Joel Frederiksen. Axel Wolf theorbo & lute. basso profondo & archlute

Transcription

1 29 August, Wednesday, 7.30 pm St Martin s Church the Evangelical Parish, ul. Grodzka 58 Joel Frederiksen basso profondo & archlute Axel Wolf theorbo & lute

2 Giulio Romano Caccini ( ) DALLA PORTA D ORIENTE ( ) TOCCATA V PIETÁ, PIETÁ DI CHI SÌ MORE TOCCATA I CORRENTE for lute Andrea Falconieri ( ) ARMILLA INGRATA Giovanni Girolamo Frescobaldi ( ) DONNA SIAM REI DI MORTE BATTAGLIA for theorbo Giulio Romano Caccini CHI MI CONFORT AHIMÉ AVRILLA MIA CANARIO for theorbo Giovanni Puliaschi (ok ) LOCAR SOPRA GL ABISSI * * * Giovanni Zamboni Romano (wydanie: Lucca 1718) (1664? 1721) SONATA No. 6 G minor for lute Alemanda Giga Sarabanda largo Gavotta Giacomo Carissimi ( ) LUCIFER TOCCATTA PRIMA for theorbo Giovanni Felice Sances ( ) O VOS OMNES

3 Sacrum and profanum in Rome Musical illustration of battles was as common as descriptions of struggles between the good and evil. The most famous of composers, Giacomo Carissimi, was born in 1605 and died in 1674 in his hometown, Rome. Since 1628 until his death, he was a capellmeister at the St. Apollinaire s Minor Bassilica at Collegium Germanicum. In his composition Lucifer, in the form of a dramatic motet, he tells about the arrogance of fallen angels and their fight against God s powers. One of the most important composers of Early Baroque was Giulio Romano Caccini. He was working in Florence, but it is probable that he was born in Rome. His Camerata Florentina gave foundations to the opera music. Italian aristocrat, lutenist and composer of German origin, Johannes Hieronymus (or: Giovanni Girolamo) Kapsberger wrote virtuoso and eccentric compositions for theorbo and as interesting songs. In 1610 he founded the academy in Rome. He was buried in Rome too. Girolamo Frescobaldi, an organist at St. Peter s Bassilica, was one of the most influential musicians of his time as a composer, organist, but also a teacher (many Germans pilgrimed to learn with him). His composition Donna siam rei di morte is a perfect early Baroque monody, with clear, perfectly balanced relation between words and music.

4 The active international career of basss singer Joel Frederiksen includes appearances in opera, oratorio, and concert on stages around the world. As an operatic soloist he has appeared at prestigious festivals including the Salzburg Summer Festival (under Dennis Russel Davies in Kurt Weill s Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagony) or the Vancouver Summer Festival, where he played the role of Plutone in Monteverdi s Orfeo under Paul O Dette and Stephen Stubbs. At the Hong Kong Arts Festival he performed in Monteverdi s L incoronazione di Poppea and Orfeo with the Ensemble for Early Music, NY. Mr. Frederiksen performed in the staged medieval music dramas Lazarus as well as Daniel and The Lions at Australia s Brisbane Arts Festival and in New York and Washington, D.C. He appeared at the Passau Music Festival with the Orpheus Choir of Munich singing Giacomo Carissimi s Jephthe and as the narrator-basss soloist in the premiere of Be Still, composed by Lawrence Traiger on the theme of September 11. As an oratorio soloist Mr. Frederiksen has sung Johann Sebasstian Bach s B-minor Mass with Jordi Savall and La Capella Reial de Catalunya in Spain. He has also closely co-operated with orchestras such as New York s Fairfield Orchestra and the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, with which he appeared as Jesus in Bach s St. John Passion and Polyphemus in Georg Friedrich Handel s Acis and Galatea. With the Freiburger Baroque Orchestra and Orlando di Lasso Ensemble he performed Claudio Monteverdi s Marienvespers and Biber s Requiem. As a basss singer he has worked with many internationally

5 recognized ensembles including the Huelgas Ensemble, Ensemble Gilles Binchois, and Musica Fiata. As a member of the American ensembles Waverly Consort and Boston Camerata he toured extensively and recorded over a dozen CDs during the 1990s, living in New York City. His contribution to the catalogue of recorded music includes CDs for Erato, Virgin/EMI, Angel, RCA and Sony. Mr. Frederiksen and his Ensemble Phoenix Munich record for Harmonia Mundi France. Three CDs released since 2007 show different aspects of his work: The Elfin Knight, O felice morire and Rose of Sharon. A fourth CD, Requiem for a Pink Moon An Elizabethan Tribute to Nick Drake, is planned for release in May of As a lute player and singer Mr. Frederiksen has made a specialty of the self-accompanied lute song. He is a regular guest around Europe with programs of English, French and Italian music for basss voice and Renaissance lute and archlute. In May of 2011 Mr. Frederiksen was awarded the Orphée d Or by the French Académie du Disque Lyrique in the Basstille Opera, Paris, for his bassso profondo singing on a CD with music by Mikołaj Zieleński with the English sopranoo Dame Emma Kirkby and Collegium Zieleński, conducted by Stanisław Gałoński. Other awards include Classical musician of the Year 2008 from the Munich Evening News and numerous honors for CDs including the German Critic s Prize for O felice morire Early Baroque Italian Monody. Joel Frederiksen s education includes the Master s Degree from Oakland University in Michigan, where he was honored with the Distinguished Musicianship Award (1990) and Alumni of the Year in Music (2003), master classes at Salzburg s Mozarteum with Helena Łazarska, and in New York, independent studies at New York University and private study in the studios of William Schumann and Myron McPherson. Axel Wolf is considered one of the leading lutenists, thanks to his expressive performing style. He gives concerts all around the world with such partners as Dorothee Oberlinger, Irvine Arditti, Valer Barna-Sabadus, Stefan Temmingh, Sebasstian Hess, Sergio Azzolini, Rüdiger Lotter or Joel Frederiksen. Wolf has played at the international festivals in Lucerne, Bruges, Utrecht, Edinburgh, Rome, Tokyo, Sydney and New York, as a soloist or with such ensembles as Musica FIATA, United Continuo Ensemble, Freiburger Barockorchester, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment or The English Concert London. Beside the historical performance practice, Wolf, together with Hugo Siegmeth in a duo Flow, is devoted to jazz, baroque and renaissance music, as well as free improvisations.

6 The music of the duo has been presented on a CD Flow, an Alpha Forum music program of ARD Television and in numerous radio broadcasts. Axel Wolf has composed and realised the music for the documentary Sonbol. As a soloist and accompanist, he has participated in various TV productions for BR, WDR and for Radio Bremen. A CD Requiem for a Pink Moon, recorded with Joel Frederiksen and Ensemble Phoenix Munich, was in 2013 awarded with the Echo Prize, in the category Classic without limits. A. Wolf has worked with such conductors as Ivor Bolton, Peter Schreier, Alan Curtis, Enoch zu Guttenberg and Joshua Rifkin, producing opera spectacles, concerts and CD recordings. Apart from numerous CD recordings, where he performed bassso continuo parts and the accompaniment, Wolf has made a lot of solo recordings with: lute music by Michelangelo Galilei, Friends of the Lute, chamber music by J. S. Bach, S. L. Weiss and J. G. Baron, Opera for Lute by Johann Adolf Hasse, lute music by J. S. Bach and music for a lute and a chitarrone by Alessandro Piccinini, with the accompaniment of United Continuo Ensemble.

7 ST. MARTIN S CHURCH established for Barefooted Carmelite Nuns. After they were moved to another nunnery in 1786, the church was transmitted to the members of the Evangelical Church through the decision of the Cracow s Senate. In this way the municipal authorities wanted to acknowledge the community and to compensate for the unfair treatment in the past. The church was built in after the design by Jan Trevano. lt is an example of early Baroque, a Roman continuation of sacral building. In its unchanged Baroque interior there are some monuments of art, e.g. wooden crucifix (ca 1380) one of the oldest ones in Cracow, and a picture painted by Henryk Siemiradzki in 1882 (in the retable). When entering the church it is worth reading the sentence put over the entrance door: Frustra vivit qui nemini prodest ( In vain lives the one who does not bring profit to others ). 123