Alina Rotaru: Le clavecin sorcier at Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, Leeds on Friday 8th March 2024

Please note: This concert is in the past and has already taken place.

Alina Rotaru: Le clavecin sorcier

Add to my Calendar 08-03-2024 13:05 08-03-2024 15:05 36 Alina Rotaru: Le clavecin sorcier Dubbed ‘the Frederic Chopin of the harpsichord’, Johann Jacob Froberger (1616–1667) was one of the most cosmopolitan and interesting musicians of his time. His music often depicts severe life experiences. He valued solitude, whilst at the same time showing an almost contemptuous lack of interest in career or fame. More than 400 years after he was born, Froberger’s life as well as his music are subjects of countless speculations. The partita includes 'Lamento sopra la dolorosa perdita della Real Maestà di Ferdinando IV Rè de Romani'. Élisabeth Jaquet de La Guerre was one of the few established and acclaimed female composers of her time, who was born into a musicians' family and later married a musician herself. She enjoyed a solid musical education from an early age and was given by her family a fair chance to thrive in the world just as much as her brothers. Élisabeth became a musician of the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Johann Sebastian Bach’s excellence and flawlessness are the result of profoundness – of understanding, work, emotion, intellect and technical skills, attributes which he wore since early days, as the choice for today's programme is ready to prove. Alongside the famous Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, the listeners can compare one of Bach's earliest works for harpsichord, Aria variata, other works which deserve just as much praise: Aria variata ‘alla maniera italiana’ – in which the teenager Bach already masters the skills of the Song Variations. Both works are examples of Bach’s inner maturity and complexity, two different facets of the same gemstone. Alina Rotaru studied piano and choral conducting at the music academy in her hometown of Bucharest. After moving to Germany, she studied harpsichord with Siegbert Rampe and Wolfgang Kostujak at the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen, with Bob van Asperen at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and with Carsten Lohff and Detlef Bratschke at the University of the Arts Bremen. She is an active soloist and ensemble player, and also in charge of various orchestral, opera, and sacred music projects of the German Early and Late Baroque as an artistic director. As a soloist, she has performed across most of Europe, as well as in Japan, South America and USA. She teaches at the University of the Arts in Bremen. Her solo recordings of harpsichord works by J.P. Sweelinck, J.J. Froberger, and English virginalists have earned excellent reviews in the music press and amongst her peers. Together with viol player Darius Stabinskas, Alina is the co-founder of the ensemble MORGAINE, which focuses on the music of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. For the research of organ manuscripts from the Polish-Lithuanian-Commonwealth, Alina Rotaru received in 2019 a scholarship from the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. In 2020 she initiated the “Sigismundus Lauxmin International Harpsichord Contest”, so far the only contest of its kind in the Baltic States, which focuses on early repertoire and especially on music Polish and Lithuanian heritage. Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, Leeds DD/MM/YYYY

Details

Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall
The School of Music
University of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT
England

Friday 8th March 2024
1:05 PM

Programme

Johann Jacob Froberger – Tombeau sur la mort de Monsieur Blancheroche
Johann Jacob Froberger – Partita in C major, FbWV 612
Johann Sebastian Bach – Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 903
Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre – Suite III in A minor
Johann Sebastian Bach – Aria variata in A minor, BWV 989

Performers

Alina Rotaru – harpsichord

Programme Note

Dubbed ‘the Frederic Chopin of the harpsichord’, Johann Jacob Froberger (1616–1667) was one of the most cosmopolitan and interesting musicians of his time. His music often depicts severe life experiences. He valued solitude, whilst at the same time showing an almost contemptuous lack of interest in career or fame. More than 400 years after he was born, Froberger’s life as well as his music are subjects of countless speculations. The partita includes 'Lamento sopra la dolorosa perdita della Real Maestà di Ferdinando IV Rè de Romani'.

Élisabeth Jaquet de La Guerre was one of the few established and acclaimed female composers of her time, who was born into a musicians' family and later married a musician herself. She enjoyed a solid musical education from an early age and was given by her family a fair chance to thrive in the world just as much as her brothers. Élisabeth became a musician of the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s excellence and flawlessness are the result of profoundness – of understanding, work, emotion, intellect and technical skills, attributes which he wore since early days, as the choice for today's programme is ready to prove. Alongside the famous Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, the listeners can compare one of Bach's earliest works for harpsichord, Aria variata, other works which deserve just as much praise: Aria variata ‘alla maniera italiana’ – in which the teenager Bach already masters the skills of the Song Variations. Both works are examples of Bach’s inner maturity and complexity, two different facets of the same gemstone.

Alina Rotaru studied piano and choral conducting at the music academy in her hometown of Bucharest. After moving to Germany, she studied harpsichord with Siegbert Rampe and Wolfgang Kostujak at the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen, with Bob van Asperen at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and with Carsten Lohff and Detlef Bratschke at the University of the Arts Bremen. She is an active soloist and ensemble player, and also in charge of various orchestral, opera, and sacred music projects of the German Early and Late Baroque as an artistic director. As a soloist, she has performed across most of Europe, as well as in Japan, South America and USA. She teaches at the University of the Arts in Bremen. Her solo recordings of harpsichord works by J.P. Sweelinck, J.J. Froberger, and English virginalists have earned excellent reviews in the music press and amongst her peers. Together with viol player Darius Stabinskas, Alina is the co-founder of the ensemble MORGAINE, which focuses on the music of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. For the research of organ manuscripts from the Polish-Lithuanian-Commonwealth, Alina Rotaru received in 2019 a scholarship from the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. In 2020 she initiated the “Sigismundus Lauxmin International Harpsichord Contest”, so far the only contest of its kind in the Baltic States, which focuses on early repertoire and especially on music Polish and Lithuanian heritage.

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