News Release:
Bach Festival: top ensembles together for first time
| Date 10/11/03 No 199/03 The Song Company, an internationally renowned vocal ensemble, will perform for the first time with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra at Armidale’s second annual Bach Festival, artistic director Terry Norman said today. The Song Company has performed all music, from early-period to cabaret, around the globe. Its performance with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra in St Mary’s Cathedral will be a highlight of next year’s Bach Festival, which runs over five days from February 12. “It is a perfect complement, since the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra specialises in period instrument performances while a raison d’etre of the Song Company is performing early music,” Dr Norman said. The program for the joint performance on February 13 will include one of Bach's most beloved cantatas, a motet, and the famous suite for flute and strings. The Song Company's Artistic Director, Roland Peelman, commented on how this event extended the ensemble's repertoire. "In our 20-year existence it has taken a festival in Armidale to team up The Song Company, internationally known for its early-music approach, with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the best-known exponents on period instruments in Australia, even though we are both based in Sydney," Mr Peelman said. "This allows us to delve jointly into Bach's greatest vocal works, which require this type of vocal and instrumental expertise. This is something that is not normally feasible for a vocal a capella sextet."
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A feature of the joint performance will be the use of period instruments. Ms Catherine Hastings, Operations Manager for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, said this would give the music a different texture and sound and add depth to the reportoire. “One of the instruments being used is a theorbo, which is a member of the lute family but plays deeper notes,” Ms Hastings said. Another coup will be the presence of Tommie Andersson, a specialist in early guitar and lute and Neal Peres da Costa, who will play the harpsichord. Lucinda Moon will direct the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. The Song Company will also give a concert on Saturday 14 February. "In our solo performance in the Ursuline Chapel on February 14 we will be approaching Bach historically," Mr Peelman said, "through the great lineage of composers working in Germany and Austria throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. For those who want to discover why Bach wrote as he did, this concert could be revelatory, featuring utter gems by composers such as Schutz, Schein, Franck, and many others." The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra will perform separately at the festival’s grand opening, featuring works by Vivaldi, Dall’Abaco and Telemann as well as Bach. Dr Norman has organised a number of other events as part of the festival, including a dramatic workshop for primary school children at BenVenue School, a performance of Bach’s peasant cantata in Hanna’s Arcade, and a festival dinner in Booloominbah at the University of New England (a sponsor of the festival). He said he aimed to produce “historically informed” performances and encourage new, more valid ways of interpreting baroque music. Media contact: Dr Terry Norman on (02) 6771 1407 or Lydia Clifford, UNE Public Relations Manger, on (02) 6773 2779. |
