MUSIC OF SCHUTZ AND SCHEIN

Sunday, Oct. 30, 2016 at 4 pm
Immanuel Lutheran Church, 122 East 88th St.

17th-century funeral music by Heinrich Schütz (Musikalische Exequien) & Johann Hermann Schein
Artists: Rebecca Mariman, soprano; Juli Borst, mezzo-soprano; Ryland Angel, tenor; Peter Becker, bass-baritone; Eric Edlund, bass-baritone
With instrumental ensemble: Michael Collver, cornetto; Steve Lundahl, sacbut; Liza Malamut, sacbut; Mack Ramsey, sacbut; Dan Green, sacbut; Motomi Igarashi, violone; Dongsok Shin, organ
With the Immanuel Choir, Gwendolyn Toth, director

Free Concert, no tickets required. Call (212) 289-8128 for more info.

All Festival events:

11 am Reformation Sunday Service
2:30 Lecture,"Music and Early Lutheranism"
3:15 Reception
4 pm Concert

The 16-foot contrabass sacbut pictured at right will be heard on this concert! Don't miss it!

All in the Family

Keyboard Concertos by Bach's Sons

Friday, December 30, 2016 at 8 pm
Immanuel Lutheran Church, 122 East 88th St.

Like all offspring, Bach’s sons both absorbed and rebelled against their father’s music. Taking the keyboard concerto model pioneered by J.S. Bach in their youth, they commandeered the form to serve the exciting new galant and early classical styles of their own lifetimes. Repertoire includes C.P.E. Bach’s unusual concerto for harpsichord and fortepiano; keyboard concertos by W.F. Bach and J.C.F. Bach; and as a special audience treat, J.C.F. Bach’s rarely heard cantata Die Amerikanerin.

Featured artists: Eric Brenner, countertenor; Gwendolyn Toth & Dongsok Shin, harpsichord & fortepiano; Cynthia Freivogel, violin leader; The ARTEK Orchestra. Gwendolyn Toth, conductor

Keyboard Concertos by Bach’s Sons
Immanuel Lutheran Church
Friday, December 30, 2016 8pm
Regular seats $50 ($40), Rear seats $30 ($20)

Lasciatemi Morire
BEYOND MONTEVERDI

Thursday, March 30, 2017 at 7:30 pm
Friday, March 31, 2017 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, April 1, 2017 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, April 2, 2017 at 4 pm
St. Michael’s Church, The Hall
West 99th Street  (between Amsterdam & Broadway)

Join us at the Café d’Artek, an intimate candlelit cabaret space for music, wine, and poetry

The court poet Ottavio Rinuccini wrote the libretto and poem “Lasciatemi morire” for Monteverdi’s lost opera L’Arianna. Other madrigalists were inspired both by Rinuccini’s poetry and Monteverdi’s famous setting to compose their own music to the poem. Claudio Pari (1574-after 1619) wrote a brilliant, intensely expressive 12-madrigal cycle; and the Sicilian composer Antonio il Verso set the “Lasciatemi morire” section.

The program includes, in addition to Monteverdi’s Lamento D’Arianna and Lamento d’Armida, madrigals by Prè Maria Riccio (fl. c.1544), Stefano Rossetti (d. c.1581), Pietro Vinci (c.1525-after 1584), Claudio Pari (1574-after 1619), and Antonio Il Verso (1565-1621).

Artists: Sarah Chalfy, soprano (Arianna); Laura Heimes, soprano; Clara Rottsolk, soprano; Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano; Ryland Angel, countertenor; Andrew Fuchs, tenor; Philip Anderson, tenor; Peter Becker, bass-baritone; Gwendolyn Toth, harpsichord & director

Cafe D’ARTEK: Beyond Monteverdi
St. Michael’s Church, The Hall
General admission (café seating) $50 ($30)

The Box Office will open 30 minutes before performance time.

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STABAT MATER

Thursday, April 13, 2017 at 1:15 pm
Immanuel Lutheran Church, 122 East 88th St.

Music for Holy Week for sopranos and basso continuo from the French baroque tradition, as part of the Midtown Concerts series. Repertoire includes the Miserere of Michel-Richard Delalande, and the Stabat Mater of Charpentier.

Featuring Rebecca Mariman, soprano, and Juli Borst, mezzo-soprano with Motomi Igarashi, viola da gamba and Gwendolyn Toth, organ

Free Concert, no tickets required
Presentation of Midtown Concerts

Click here for more info or call GEMS at (212) 866-0468

Stylus Fantasticus
THE GENIUS OF BIBER

Friday, May 5, 2017 at 8 pm
St. Ignatius of Antioch Church, 552 West End Avenue at 87th Street
Pre-Concert Lecture at 7 pm: Sara Ruhle Kyle

Cynthia Freivogel returns for another stunning vocal and instrumental chamber music program: the “fantastic” music of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704). Repertoire includes Laetatus sum, Nisi Dominus, Sonata a 6 “Die pauern Kirchfartt genandt,” Serenada à 5 “Der Nachtwächter,” and more.

Featured artists: Cynthia Freivogel, solo violin; Ryland Angel, countertenor; Peter Becker, bass-baritone; Daniel Swenberg, theorbo; Gwendolyn Toth, organ & director; The ARTEK String Ensemble

The Genius of Biber
St. Ignatius of Antioch Church
Friday, May 5, 8pm
Regular seats $50 ($40), Rear seats $30 ($20)

Ann L. Wilson Memorial Concert
GEMS OF RENAISSANCE POLYPHONY

Friday, June 2, 2017 at 7 pm
Immanuel Lutheran Church, 122 East 88th St.

ARTEK presents a special final concert this season featuring masterpieces of two masters of the 16th and early 17th century: Prophetiae Sibyllarum by Orlande de Lassus (1530/32-1594) and excerpts from Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares by John Dowland (1563-1626).

The Prophetiae Sibyllarum cycle of motets is one of Lassus’s most distinctive works, renowned for its extreme chromaticism; and its compositional complexity and virtuosity is one of the reasons Orlande was known in his own time as Princeps Musicorum, [Prince of Musicians] and as Le Divin Orlande [The Divine Orlande]. The set is a cycle of 12 motets prefaced by an introductory motet, set to ancient prophecies of the Sibylls, which in the 16th century were thought to foreshadow the coming of Christ.

The pieces are rarely performed because of technical difficulties that are only now with recent research coming to be understood. Chief among these are the clefs in which they are written. Since the late 1980s scholars have known that the use of “high clefs”, or chiavette, signal a different pitch level a fourth lower than the normally understood one. However, adoption of this extremely well-documented principle has been slow even amongst leading period instrument groups; recent performances of the Monteverdi Vespers even in 2017 still resist the clear indication for the required low pitch level in several movements. The Prophetiae Sibyllarum not only sets four of the 12 motets in high clefs, but it also sets 2 motets in the very rarely encountered low clefs which likewise imply an upward transposing pitch level. No modern scores exist that contain the proper transpositions for today’s singers, who do not read easily up or down a fourth. This means that although the piece was written in four part books, modern performances have been unable to use the same four singers or choir sections throughout the work. An appropriate score has been created for this performance and ARTEK’s four solo singers, supported by viols as was typical in Renaissance sacred music, will perform the entire cycle. Another difficulty is the certain use of quarter-comma meantone. Only in recent years have a few period instrument ensembles such as ARTEK achieved the goal of singing with pure thirds and sixths in Renaissance music, as specified by the 16th-century theorist Zarlino. However, Lassus’s extreme chromaticism suffers greatly without the appropriate tuning system.

The program will also contain four movements from Dowland’s Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares. The first three, Lachrimae Gementes [Sighing Tears], Lachrimae Coactae [Forced Tears], and Lachrimae Verae [True Tears] performed by the ARTEK viol consort; and Lachrimae Antiquae [Old Tears] perfomed on solo organ in the intabulation attributed to Heinrich Scheidemann.

The performance is a memorial concert for Ann L. Wilson, member of the ARTEK Board of Directors until her passing in 2015. All proceeds will benefit the Immanuel Lutheran Church organ fund.

ARTEK singers: Sarah Chalfy, soprano; Ryland Angel, countertenor; Michael Steinberger, tenor; and Peter Becker, bass-baritone

ARTEK viol consort: Rosamund Morley, soprano viol; Daniel McCarthy, tenor viol; Michael Rigsby, tenor viol; Arnie Tanimoto, bass viol; and Motomi Igarashi, bass viol and violone

ARTEK director Gwendolyn Toth will lead the performance and play organ

General Admission
all seats $25