PROJECTS

KUNST DER FUGE & DANCE

Discover a unique interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach’s unfinished masterpiece, “The Art of Fugue.” Hathor Consort and two dancers give their special take on the fugues and canons that illuminate Bach’s compositional genius and spiritual depth. The performance not only showcases the interplay between theme and counterpoint but also provides novel insights into the transient […]

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OPERE DI BARBARA STROZZI

A PORTRAIT OF BARBARA STROZZI IN 5 ACTS

Barbara Strozzi (1619 – 1677) was said to be “the most prolific composer – male or female – of printed secular vocal music” in Venice in the mid-17th century. She published eight volumes of her own music, and had more music in print than any other composer of the time. As the daughter of the […]

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Cantate, ariette & duetti
Romina Lischka | Photographer Geoffrey Schied

WINTER SOLSTICE

Early & traditional music from Scandinavia, Lithuania & England

Since the dawn of mankind, the sun has been a divine symbol of the lifegiving power of light. In ancient civilisations, celebrations and rituals in honour of the sun’s annual orbit were important fixed points in the annual calendar. Light festivals are celebrated in cultures all over the world, such as Diwali in India and […]

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WINTER JASMIN

Feasts and rituals celebrating the apparent annual orbit of the sun have traditionally been key points in the annual calendar. In the darkest time of the year, festivals of light such as carnival and yule from Scandinavia to the Alps are a source of light and good spirits. Winter Jasmine can bloom at the coldest […]

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Romina Lischka | Photographer Marisa Vranjes

IN MY INNER HEART OF HEARTS

Lamentos, songs & dances in Shakespeare’s plays at the court of Elizabeth I

“If the music be the food of love, play on!” With this yearning plea begins the comedy Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. A wealth of sensual Renaissance sounds from the world of Shakespeare is now brought to life by the Hathor Consort. Shakespeare’s plays are full of music. Lovers, queens, kings, clowns, shepherds, craftsmen, goblins […]

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THE PUMPKIN HUT AT KÖNIGSBERG

Königsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia) was a rare haven of peace during the Thirty Years’ War thanks to its geographical location. Many people, including artists and musicians, fled there from the horrors of plague and war. Heinrich Albert, a pupil of Heinrich Schütz (his cousin) and Johann Hermann Schein, the Thomaskantor in Leipzig, was […]

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H. Albert, Schein and Schütz - Arias, Suites
by Hammerschmidt, Schein & Scheidt

FROM THE MOON TO THE FISH

EXPLORING CROSS BORDER MUSICAL SUFI TRADITIONS

From the moon to the Fish explores, through music and video, the rich Sufi music from Turkey and Syria, which also made its way to Europe in the Middle Ages. At the heart of the program is self-surrender to love of god attached to the centuries old ceremony of Turkish Sufi dancers.

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DHRUPAD FANTASIA

A MEETING BETWEEN THE ENGLAND OF ELIZABETH I AND THE DHRUPAD TRADITION AT THE INDIAN MOGOL COURT OF AKBAR

Dhrupad Fantasia creates an own language by combining ragas based modal improvisation with polyphonic instrumental music that both originated in 16th century court music.

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LACHRIMAE


7 Tears by J. Dowland & 6 Interludes by A. Van Parys

Lachrimae or Seaven Teares Figured in Seaven Passionate Pavans is the title of a collection of consort music that John Dowland published in 1604. The collection is special in many ways. The opening seven pavans are an abstract cycle of variations, which was something completely new at that time. Dowland created a wondrous web of […]

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OF HEAVENLY & EARTHLY LOVE

Love: divine love, earthly love, erotic love. In the Italian music of the 16th and 17th centuries, composers Monteverdi, Caccini, Strozzi, Sanches and Grandi put the different aspects of love into music in songs and opera arias.

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Arias & cantates of Giulio Caccini, Giovanni F. Sanches , Alessandro Grandi , Claudio Monteverdi, Ricercare & Bastarda pieces of Diego Ortiz, Francesco Rognoni, Bartolomé de Selma

TRANSITIONS

An evening in seven chapters. A play with identities, cultures, musical styles and expectations between trance and ecstasy. The musical world ranges from Arabic and Turkish maqams and North Indian classical dhrupad singing to Bach and viol music from the time of Louis XIV. The differences between different worlds and times disappear. Everything seems possible […]

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ARIES POINT

The compositions for Aries Point combine not just two musical time periods, but present the special sound color of the gamba as an integral element in the composition. This special and unique sound influenced the compositional and improvisatory process and resulted in experiencing this sound in a completely new musical context. Its subtle intensity produces […]

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UPON SILENCE

For composer George Benjamin, Upon Silence – directly inspired by Purcell’s Fantasias – brought a welcome end to a period of writer’s block. Its text, a poem by W. B. Yeats, portrays three historical figures, absorbed in silent contemplation: Julius Caesar, Helen of Troy and Michelangelo, who is busy painting. The program presents Purcell’s as […]

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Fantasias of Henry Purcell & contemporary works of George Benjamin, Nicholas Muhly, John Woolrich, Marnix De Cat, Wim Henderickx & Donnacha Dennehy.

KUNST DER FUGE

Unfinished past? Nothing could be further from the truth: ‘Die Kunst der Fuge’ by Johann Sebastian Bach escapes all rigid ideas about time, space, art and creation. Composed in the last ten years of his life, the opus would not be published until after the death of the Thomas kantor. Is that why it took […]

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Johann Sebastian Bach
The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080
Romina Lischka | Photographer Marisa Vranjes

LES TROIS MAITRES

The famous French gamba virtuosi Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray wrote numerous collections of Pièces de Violes between 1686 and 1747. Marais was the first gambist to attain a soloist position at the court of Louis XIV. The lute repertoire was an important influence on his compositions. Forqueray, in contrast, was inspired by the violin […]

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Suites of Marin Marais (1656 – 1728), Monsieur Forqueray le père (1672 – 1745), François Couperin (1668 – 1733)

UNTUNE THE SKY

Seventeenth-century music combined with 360° elektronica

Historical art was often avant-garde and challenging at the time of its creation. This program evokes the dynamics of music made in this volatile, violent but seductive era by combining it with 360° electronics to create something contemporary and dynamic in our own time. The concert is intended to be performed in the round, which […]

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H. Lawes & Hume
Romina Lischka | Photographer Marisa Vranjes

EARTH

THEILE, J. C. BACH, WECKMANN, TUNDER

In her programme – esoteric in the best sense of the word – Romina Lischka interweaves ancient Babylonian numerical mysticism and 17th century Protestant church music; a thoroughly thought-provoking concert evening lies ahead, inviting us to reflect on that nameless thing that has given us the task of understanding the miracle of creation from here, […]

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Cantates, Arias, Concertos & Motets

CALL TO PRAYER

Indian raga in dialogue with baroque viol music from Marin Marais

Romina Lischka, with her western classical music background and knowledge of the North Indian dhrupad, and the classical Arabian vocalist Ghalia Benali, with her openness and interest in other musical styles, share a passion for the music of Marin Marais (1656-1728). The French gamba virtuoso Marais, a student of the mysterious Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe (1640-1700), […]

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JOHN COPRARIO. PARROT OR INGENIOUS PARODIST?

Was John Coprario taking credit for someone else’s work when, under his own name, he made transcriptions of more than fifty Italian madrigals for a consort of viols? Such an accusation would be based on false premises, as anything resembling copyright was unknown at the beginning of the seventeenth century and for long afterwards; the […]

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LE NYMPHO DI RHENO

A staged work for one dancer and two gambas

Johannes Schenck was one of the most popular gambists of his time. His playing was praised in numerous poems, as in – “no one has touched this instrument with more delicacy than he.” His fame was such that Count Johann Wilhelm II, a passionate amateur gambist, invited him to become a court musician at his […]

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Selections from Le Nymphe di rheno for 2 gambas (Amsterdam, 1704, op.8)
Selections from L’Echo du Danube for viola da gamba (Amsterdam, 1706, op.8)

THE ART OF FANTASY

ALFONSO FERRABOSCO THE YOUNGER

Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger, viol player at the court of Elizabeth I and Charles I, was the most innovative and influential composer of viol consort music of his generation. Following the steps of his father, composer Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder, he continued the specifically English « In Nomine » tradition for viol consort into the […]

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