Canada 150: Ensemble Masques: EML 2 July

[doversoul1]

As a postlude to Radio 3's Canada 150 celebrations, Hannah French introduces highlights from a concert entitled 'Erbarme dich', cantatas and instrumental music from 17th-century Germany, by Montreal-based Ensemble Masques. The name of the ensemble is inspired by the masques of the Elizabethan England-mystical performances which fused poetry, music, dance and drama.

Biber: Sonata No. 3 in D minor - Fidicinium sacro-profanum (1683)
Schütz: Vater Abraham, erbarme dich mein SWV.477
Erlebach: Auf des Kreuzes Finsternis folgt die Sonne ganz gewiss
Schmelzer: Lamento sopra la morte Ferdinandi III
Buxtehude: Muß der Tod denn auch entbinden
Biber: Sonata - 1676 no. 9 in B flat major [Sonatae tam aris quam aulis]
Schmelzer: Sonata a cinque [Sacro-profanus concentus musicus]
Christian Geist: Vater unser, der du bist im Himmel
Schmelzer: Sonata VI a Sei [Sacro-profanus concentus musicus]
JC Bach: Ach, daß ich Wassers gnug hätte

Damien Guillon, countertenor
Ensemble Masques
Olivier Fortin, director, harpsichord and organ.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08wn0p6

This looks good.

[Quarky]

Excellent Programme.

Confused however about Ensemble masques. According to their website, they have a Paris address: https://www.ensemblemasques.org/

Further they appear to concentrate on instrumental music. References to poetry, dance and Elizabethan England seem somewhat misplaced.

[doversoul1]

I very much enjoyed the programme. I hadn’t been’t terribly keen on Damien Guillon but I though he was very good in this concert. Didn’t he win the Purcell song BaL?


As for the ensemble, this is from All Music site. I imagine they are an instrumental group, since Hannah French introduced the counter tenor as a guest (so I thought).

Artist Biography by Blair Sanderson
Ensemble Masques is a Montreal-based early music group, founded in 1996 by director and harpsichordist Olivier Fortin. Winner of the Grand Prize in the Dorian Early Music America Competition in 2000, the ensemble was selected as the finalist of the York Early Music Competition in 2001. Ensemble Masques was named after the Elizabethan masques, a form that blended music, poetry, dance, and drama. Made up of six performers, the group specializes in 17th and 18th century repertoire, and has recorded works by Georg Phillipp Telemann, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Johan Rosenmüller, and Johann Sebastian Bach. Ensemble Masques has toured Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Europe, and recorded for Alpha, ATMA Classique, Zig Zag Territoires, Analekta, and Dorian

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ensemble-masques-mn0002429480

[french frank]

I imagine they are an instrumental group, since Hannah French introduced the counter tenor as a guest (so I thought).

Their website says they consist of 'a nucleus' (un noyau) of six instrumentalists, which does suggest they draft in others, depending on the programme - regularly if their name is anything to go by, as oddball points out.