Peter Holman will be speaking about his new book Life after Death: The Viola da Gamba in Britain from Purcell to Dolmetsch.
Musical examples and afternoon concert with Mark Caudle, Susanne Heinrich, Louise Jameson & Peter Holman

Further details will be available soon; see Viola da Gamba Society website

Please contact Peter Holman of The Parley of Instruments by post at 119 Maldon Road, Colchester CO3 3AX, United Kingdom, or email peter@parley.org.uk.

See the Umbria Concerto website for more details.

This programme brings together two intense seventeenth-century tragic dramas. Charpentier’s chamber opera tells the story of the hunter Acteon, torn to pieces by his own dogs for spying on the goddess Diana and her nymphs, while the oratorio Jepthe by Charpentier’s mentor Carissimi is concerned with the grief of the Israelite leader, forced to sacrifice his daughter as the result of a rash vow made to God. This concert is part of the 2011 Suffolk Villages Festival, devoted to the theme of Myths and Legends.

Tickets are available after from Suffolk Villages Festival Box Office: 01206 366603, the Festival’s online box office or by post from: 119 Maldon Road, Colchester CO3 3AX, United Kingdom. Please enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope with ticket applications. Click here for more information.

Headcorn Village Hall, Church Lane, Headcorn, Kent TN27 9NR

Only £25 for the day

• A one-day workshop directed by Judy Tarling.

• Play and discover the wonders of Baroque string repertoire by Corelli, Handel, Vivaldi and Purcell.

• Have fun and learn from an expert.

• Meet other enthusiasts.

• For bookings and enquiries call Vanessa on 0776 957 0772 / vanessa@vanessawolf.co.uk

Members of The Parley of Instruments perform instrumental works by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Jean-Baptiste Lully, André Campra, Jean-Féry Rebel and François Couperin. The programme includes a rare oboe concerto by Bonaventure Gilles, Couperin’s La Sultane, and Rebel’s Les Caractères de la Danse – a miniature ballet conceived for dancing. Much of this repertory uses the sumptuous string scoring of violin, three violas and bass violin much favoured at the court of Louis XIV, as well as obbligato recorders and oboe. The elegance of the music will be matched by the dancing of Baroque specialist Ricardo Barros.

This is part of The Parley of Instruments’ summer course Le grand siècle, the Baroque week of the Cambridge Early Music Summer Schools, 31 July – 7 August 2011.
Tickets: £22, £17, available from Selene Mills, Cambridge Early Music, Trinity College, Cambridge, CB2 1TQ, United Kingdom, or from the Box Office.

A tea-time concert by two superb virtuoso players. The programme will include pieces for solo viol by Marin Marais, character pieces by Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, music from Charles Dollé’s Second Suite, including ‘Le Tombeau pour Marais Le Père’, and movements from Forqueray’s Third Suite. Elizabeth Kenny, one of Europe’s leading lute players, will also play works for solo theorbo by Robert de Visée and for baroque guitar by Francisque Corbetta. Her playing has been described as ‘incandescent’ (Music and Vision) and ‘indecently beautiful’ (Toronto Post).

This is part of The Parley of Instruments’ summer course Le grand siècle, the Baroque week of the Cambridge Early Music Summer Schools, 31 July – 7 August 2011.

Tickets: £15, £10, available from Selene Mills, Cambridge Early Music, Trinity College, Cambridge, CB2 1TQ, United Kingdom, or from the Box Office.

This is a charity concert in aid of the Clifford Bartlett appeal.

Tickets £20, £15, £10, available from Suffolk Villages Festival Box Office:
01206 366603, box@suffolkvillagesfestival.com
Or by post from: Suffolk Villages Festival Box Office, 119 Maldon Road, Colchester CO3 3AX, United Kingdom. Please enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope with ticket applications.
Click here for more information.

1. Giovanni Battista Draghi (d. 1708): ‘Where art thou, God of Dreams?’ from Romulus and Hersilia (1682)
2. *Giovanni Battista Draghi: Trio Sonata in G minor
3. Henry Purcell: ‘Tell me, some pitying angel’ (The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation) Z196 (1693)
4. *Raphael Courteville (fl. c. 1675-1735): ‘Creep softly, purling streams’ (1687)
5. Nicola Matteis (fl. c.1675-90): Suite in D minor (1687)
6. *William Croft (1678-1727): ‘For rural and sincerer joys’
7. *John Weldon (1676-1736): Suite in D minor
8. *George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), reconstructed by Peter Holman: Venus and Adonis HWV85 (c. 1711)
9. *John Christopher Pepusch (1667-1752): Sonata in D major ‘Smallcoal’
10. *Nicola Francesco Haym (1678-1729): ‘Have mercy on me, O God’ (1716)

* = first recording

‘This is a beautifully planned and performed recital that deserves a more enticing title. There is one piece of Purcell (The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation) and one of, perhaps, Handel (Venus and Adonis) but for the rest we are offered an illuminating tour of what can seem the 15 year black hole between them. Few people know this territory as well as Peter Holman, and here he and his colleagues offer seven first recordings, many musical gems and lots of pure pleasure. The ensemble playing is never less than superb. Philippa Hyde sings with a full sound, though not in a way that conflicts with the clean instrumental timbres. She certainly has the agility required by several of the songs and the sensitivity to do one of the best ends to the BVE that I have heard. As a bonus, the recorded sound also struck me as very good. So don’t be put off by the title. There are some real gems here, including a Chandos anthem that isn’t by Handel.’ (David Hansell, Early Music Review)