Ensemble Meridiana
“Ensemble Meridiana appeared as a new star on the festival sky”
Arolser Barock-Festspiele
Dominique Tinguely recorder, bassoon
Sarah Humphrys oboe, recorder
Sabine Stoffer violin
Tore Eketorp viola da gamba
Christian Kjos harpsichord
Since its formation in 2006, Ensemble Meridiana has established itself as one the finest European baroque chamber ensembles of its generation. The five members of Ensemble Meridiana come from four different countries and met during their studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland where they specialised in early music. The musicians play on original baroque instruments or on copies. The possibilities of recorder or bassoon, oboe or recorder, violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord offer a wide variety of instrumental combinations and enable the group to cover a wealth of baroque repertoire.
In March 2007 Ensemble Meridiana won the first prize and the audience prize in the 4th International Telemann Competition in Magdeburg, Germany and in July 2009, they won the York International Young Artists Competition. In January 2011, the ensemble won their third international competition: the Göttinger Reihe Historischer Musik der Händel-Gesellschaft Göttingen. Ensemble Meridiana has performed concerts in prestigious international festivals and venues including the Arols Baroque Festival, the Magdeburg Telemann Festival, the Berlin Musical Instrument Museum, the Leipzig Bach Archive Summer Concerts, J.S. Bach’s house in Eisenach, a tour of Romania in 2008 and concerts at the National Centre for Early Music in York and King’s Place, London. Meridiana has performed on radio throughout Europe, on stations such as BBC Radio 3, MDR FIGARO, RSR Espace 2, Bayerischer Rundfunk and on TV Romania.
In April 2011, Ensemble Meridiana’s debut CD Tastes of Europe was released by Linn Records, supported by the National Centre for Early Music and the Fidelio Charitable Trust.
Please contact us for a fully updated biography for concert programmes
Programmes
Tastes of Europe – Telemann’s chamber music
In this programme we interpret trios and quartets by Georg Philipp Telemann. More than in the ‘true German style’, Telemann composed in ‘mixed taste’, a creative blend of the German, Italian, French and Polish national styles of the Baroque period. Some works and movements let one style shimmer through more than another. So it is that some early compositions entirely ‘smell of France’, others are full of Italian temper and several movements sound like Polish folk music in ‘its true, barbaric beauty’ (Telemann).
Not only the styles, but also the instrumentation of his chamber music is a mixture of different sound-colours. Telemann’s quartets were widely praised and are impressive examples of colourful tutti-playing, alternated with some very virtuosic parts for each instrument. But Telemann himself said that his trios were his ‘greatest strength’. The two upper voices present each instrument perfectly and every combination of instruments has its own wonderful sound-world.
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681−1767)
Concerto in A minor for recorder, oboe, violin and basso continuo, TWV 43:a3
Trio in B minor for violin, viola da gamba and basso continuo, TWV 42:h6
Trio in E minor for two dessus (top voices) and basso continuo, TWV 42:e11
Trio in F major for recorder, viola da gamba and basso continuo, TWV 42:F3
Trio in G minor for oboe, violin and basso continuo, TWV 42:g5
Trio in D minor for recorder, violin and basso continuo, TWV 42:d10
Sonata in G major for recorder, oboe, violin and basso continuo, TWV 43:G6
(Total: 67 minutes)
French flair, Italian furore — A cross-cultural exchange in music
Given the difficulties of travel and communication three centuries ago, it is all the more exciting to find that there was actually a great deal of musical exchange in Europe at this time. Indeed, because music was so highly appreciated at the courts, composers were often paid to travel, in order to bring back the latest styles and compositions. So it was that during the first half of the eighteenth century many French composers adopted Italian elements in their compositions and also used the Italian vocabulary to name works and movements. Antonio Vivaldi enjoyed a vast popularity and many composers were influenced by his writing-style. He was the first one to use systematically the ritornello form in fast movements, in which a musical passage is repeated several times by the tutti and alternated with soloistic, highly virtuosic parts. In the following programme we present chamber music for various instruments by Antonio Vivaldi and by several French composers, experimenting with Italian forms and styles.
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1682 — 1765)
Sonata no. 1 for three dessus (top voices) and basso continuo, op. 34/1
Antonio Vivaldi (1678 — 1741)
Concerto for recorder, oboe and basso continuo, RV 103
Marin Marais (1656 — 1728)
Petite Passacaille for two dessus and basso continuo
Antoine Dornel (ca. 1685 — 1765)
Sonate en Quatuor for three dessus and basso continuo
Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto for recorder, violin, bassoon and basso continuo, RV 106
Michel Corrette (1709 — 1795)
Concerto comique ‘Le Plaisir des Dames’ for three dessus and basso continuo, op.8/6
Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto for recorder, violin, oboe, bassoon and basso continuo, RV 105
(Total: 48 minutes)
Discography
Tastes of Europe
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 – 1767): Inspired by different European national styles, Telemann created his own ‘mixed taste’. The result is an amalgamation of German, French, Italian and Polish stylistic elements which appear in a kaleidoscope of sounds in these compositions.
Concerto in G major for recorder, oboe, violin and basso continuo
TWV 43:G6
Trio in E minor for two “dessus” and basso continuo
TWV 42:E11
Trio no.3 in G minor for oboe, violin and basso continuo
TWV 42:G5 from Essercizii musici, Hamburg 1740
Trio no.7 in F major for recorder, viola da gamba and basso continuo
TWV 42:F3 from Essercizii musici, Hamburg 1740
Concerto in A minor for recorder, oboe, violin and basso continuo
TWV 43:A3
Trio in B minor for violin, viola da gamba and basso continuo
TWV 42:H6
Pierre Prowo (1697-1757): Trio in D minor for recorder, violin and basso continuo
Formerly attributed to Telemann TWV 42:D10
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