Details
Old Baptist Chapel
Church Street
Tewkesbury
Gloucestershire
GL20 5RZ
England
Programme
Guillaume Dufay – Je veuil chanter
John Plummer – O Pulcherium mulierum
Jacques De Senleches – La harpe de melodie
Anonymous – Qui le sien veult
John Dunstaple – O rosa bella
John Dunstaple – Puisque m'amour
Performers
Sara Stowe – Voice
Jon Banks – Harp
Sirinu
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
Bruges in 1468 witnessed the sumptuous wedding celebrations of Margaret of York (sister to Edward IV and Richard III of England) and Charles the Rash, the last great Duke of Burgundy. For much of the period the houses of York and Burgundy were closely allied and Edward IV in his years of exile took refuge with his sister Margaret in Burgundy. The battle of Tewkesbury in 1471 saw Edward regain the throne, and the cultural contracts between Flanders and England strengthened. Margaret’s brilliant court was home to some of the leading English and Flemish composers of the day – among them Dufay, Morton, Hayne and Binchois – and produced two of most influential forms of the time– the Basse Dance and the Burgundian Chanson. With organ, lute, harp, fiddle, wind and voices Sirinu present a musical tapestry to illustrate the turbulent years of the 1470s and 80s.
Sirinu is an ensemble of early instruments and voices, with an established reputation for lively and communicative performances based on sound musical scholarship. Since their formation in 1992 they have recorded for Hyperion, Chandos, and Griffen, Sirinu gave the opening concert at the National Centre for Early Music in York and appeared throughout Britain, Europe, North Africa, and South America. Sirinu has performed and recorded music from the eleventh century to the present day: they commissioned Howard Skempton’s ‘The man hurdy-gurdy and me’, premiered at Peninsular Arts, Plymouth, and the inspiration for their new recording on the Métier label (released in 2020).
