works by him (in Italian and Swedish) in the context of music by his more famous contemporary.
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Information
St Augustine's Church
Lyttelton Road
Edgbaston
Birmingham B16 9JN
The Birmingham & Midland Institute
Margaret Street
Birmingham B3 3BS
BEMF Friends enjoy a range of benefits, including a pair of complimentary tickets, 50% discount on further ticket purchases and an invitation to the Festival reception. For further details on the Friends scheme, please visit our website.
The Henry Barber Trust, The John Feeney Charitable Trust, The Michael Bishop Foundation, Limoges Trust and Godwin Harby.
Tickets: £12, concessions £6, students £3
Internet: www.bemf.net
Telephone: 0121 414 7333
In person: The Box Office at The Barber Institute is open from 10am to 4pm (Monday to Saturday) and from 12 noon to 4pm (Sunday).
Concessions apply to Senior Citizens, Friends of BEMF, Friends of the Barber Institute, wheelchair users and companion. Student tickets are available to those in full-time education or in receipt of benefits. In all cases, please provide proof of status.