Baroque. Contrasted. – Sheet Music Daily

Caption Competition: Tell us why Zen isn’t looking very, er, Zen and win tickets to Baroque. Contrasted.

April 7, 2011/in Orchestra /by loaiasha12345678

When we did our ‘Green’ picture a while back we saw afterwards that on one of the shots we took our Digital Content Officer, Zen, had a particularly angry/shocked expression on his face…unusual for him given that, as his name suggests, he’s a particularly calm person.

Anyway – what do you think is on the piece of paper he seems to be reading? Or, what’s he thinking of saying? Post your suggestions here and our favourites will receive a pair of tickets to their choice of one of the following events this weekend at Kings Place:

Saturday 9 April at 12.30pm: Sing Baroque! Join OAE Co-Principal Keyboard Steven Devine to sing music by Purcell

Sunday 10 April at 11.30am: Coffee Concert with the OAE Experience Ensemble, directed by Alison Bury – music by Telemann, Boyce, Purcell and Handel.

Deadline for entries is 9pm tomorrow evening.

Baroque. Contrasted: final Daily Trivia

April 6, 2011/in Orchestra /by loaiasha12345678

It’s the last day of our hugely exciting trivia section… *sob*

Here are the final titbits for your musical pleasure:

Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630) was a German composer of the early Baroque era and was afflicted with poor health- his wife died in childbirth; four of his five children died in infancy; he died at age 44, having suffered from tuberculosis, gout, scurvy and a kidney disorder.

Hugh Aston (1485-1558) was an English composer of the early Tudor period. His initial salary at The Newarke (a musical institution in Leicester) was £10 a year, only £2 a year less than that of the Dean. Listen to his Hornpype (which we’re playing on Friday) here.

William Brade (1560-1630) was an English composer, violinist, and viol player of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras and liked to change jobs frequently- during his career, he moved 13 times!

If you’d like to hear more music from these composers, why not try one of our hour-long concerts at Kings Place?

Concerts start tomorrow night from 6.45pm and more details can be found on our website.

Matthew Truscott on Purcell’s emotional depths and Handel’s borderline smugness

April 6, 2011/in Orchestra /by loaiasha12345678

Now you get to hear from a player rather than just office bods! In this latest vid OAE leader Matthew Truscott talks about the concert he has devised and is directing at Kings Place on 9 April, – a programme which features Purcell, Bach and Handel, including how the concert fits into the Baroque. Contrasted. theme of the festival.

Next up, another round of Baroque trivia.

Baroque. Contrasted: Daily Trivia 3

April 5, 2011/in Orchestra /by loaiasha12345678

As promised, here’s another dose of daily trivia for you, featuring some of the lesser known composers we’ll be showcasing this week at Kings Place:

Biagio Marini (1594-1663) was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer of the first half of the seventeenth century who married three times and had five children. He was the first composer to notate tremolo (trembling) effects into his music.

Francisco Correa de Araujo (1584-1654) was a notable Spanish organist, composer, and theorist of the late Renaissance as well as a priest.

Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594), a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Renaissance, was rumoured to have been kidnapped three times because of the singular beauty of his singing voice.

More random facts tomorrow!

OAE staff natter about Baroque. Contrasted.

April 5, 2011/in Orchestra /by loaiasha12345678

We let three OAE office staff loose on camera to talk about our concerts at Kings Place this week – and here are the results. There is some logic to this as the staff have all been closely involved not just with co-ordinating running and marketing the events but also with devising some of the more unusual events, such as Barqoue from Scratch and Sing Baroque! Have a watch and do come along this week – and if you recognise us from the video do come and say hello! Next up is another video with OAE leader Matthew Truscott talking about the programme of Bach, Purcell and Handel he has devised for the festival.

Baroque. Contrasted: Daily Trivia 2

April 4, 2011/in Orchestra /by loaiasha12345678

Some more baroque trivia in the run up to our concerts at Kings Place this week. You can hear music from all the composers featured during our hour-long concerts this Thursday and Friday.

Tarquinio Merula (1594/5-1665) got into trouble with some of his students at a musical institution in Bergamo, and was charged with indecency. Listen to his Chiacona which features in Thursday’s concert

Giovanni Zamboni – whose exact dates are unknown – was an accomplished composer for the theorbo as well as a jewel-maker and fine swordsman!

Bendinelli (1542-1617) was the author of the first known course of published trumpet lessons, Tutta L’arte Della Trombetta which gathered together the earliest known pieces for the clarino (higher) register, dating from 1584-88.

More trivia tomorrow, and we’ll be testing you all on Saturday!

Baroque. Contrasted: Daily Trivia

April 1, 2011/in Orchestra /by loaiasha12345678

Next week sees the start of our mini-festival at Kings Place, Baroque. Contrasted.

We kick off on 6 April with 5 days of concerts, talks, demonstrations and two chances to join the OAE. Most of the composers we’ll be featuring should be pretty familiar- Vivaldi, Purcell, Bach- but we’re also showcasing some of the lesser-known but equally brilliant artists of the time.

Ahead of the opening night, we thought we’d give you a bit of daily trivia on some of these mysterious musicians…

Gottfried Finger (1660-1730) left London in a hurry in 1701 after allegedly being unjustly passed over for a composition prize. He financed his departure with the sale of a set of trio sonatas, of which Op 5 No.10 (which we play on 7 April) is unusually scored for recorder, cello (or bassoon) and continuo.

Alessandro Stradella (1639-1682) was murdered in Genoa just months after penning the wedding cantata Il Barcheggio, probably after an unwitting controversy over a woman (who preferred him to another man – the likely murderer).

Dario Castello (1590-?) has no biographical information at all; even his birth and death dates are unknown, although it is thought he may have died during the great plague of 1630. He was probably associated with St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, where Claudio Monteverdi was maestro di capella.

For more info on the festival, including a free flippable brochure and details of how to book, visit oae.co.uk/kingsplace

Next time…find out why composer Merula got into trouble…

Baroque. Contrasted: Playlists

March 31, 2011/in Orchestra /by loaiasha12345678

Next week we go Baroque crazy with our festival at Kings Place, an action-packed five days of concerts, talks, workshops and more. We’re playing some music from the big names of the Baroque, but the Thursday and Friday concerts also contain a few rarities. Any fans of the composer Finger here? Or William Williams?

Well, over the next few days we’re going to be posting up some potted facts about these lesser-known composers, and we’ve also put some playlists together for you on Spotify, so you can preview some of the music. We’ll also try and find some Youtube links for those of you who aren’t using Spotify yet.

Here are the Spotify links – enjoy!

Listen to highlights from the hour-long concerts on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 April here

Listen to highlights from the 7.30pm concert on Saturday 9 April here

Baroque. Contrasted. Staff picks

March 16, 2011/in Orchestra /by loaiasha12345678

On 6 April our next mini-festival at Kings Place, Baroque. Contrasted. kicks off with 5 days of concerts, talks, demonstrations and even singing-along showcasing the depth and variety of Baroque Music. We asked around the office to see what people here are most looking forward to:

I’m really looking forward to Steven Devine’s Sing Baroque event on 9 April. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to stretch my vocal chords and being able to sing choruses from the beautiful Dido & Aeneas is a pretty decent way to spend a Saturday lunchtime

Natasha Stehr, Marketing and Press Officer

It’s hard to chose, because there’s lots of fab music. I’m going to chose two events. First, Baroque Strings on 7 April, because it includes Vivaldi’s La Folia variations. It’s what the German’s call an ‘earworm’ – i.e. a tune you can’t get out of your head which just goes round and round on repeat…My second pick would be Sunday’s coffee concert. Not only is it just really lovely to start your Sunday with a coffee and great music, but it’s always fantastic seeing the students on our Apprenticeship scheme play. Plus the concert includes Purcell’s Abdelazar, which reminds me of playing it in my school orchestra – though I suspect this performance will be considerably better…

William Norris, Communications Director

The Sing Baroque event, because the OAE hasn’t done anything quite like this before and it will be a great opportunity to learn to sing some Purcell in an authentically OAE way from Steven Devine. I’d also like to prove to my colleagues in the office that the regular singing (or more like wailing) that I do on a regular basis in the office is merely scratching the surface of my raw talent…

Ceri Jones, Projects Officer

Having had a sneak preview of the concert on Friday 8 April at 6.45pm (The Sprightly Hautboy and the Soft Complaining Flute) when it was performed at the Garrick Club in February, I can speak from experience when I say that this event will be entertaining and illuminating. I was captivated by this repertoire, both familiar and less-familiar, and look forward to hearing these fabulous instruments being brought to life again (by the equally fabulous players) in this spring concert at Kings Place.

Stephen Carpenter, Chief Executive

You can view our online brochure for the festival here, or if you feel motivated to book you can do that here

Waste not, want not

March 10, 2011/in Orchestra /by loaiasha12345678

As you know we’re currently very keen on being green here at the OAE. It’s even extended to our recent photoshoot, where we indulged in a bit of recycling.

One of the ideas for next season’s photoshoot was to use white cut outs of instruments as we thought the projections would work better on them than real instruments. Rob, from designers Harrison & Co, had spent a long time making some fantastic cut outs of all the possible instruments we would need. However, after a few test shots this idea was ditched and we decided to go with the real thing. The cut outs lay discarded and unloved in the corner…

However during a break between photographing players the designers Chris and Rob and photographer Eric had a bit of a play with the cut outs and with the aid of some nifty lighting and what looks like some fishing line they made some really interesting shots.

The pictures didn’t really fit into the theme of the brochure though, so for a while we thought they might just remain interesting curiosities, destined to live in some far flung corner of the OAE’s server. But then – we came to design a brochure for our week of events at Kings Place, Baroque. Contrasted. and realised the pictures would be perfect. The designers added some colour to the pictures and they look fantastic. Below is a selection of them, and if you’d like to see a virtual brochure with them in you’ll find it here.

William Norris, Communications Director