Programme

John Dowland (1563-1626)

Selected songs (Dowland)

i I Saw My Lady Weep
ii Can She Excuse My Wrongs
iii Time Stands Still

John Dowland (c. 1563 – 1626) was an English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as “Come, heavy sleep”, “Come again”, “Flow my tears”, “I saw my Lady weepe”, “Now o now I needs must part” and “In darkness let me dwell”. His instrumental music has undergone a major revival, and with the 20th century’s early music revival, has been a continuing source of repertoire for lutenists and classical guitarists.

Bartolomeo de Selma e Salaverde (1580-1640)

Vestiva I Colli (Selma e Salaverde)

Fray Bartolomé de Selma y Salaverde (c. 1595 – 1638) was a Spanish Baroque composer and virtuoso player of the dulcian, a predecessor to the modern bassoon. He was an Augustinian friar who was employed at the archducal court at Innsbruck from 1628 to 1630, and was the son, or possibly grandson, of Bartolome de Selma (d. 1616), luthier to the Spanish royal chapel. His compositions include the Primo libro de canzoni, fantasie & correnti (Venice, 1638), and manuscript vocal works.

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689-1755)

Deuxieme Suite (Bodin de Boismortier)

i Prelude
ii Bourrée
iii Musette en Rondeau
iv Gigue
v Rigaudon
vi 2e Rigaudon

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689 – 1755) was a French baroque composer of instrumental music, cantatas, opéra-ballets, and vocal music. Boismortier was one of the first composers to have no patrons: having obtained a royal licence for engraving music in 1724, he made enormous sums of money by publishing his music for sale to the public.

Robert De Visée (1650-1725)

Chaconne for solo theorbo (de Visée)

Robert de Visée (c. 1655 – 1732/1733) was a French lutenist, guitarist, theorbist and viol player at the court of the kings Louis XIV and Louis XV, as well as a singer and composer for lute, theorbo and guitar. A chaconne is a type of musical composition often used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line (ground bass) which offers a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and melodic invention. In this it closely resembles the passacaglia. It originates and was particularly popular in the Baroque era; a large number of Chaconnes exist from the 17th- and 18th- centuries.

Honoré d’Ambruis (c. 1660)

Le Doux Silence De Nos Bois (d’Ambruis)

Honoré d’Ambruis is a French composer of the Baroque period, author of airs de cour published in several collections (1685, 1696 and 1702), of which only the first has reached contemporary times. Active during the last quarter of the 17th century and the first years of the 18th century , d’Ambruis was a disciple of Michel Lambert.

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)

The Thieving Magpie Overture (Rossini)

La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie) is a two act opera by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. The libretto by Giovanni Gherardini was based on the 1815 comedy La Pie Voleuse by JMT Badouin d’Aubigny and Louis-Charles Caigniez. The story tells of a maid who almost goes to the gallows for stealing silver, before it is discovered that the culprit was a magpie, which had been thieving and hiding items in the church tower.

Fernando Sor (1778-1839)

La Romanesca (Sor)

Fernando Sor was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer of the early Romantic era. Best known for writing solo classical guitar music, he also composed an opera (at the age of 19), three symphonies, guitar duos, piano music, songs, a Mass, and at least two successful ballets: Cinderella, which received over one hundred performances, and Hercule et Omphale.

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)

Libertango (Piazzolla)

Libertango is a composition by tango composer and bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla, recorded and published in 1974 in Milan. The title is a portmanteau merging “Libertad” (Spanish for “liberty”) and “tango”, symbolizing Piazzolla’s break from classical tango to tango nuevo.

Chick Corea (1941-2021)

Spain (Corea)

“Spain” is an instrumental jazz fusion composition by jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. It is likely Corea’s most recognized piece, and is considered a jazz standard.

Performers

Flutes and Frets (Flute/Guitar Duo)

Flute and Frets present intimate, magnetic performances that exploit the fragility and versatility of their ensemble. Their concerts feature a variety of instruments that enable them to express the colours, gesture and emotions of repertoire from the medieval era through to contemporary.

They have won numerous international competition awards including the 2023 International H.I.F. Biber Competition; 2022 “22nd LAMS Matera Award”; 2021 La Follia Nuova International Chamber Music Competition; and the International Music Competition (IMC) of Association Les Musicales Du Centre. In 2022, they were finalists in the Royal Overseas League Competition Mixed Ensembles Category and won the second prize of the Vršac International Chamber Music Festival “Music in the Vineyards”. Recently, they have been selected for the Making Music Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artist (PDGYA) Award Scheme which celebrates top young musical talent and offers them performance and workshop prospects. In 2022/23.

Next concert:

Gokotta Trio

Clarinet Trio
25 January 2024

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