Recently, I had a job interview for an ensemble that I am not going to name, because the experience wasn't very good.
First, there were at least 6 people in the room, only the director seemed to be the real music person. Because when I mentioned the musicians that are in the Florence Brunel agency they didn't know who I was talking about. How can one baroque ensemble not know other important ones?
The questions they asked were like an exam that I didn't study for and my answers seemed wrong.
One included :
1. Choose a musical work that best describes the ensemble.
A. I chose Bach, I would have said the Passion, but they didn't let me finish.
I felt like I was put on the spot and I do not test well. It was very intimidating, but helps me prepare for the future.
One of the Italian ensembles from the Florence Brunel Artistic Agency (where I'm interning) and they are awesome! Directed by Stefano Molardi who also plays the harpsichord and Jonathan Guyonnet, the first violin.
They just performed Vivaldi's Farnace at Theatre des Champs Elysees on Thursday with several solists including Sonia Prina, Emiliano Gonzales Toro. But sadly I missed the concert due to a family accident, but I heard it was very good. and they have very good things coming for them in the future !
They will be performing in numerous festivals this summer with a Four Seasons program and another with Raffaella Milanesi
Festival du Mont Blanc
La Chabotterie
Festival du Montpeiller, Chateau de Cornillon, Bédariaux, and Castelnaudray
They have a very nice rendition of Four Seasons, that brings to life the way Vivaldi wrote the piece. Sadly there are no videos, but here are some nice ones.
This week at Opéra Comique, Lully's tragic opera will be playing Cadmus and Hermoine till the 5th of november. It is an opera in 5 acts, the music is played by Le Poème Harmonique, they have performed this opera once before at the Opéra Comique, most of the opera can be found on youtube as the performance was filmed.
Below is a snippet of the opera for this year, with a brief introduction in French by Benjamin Lazar, the producer.
A little history about the opera:
The French-language libretto is by Philippe Quinault, after Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It was first performed on April 27, 1673, at the Paris Jeu de Béquet.
The prologue, in praise of King Louis XIV, represents him as Apollo slaying the Python of Delphi. The opera itself concerns the love story of Cadmus, legendary founder and king of Thebes, Greece, and Hermione (Harmonia), daughter of Venus and Mars. Other characters include Pallas Athene, Cupid, Juno, and Jupiter.
With Cadmus et Hermione, Lully invented the form of the tragédie en musique (also known as tragédie lyrique). From contemporary Venetian opera, Lully incorporated elements of comedy among the servants, elements which he would later avoid, as would subsequent reformers in Italian opera. A contemporary transcription of the overture by Jean-Henri d’Anglebert remains a possible part of the harpsichord repertoire.
The ensemble performing was called "Douce Memoire" which means Sweet Memory, and a sweet memory it was. Though I didn't see the actual concert, because I was in charge of keeping watch of the dressing rooms and helping with the reception, what I heard was good. The group performs with musical instruments from the Medieval and the Baroque period, about 10 instrumentalists and 6 singers (2 women and 4 men).
The concert was in memory of Henri IV's death and was influenced by the queens and kings of the court. Therefore, when the music started it was reminscent of the sounds one would hear in the 16th century. It made me want to process down the walkway like a princess, "Now presenting Princess Adrienne of Drancy"!
The main instruments used were recorders, bassons, a small pump with your feet type organ and a cross-between a trumpet and a cornette. The trumpet cornette sounded like a flute but it wasn't, I asked one of the woman playing these instruments to describe it and she said there was no relation with the flute.
The music echoed throughout the Basilica and echoed into the courtyard of the church as if angels were sending the music into the ears of the crowd. The only disappointment was the music and the echo did not stay in rhythm, this coming from a musician. But I guess not everything can be perfect.
This ensemble and their concert were great, the women's voices harmonized well and one could see that they loved singing as there was a sort of glitter in their eyes. The men were so enthusiastic when singing, they would just sort of jump right in, when it was their turn to add the harmony to the fugue.
And the instruments, one thing I could never forget... harmonized and sweet melodies never making a mistake, thus creating sweet melodies.
