Christian IV and Kitty Clive plus Handel and more

[doversoul1]

Saturday
Catherine Bott talks about some of the composers who worked at the court of the colourful Christian IV of Denmark. The music includes works by imports to the court including Dowland, Bertolusi and Schutz, but also homegrown composers such as Hans Nielsen, Mogens Pederson and Soren Terkelsen. (R)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cd66v

Sunday
Lucie Skeaping talks to musicologist Berta Joncus about the one of the 18th Century's colourful characters, the soprano Kitty Clive. Clive was born in London in the early 18th century, and rose to become London's top singer and comic actress, and a celebrity in her day. Berta Joncus is currently writing a book about Kitty Clive, and how she fascinated audiences for decades. The programme includes music she made famous, including Arne's 'Rule Britannia', and also music written for her by Handel.(R)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019pmvb

CD Review

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pd3j2

9:05
Joyce DiDonato - Drama Queens, Royal Arias from the 17th and 18th Centuries
HANDEL: Alessandro: Max Emanuel Cencic, Xavier Sabata
MONTEVERDI:: Anne Sophie von Otter (mezzo-soprano), Sandrine Piau (soprano), Susanna Sundberg (contralto), Ensemble Cappella Mediterranea, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon (conductor)
18th-century Portuguese Love Songs

10:30
David Vickers joins Andrew to discuss recent DVD recordings of Baroque opera
HANDEL: Deidamia
Pergolesi - Il Prigionier Superbo and La Serva Padrona
HANDEL: Rodelinda
SAMS: The Enchanted Island – with music by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, Campra, Leclair, Purcell, Rebel and Ferrandini

[Richard Tarleton]

Saturday
Catherine Bott talks about some of the composers who worked at the court of the colourful Christian IV of Denmark. The music includes works by imports to the court including Dowland, Bertolusi and Schutz, but also homegrown composers such as Hans Nielsen, Mogens Pederson and Soren Terkelsen. (R)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cd66v

Thanks for the prompt dover. This is the strange world evoked in Rose Tremain's excellent novel "Music and Silence", one of the characters being a fictional successor to Dowland. Dowland's "King of Denmark's Galliard" is one of my party pieces

[Richard Tarleton]

Informative as ever - I had no idea Christian's search for musicians was so widespread. No mention however of the strange musicians' cellar connected by tubes - a 17th century take on piped music!

The lute version of Dowland's King of Denmark's Galliard is a more elaborate and interesting piece than the little viol consort version we heard at the top of the programme. Dowland adapted it from his earlier Battle Galliard, and it reached its final version in the Varietie of Lute Lessons collection published by his son robert.

[Black Swan]

A really interesting program. I had many of the CD's reviewed. Anne Sophie von Otter and 18th Century Portuguese Love Songs. Both really good albums. I hear the Portuguese Love Songs live at the 2012 York Early Music Festival. The performance was taped and replayed on the Early Music Show by Catherine.

[vinteuil]

. Dowland's "King of Denmark's Galliard" is one of my party pieces

... that made me happy - it was one of my pa's party pieces too... Along with the Melancholy Galliard and my Lady Hunsdon's Puffe.

I had rather thought Tarletone's Riserrectione [Poulton 59] would have been your number...

[Richard Tarleton]

... that made me happy - it was one of my pa's party pieces too... Along with the Melancholy Galliard and my Lady Hunsdon's Puffe.

I had rather thought Tarletone's Riserrectione [Poulton 59] would have been your number...

Those too! In the Karl Scheit edns.

Julian Bream played Tarleton's Riserrectione as his encore at his 25.1.73 concert in the QEH - an all-Dowland recital to coincide with the publication of Diana Poulton's and Basil Lam's collected edn of the lute music. I was sitting in the middle of the front row .

JB played the lute as he played the guitar -with his nails. Nowadays that is no longer politically correct, one can't do both, hence my brief flirtation with the lute - I play them, and a lot more early music, on the guitar.

[ardcarp]

I enjoyed the programme immensely, especially Italianate madgrigals sung in Danish (at least, I assume that's what it was). I too was waiting with bated breath for a reference to the 'underfloor chamber' as outlined in Sounds and Silence. I did wonder whether that was an invention of Rose Tremaine, but looking at Richard T's link (#3) I see it was not. However, it talks of 'tubes'. Didn't the novel have a trap door? I'm speaking from memory.

[Richard Tarleton]

I've lent my copy and so can't check, though I do seem to remember tubes.

[ardcarp]

I've lent my copy and so can't check.

Ditto! It's lurking among the family somewhere.