The Bach Players
Concert Diary 2012
Bach Players in concert at St John’s Downshire Hill, November 2011
For information about tickets for our London concerts, and how to
get there: Concerts at St John’s Downshire
Hill
For information about tickets for our Norwich concerts, and how to
get there: Concerts at the Octagon Chapel
Pour le souper du Roi: dining with Louis XIV
In this hour-long concert we paint a musical picture of the chamber music presented to King Louis XIV by his favourite composers. This is a rare chance in London to hear the music of the virtuoso harpsichordist and composer Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre; we play Marin Marais’s enactment of a surgical operation (with narration), and conclude with the stirring Sonnerie by Marais. Dine with us afterwards at the venue’s Caponata restaurant.
Robert de Visée (1655–1732), Prélude in D minor
Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665–1729), Sonata in D minor
Marin Marais (1656–1728), Tableau de l’opération de la taille
Robert de Visée, Prélude in G major
Jean-Féry Rebel (1666–1747), Sonata in E minor
Robert de Visée, Trio
Marin Marais, Sonnerie de Ste Geneviève du Mont de Paris
(Nicolette Moonen violin, Susanne Heinrich viola da gamba, Lynda Sayce theorbo)
Sunday 12 February, 5.30 pm
The Forge, 3–7 Delancey Street, London NW1 7NL
Booking at The Forge; eat after the concert at the Caponata restaurant
Stabat Mater: music for Easter
We perform Alessandro Scarlatti’s setting of the Stabat Mater, the story of Mary standing at the Cross, with our special singers Rachel Elliott and Sally Bruce-Payne. This wonderful work is the direct predecessor of perhaps the best-known setting of the text, that of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. Our performance of this Stabat Mater is punctuated by two of Biber’s Mystery Sonatas: the Agony in the Garden, and the Crucifixion. These powerful programmatic pieces – songs without words – set the scene.
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725), Stabat Mater
Heinrich Biber (1644–1704), Mystery Sonatas
(Rachel Elliott soprano, Sally Bruce-Payne alto, Nicolette Moonen violin, Anne Schumann violin, Olaf Reimers cello, Lynda Sayce theorbo, Pawel Siwczak organ)
Friday 2 March, 7.30 pm
The Octagon Chapel, Colegate, Norwich NR3 1BN
Saturday 3 March, 8.15 pm
St John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead, London NW3 1NU
Gustav Leonhardt memorial concert
Music by Henry Purcell, Louis Couperin, Johann Pachelbel, J.S. Bach. Contributions from speakers who knew and worked with Gustav Leonhardt. Full programme to be announced.
(Rachel Elliott soprano, Sally Bruce-Payne alto, James Gilchrist tenor, Matthew Brooke bass, and others to be confirmed)
Thursday 19 April, 7.30 pm
St James’s Church, 197 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LL
Bach’s library
We play a selection of pieces that J.S. Bach had in his library and which provide a context for his celebrated Orchestral Suite in B minor. The flute was the fashionable instrument of the mid-eighteenth century and will take a prominent role in our programme.
Johann Bernhard Bach (1676–1749), Ouverture in G minor
Charles Dieupart (c.1667–c.1740), Suite
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767), Paris Quartet
Marin Marais (1656–1728), from Alcide
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Orchestral suite in B minor, BWV 1067
(Marion Moonen flute, Nicolette Moonen violin, Rachel Isserlis violin, Rachel Stott viola, Jonathan Manson cello / viola da gamba, Lynda Sayce theorbo, Silas Wollston harpsichord)
Wednesday 27 June
Cambridge Early Music
Booking information here
Thursday 28 June, 8.15 pm
St John’s Downshire Hill, Hampstead, London NW3 1NU
Friday 29 June, 7.30 pm
The Octagon Chapel, Colegate, Norwich NR3 1BN
Saturday 30 June, 7.30 pm
Music in Lyddington: St Andrew’s, Lyddington
Booking information here
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CD recording
Monday 2 to Wednesday 4 July
St Michael’s, Highgate, London N6