Biber premiere at Utrecht & Ghent Flanders Festivals, Antwerp
premiere Heinrich Biber
MISSA CHRISTI RESURGENTIS
Orchestra & Choir of the English Concert
directed by Andrew Manze
On 31 August, 15 & 16 September, The English Concert will present the
first 'modern' performances in Benelux of the Missa Christi resurgentis.
Although this Mass was composed well over three hundred years ago, thanks
to the work of Dr James Clements it can be heard today.
Under its new Artistic Director, violinist Andrew Manze, the English Concert
will perform the Mass at the Utrecht Early Music Festival, on 31 August.
(On August 30th, the English Concert will play an 'appetizer' with instrumental
'Fiddle noise' by Biber and contemporaries, like Schmelzer & Vejvanovsky.)
The Mass will be repeated at the Flanders Festival Ghent, on 15 September,
and in Antwerp DeSingel, on 16 September.
Biber could be said to epitomize the renaissance of interest in early
music. Austrian musicologists realized his worth a century ago. On seeing
their new editions, Paul Hindemith declared Biber to be the greatest composer
before Johann Sebastian Bach, influenced perhaps by Biber's fondness for
Hindemith's own instrument, the viola. A few baroque devotees started
playing the sonatas - Yehudi Menuhin used to fiddle through them in private
Ð and in the 50s and 60s the Leonhardt Consort and Nikolaus Harnoncourt's
Concentus Musicus Wien started playing Biber on period instruments. Ten
years ago it was still only the more intrepid violinists who performed
Biber. Now, all the known instrumental music and most of the vocal music
has been performed and recorded, and Biber's one surviving opera, Arminio,
has been staged (in Innsbruck). Musicians and audiences are increasingly
in awe of his mastery of timing, sonority, profundity and wit, making
Biberphilia one of the fastest growing enthusiasms in baroque music today.
The Missa Christi Resurgentis will be performed Ð as originally Ð without
interval. The liturgical elements are replaced by instrumental music by
Biber and Schmelzer. The Mass is preceded by a Sonata for trumpets, giving
extra dramatic value to the performance. Please find more information
on the Biber Mass enclosed.
Concerts:
30 August, 17.30 hrs Geertekerk, Utrecht
31 August, 20.00 hrs Vredenburg, Utrecht (Utrecht Utrecht Early
Music Festival)
15 September, 20.00 hrs, St Baafs Cathedral, Ghent (Flanders Festival)
16 September, 20.00 hrs, DeSingel, Antwerp
(other performances: 2,3 September La Chaise Dieu, France)