This December, Sir John Eliot Gardiner presents the debut tour of his new ensembles, The Constellation Orchestra and The Constellation Choir, alongside special guest soloists, to venues across France, Austria, Luxembourg and Germany.
Here is a one-off opportunity to experience live one of today’s most persuasive and respected interpreters of Bach’s works, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, launching his new hand-picked ensembles, The Constellation Choir and The Constellation Orchestra. Gardiner has been studying and performing Bach ever since he learnt all six of Bach’s motets by heart as a treble. The fruits of his lifetime’s immersion in Bach’s oeuvre are grounded in the most recent scholarship, but moving far beyond it, his interpretations are characterised by his deep understanding of the context of how this music came into being, how Bach worked, how his music is constructed, and how it achieves its effects— dance-like and joyous at one level, as in these two spectacular Christmas cantatas, contemplative and tender at another. This together with the French Baroque composer Marc Antoine Charpentier’s Messe de minuit pour Noël (Midnight Mass for Christmas), this is music to quicken the pulse, gladden the heart, as well as a chance to bask in the virtuosity of the instrumentalists and singers who make up Gardiner’s ensembles.
The Constellation Choir & Orchestra are the flagship ensembles for Springhead Constellation a new interdisciplinary arts organisation, which creates accessible, engaging, and educational performances that resonate across both generations and geographies. Under the visionary leadership of Gardiner, Springhead Constellation produces ambitious touring projects which examine the themes of transformation, regeneration, and intersections between music and environmental sciences.
The Constellation Choir & Orchestra
Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor
programme
JS Bach Cantata “Schwingt freudig euch empor” BWV 36
Charpentier Messe de minuit pour Noel
JS Bach Cantata “Unser Mund sei voll Lachens” BWV 110
The Constellation Choir
Sopranos
Marie Luise Werneburg*
Sam Cobb**
Amy Wood
Emily Armour
Emily Owen
Eloise Irving
Altos
Eline Welle*
Iris Korfker **
Sarah Denbee
Simon Ponsford
Tenors
Peter Davoren*
Benedict Quirke
Ben Alden**
Graham Neal
Basses
Alex Ashworth**
David Stuart
Jack Comerford**
Peter Edge
* Guest Soloist
** Constellation Choir Soloist
The Constellation Orchestra
First Violins
Kati Debretzeni – Leader
Jane Gordon
Silvia Schweinberger
Dominika Fehér
Rebecca Livermore
Sophie Simpson
Alison Bury
Iona Davies
Second Violins
Anne Schumann*
Davina Clarke
Henrietta Wayne
Håkan Wikström
Debbie Diamond
Violas
Fanny Paccoud*
Monika Grimm
Lisa Cochrane
Annette Isserlis
Cello / Viola da Gamba
Kinga Gáborjáni*+
Catherine Rimer
Poppy Walshaw
Double Basses
Valerie Botwright*+
Cecilia Bruggemeyer
Flutes / Recorders
Rachel Beckett*
David Westcombe
Oboes
Michael Niesemann*
Benjamin Völker
Joel Raymond
Bassoon
Györgyi Farkas*+
Trumpets
Neil Brough*
Paul Sharp
Michael Harrison
Timpani
Robert Kendell*
Organ / Harpsichord
James Johnstone*
Lute
Thomas Dunford***+
* principal
+ continuo players
** assistant conductor
hrs
hrs
hrs
hrs
hrs
Orkest van de Achttiende Eeuw
Herengracht 62
1015 BP Amsterdam
info@springheadconstellation.com