Music on Thursdays
at Leatherhead Methodist Church
Venue: LMC - Leatherhead Methodift Church
carriages may be left at the Swan Centre multy-storied, about 5-7 minutes walk from LMC in Church Road
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12.30 lunchtime
London’s Mufical Coalman
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Sponsor:
Julie West Solicitor Supported by: Leatherhead Concert & Arts Society 
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We paint a picture of London’s vibrant musical scene in the early 1700s, through the lens of the extraordinary charcoal merchant Thomas Britton, one of London’s first concert promoters. His musical evenings, hosted in his small coal-loft in Clerkenwell, attracted the best performers and composers of the day, including Handel himself.
At this time, musicians were pouring into London both from within the British Isles and from Europe to enjoy the rich opportunities for theatre work and private patronage. The Italian style of composition, pioneered by Corelli, was the height of fashion, and Italian musicians, struggling to make ends meet at home, increasingly settled in London, introducing the capital to Italian opera, chamber music, and virtuosic solo repertoire.
Likewise, Scottish composers such as James Oswald and the eccentric aristocratic musician 'Fiddler Tam', the 6th Earl of Kellie, visited and settled in London, where they capitalised on the fashion for the 'Scotch taste'.
Our programme features music by several of the musicians who performed in Britton’s long-running concert series, including Handel himself, Italian virtuosi such as Bononcini, Handel’s rival, and the enigmatic Sammartini brothers - and of course more Scottish Baroque delights from James Oswald and his enigmatic circle of friends, The Temple of Apollo.
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Programme
James Oswald (1710-1769)
from Airs for the Seasons: Spring The Ranunculus Aria, Allegro andante, Tempo di minuetto The Narcissus Giuseppe Sammartini (1695–1750) Sonata in G major Allegro – Adagio – Allegro Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667 – 1752) from The Division Flute (published by John Walsh, 1706/1708) Prelude Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) Suite No 5 in E HWV 430 Air Harmonious Blacksmith Giovanni Bononcini (1670-1747) Divertimento Da Camera No 6 in C minor Lento – Con Spirito – Largo – Vivace Daniel Purcell (1664–1717) from Sonata Sexta in A minor Adagio Georg Friedrich Händel Sonata in F Major HWV 369 Larghetto – Allegro Anon from The Division Flute Paul’s Steeple Concert duration: 40-50 minutes |
Free Concert, with a retiring collection to defray costs. ♦ Both Tea and Coffee will be available after this concert.
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Ensemble Hesperi
Ensemble Hesperi is an innovative, Early Music duo based in London. Its core members, Thomas Allery and Mary-Jannet Leith, are dedicated to showcasing the infinite colours and possibilities of their instruments, harpsichord and recorder, and to bringing lesser-known Early Music to a wider audience. They enjoy presenting programmes through the lens of colourful characters from the musical past, including composers, publishers, and amateur musicians. They have a particular interest in promoting unpublished and previously undiscovered Scottish Baroque repertoire, and in exploring the fascinating links between Scotland, London, and the continent through Baroque music during the eighteenth century.
Thomas and Mary-Jannet formed Ensemble Hesperi (meaning Evening Stars) in 2012 while studying on the Masters programme at the Royal College of Music, where they performed regularly as part of the Historical Performance Department. Ensemble Hesperi won the Audience Prize at the Fenton House Early Keyboard Ensemble Competition in 2012, and the Century Fund Prize at the RCM Early Music Competition in 2013.
More recently, they have appeared in the London Handel Festival, the inaugural St Marylebone Festival and the 'Future Baroque' series at the London Festival of Baroque Music 2017. Mary-Jannet and Thomas were delighted to have been selected for the Brighton Early Music Festival Live scheme for 2016-2017, and also to have been chosen to perform twice on the continent during 2017, at the Brugge and Utrecht Early Music Fringe Festivals. Their performance of their Scottish Baroque duo programme, The Pheasant's Eye, won the Audience Prize in Utrecht from over 70 performances from European young ensembles. Mary-Jannet and Thomas were also delighted to be selected as Live Music Now musicians in November 2018.
For more information, future concerts and news on our latest projects, please visit our website: www.ensemblehesperi.com, where you can also find links to our Facebook and Twitter pages, and our Youtube channel.
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Concert at Home
If you cannot be with us at the lunchtime concert
you can enjoy a similar Concert at Home by clicking through the video buttons below:
you can enjoy a similar Concert at Home by clicking through the video buttons below:
James Oswald (1710-1769)
from Airs for the Seasons: Spring
The Ranunculus ♦ Aria • Allegro andante • Tempo di minuetto
The players in this first recording are Ensemble La Cigale: Vincent Lauzer, recorder, Sari Tsuji, baroque violin,
Madeleine Owen, theorbo, Sara Lackie, baroque harp, Marie-Laurence Primeau, viol,
performing in the Maison de la Culture Natre-Dame-de-Grace, Montreal, in January 2019:
James Oswald
from Airs for the Seasons: Spring
The Narcissus
And in this recording we hear the complete Ensemble Hesperi, with the addition of baroque violinist Magdalena Loth-Hill and Florence Petit, baroque cello, in a recording for Classic FM, made in February 2019:
Giuseppe Sammartini (1695–1750)
Sonata in G major
Allegro – Adagio – Allegro
Our recording is of on one Giuseppe Sammartini's Recorder Sonatas in G. The movement structures suggests it is the one we shall hear at the concert. Some may notice the opening ground bass is the one Purcell uses in Dido's Lament:
The performer is Maurice Steger:
Giuseppe Sammartini (1695–1750)
Sonata in G major
I Andante - II Allegro - III Affetuoso - IV Allegro assai
Maurice Steger again, with another of Sammartini's Sonata's in G major.
Giuseppe had a younger brother, Giovanni Battista who was also a composer.
Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667 – 1752)
from The Division Flute (published by John Walsh, 1706/1708)
Prelude
Here is a Pepusch Prelude played on the alto recorder by Japanese player "Sugakei, a recorder player who delivers dreams." If your Japanese is up to it, you can read more about him here: https://ameblo.jp/sedoje/
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)
Suite No 5 in E HWV 430
Air Harmonious Blacksmith
Here's an opportunity to follow the score and witness the incredible dexterity of French harpsichord player
Olivier Baumont as he performs Handel's Harmonious Blacksmith:
Giovanni Bononcini (1670-1747)
Divertimento Da Camera No 6 in C minor
Lento – Con Spirito – Largo – Vivace
In this recording Mai Nagai plays the recorder, with organ continuo. This comes from the Tennoji Church of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church - a small Protestant church whose members total no more than 22,000. Tennoji-ku is the 'railway' district of Osaka, having no less than 3 major stations on various national and local lines.
Daniel Purcell (1664–1717)
from Sonata Sexta in A minor - Adagio
Unable to find a matching recording, I offer you instead, the opening to a D Purcell Sonata played on two Cimbalom or Santouri, played by Penny Georgopoulou santouri Christina Kouki santouri.
On the right you will be able to listen to a complete performance of a Purcell Sonata in G minor for two flutes (recorders) and spinet (small harpsichord). The performers are Homero de Magalhães Filho and Rosangela de Lima, recorders and Claudio Ribeiro, spinet. The venue is the Museu Salles Cunha, of the Brazilian Association of Odontology, Rio de Janeiro:
from Sonata Sexta in A minor - Adagio
Unable to find a matching recording, I offer you instead, the opening to a D Purcell Sonata played on two Cimbalom or Santouri, played by Penny Georgopoulou santouri Christina Kouki santouri.
On the right you will be able to listen to a complete performance of a Purcell Sonata in G minor for two flutes (recorders) and spinet (small harpsichord). The performers are Homero de Magalhães Filho and Rosangela de Lima, recorders and Claudio Ribeiro, spinet. The venue is the Museu Salles Cunha, of the Brazilian Association of Odontology, Rio de Janeiro:
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Georg Friedrich Händel
Sonata in F Major HWV 369 - Larghetto – Allegro
From the Frederiksberg Church in Copenhagen this next, and probably fairly familiar, recording features Bolette Roed, recorder, Emmanuel Balssa, viola da gamba and Allan Rasmussen, organ. This recording includes the Siciliana and the final Allegro which we shall miss at the lunchtime concert:
Anon
from The Division Flute
Paul’s Steeple
A Division is a Variation repeated over a Ground bass (a bass line that repeats, like the one underlying Henry Purcell's Dido's Lament).
John Playford published a collection of such works called The Division Violin, which John Walsh followed with The Division Flute between 1706 and 1708. The tunes are often traditional folk tunes that would have been familiar to the (ale house) audience of the time! Here's a fine recording on violin (dare we call this a fiddle?) with cello and harpsichord continuo.
First everyone plays the ground bass, to fix it in our minds. I find myself humming it while the other instruments play.
from The Division Flute
Paul’s Steeple
A Division is a Variation repeated over a Ground bass (a bass line that repeats, like the one underlying Henry Purcell's Dido's Lament).
John Playford published a collection of such works called The Division Violin, which John Walsh followed with The Division Flute between 1706 and 1708. The tunes are often traditional folk tunes that would have been familiar to the (ale house) audience of the time! Here's a fine recording on violin (dare we call this a fiddle?) with cello and harpsichord continuo.
First everyone plays the ground bass, to fix it in our minds. I find myself humming it while the other instruments play.
And here it comes again, under the alternative title of The Duke of Norfolk, this time with a more mixed group including a recorder and tambourine. The musicians are Hanneke van Proosdij, recorder, Peter Maund, percussion, Elisabeth Reed, viola da gamba, and David Tayler, baroque guitar. By the time of our 1710 concert, the original Gothic St Paul's had been nearly 50 years without its steeple, and Wren's replacement, that we know today, would open a year later.
We hope you have enjoyed your Concert at Home.
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Directions to LMC
Leatherhead Methodist Church and Thomas Britton's attic |
a concert
each week to the end of November |
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