Breaking news on our 2010 SEASON ...

Sat 20th March 7.30pm,
Bach's St John Passion at Llandaff Cathedral

Fri 26th March, a joint concert with students from Bishop Gore School, Swansea
All Saint’s Church, Oystermouth

Crickhowell May Festival, St Edmund’s Church
Sat 1st May Handel's Carmelite Vespers
Sun 2nd May Bach's B minor mass

15th, 21st and 22nd May, Hamburg programme
Sat 15th May, St Catherine's Church, Pontypridd
Fri 21st May, Y Tabernacl, Machynlleth
Sat 22nd May, Ucheldre Arts Centre, Holyhead

20th and 26th June, Purcell programme, incl. Dido
Sun 20th June, (afternoon) St Donat's Arts Centre, Llantwit Major
Sat 26th June, Rhoy-y-Gilwen, Cardigan

9th and 16th September, Gainsborough's Associates
Thu 9th Sep, Norwegian Church Arts Centre, Cardiff
Thu 16th Sep, Blake Theatre, Monmouth

2007 season:

CHRISTMAS IN 17TH CENTURY GERMANY
7th December 7.30pm Llandaff Cathedral
8th December 7.30pm Brunswick Methodist Church, Swansea (part of the Crwth Chamber Music Series 2007-8)

Programme:
The Christmas Story, Heinrich Schütz
Cantata 'Das Neugeborne Kinderlein', Dietrich Buxtehude
Music for cornetts and sackbuts
Ecce concipies, Jacob Handl
Verbum caro factum est, Hans Leo Hassler

Ticket prices:
Llandaff: £10 (£7 concessions, £3 students and unwaged, school age
free); available on the door or in advance from Rowlands Music, High
Street Arcade, Cardiff, tel 029 2022 1199
Swansea: £8 (£6 concessions, £2 students and unwaged, school age
free); available on the door or in advance from the Crwth website, www.crwth.org.uk

Take yourself back to Christmas in late 17th century Germany. All the
seemingly magical symbols we have come to associate with Christmas
such as the fir tree, candles, baubles and sweet things to eat are
becoming a set part of the festival: so what of the musical
accompaniment to these visual and culinary delights? Was there a
musical equivalent to Christmas cake?

A concert on Friday 7th December in Cardiff and Saturday 8th December
in Swansea provides the answer. South Wales' specialist early music
choir the Welsh Camerata will perform Heinrich Schütz's delectable
"Christmas Story" with the instrumental parts provided by members of
the Welsh Baroque Orchestra performing on period instruments.

The word settings have a vivid appeal and directness that is certain
to excite the taste buds of any audience - a refreshing change to the
usual performances of the Messiah. The story is narrated by a soloist
(in English in this performance), interrupted by colourful ensembles
for angels, shepherds, wise men, high priests and a sinister Herod.

The choir and orchestra will also perform a short Christmas cantata by
Buxterhude, Schütz's setting of the Magnificat (with soloist Laura
Morris of Llanelli), and other choral and instrumental items from 17th
century Germany.

The concert is directed by Andrew Wilson-Dickson, former head of early
music at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The Welsh Baroque
Orchestra is led by Simon Jones, who has been a member of the King's
Consort.

2005-6 season:

Last autumn the orchestra took part in the Varazdin Baroque Evenings in Croatia. It gave two concerts in quick succession: an orchestral programme followed by a staged performance of Handel's oratorio Hercules, both in a lovely building in the centre of this baroque town in northern Croatia. The orchestral concert was in a typical large salon of the early nineteenth century, under an enormous chandelier and in a warm acoustic. the stars of an evening of concertos were undoubtedly Marianna Szücs, who took us through a thrilling performance of a Leclair violin concerto, and the two trumpeters, Stephen Keavy and David Hendry who gave a ringing rendering of the Vivaldi Concerto in C from the gallery above (see a picture of the location at the festival's website, www.vbv.hr). The charming theatre of similar date had quite a deep pit which just fitted the 23 players (including two harpsichords). And the day after that Andrew Wilson-Dickson, having directed both concerts, gave an organ recital in the superbly appointed cathedral. And we had wisely decided to give two programmes to audiences in Wales just before setting for Croatia, the first in Monmouth Priory Church and the second in The Gate. Yes, it was a frantic time...

For the Handel we were privileged to work with fine soloists: Buddug Verona James (who also directed), Julia Gooding, Jonathan Peter Kenny, Huw Rhys Evans and Richard Morris. We teamed up with the Slovenian Chamber Choir (16 of them) and they were everything we needed, given the very tight schedule in which we had to reconcile our differing styles of performance, our languages and the very tricky characteristics of the theatre stage (rather narrow, very deep, with the choir and orchestra separated by a vast space). But the choir gave of their time with great generosity and succeeded where many others might have failed. Few will forget the beauty of their spontaneous singing at supper afterwards.

The cascade of flowers and gifts that accompanied our concerts made us feel profoundly welcomed. The orchestra was also invited to play three encores. In planning the programme we were asked whether the Festival would accept any new music for period instruments. The answer was a polite but emphatic 'no'. It had not happened in 35 years and was not going to start now (there is a contemporary music Biennale in Zagreb anyway on a very large scale). But Andrew W D wrote a 1 minute piece for the second of the three (!) encores, so the rule was in the end broken. 2006 may see the orchestra playing new music on a slightly larger scale.

The orchestra was following in the footsteps of such groups as The Sixteen (and this year the slot we occupied in the festival will be taken by The King's Consort), so the expectations of the Welsh Baroque Orchestra were high. But in spite of the director being taken ill almost as soon as he arrived in Varazdin, everything happened pretty well as planned. The generosity of the Croatians and the organisation was excellent. Nothing was too much trouble for them and our needs were met with care, graciousness and good humour. That made a big difference to what might have been an anxious time.

Haydn and Mozart

Back on home territory the orchestra teamed up with Gwent Bach Society on December 3rd 2005 to give a challenging but rewarding programme of the early Bach Cantata 61, Mozart's rarely heard and complex Solemn Vespers (the kind of piece that surely provoked the Archbishop of Salzburg to accuse Mozart of 'too many notes' and Haydn's Missa in Angustiis (the 'Nelson' Mass). This was the orchestra's first venture into Classical (that is, post-baroque) music. Having the chance to apply baroque playing principles to this later music was instructive, under the excellent guidance of the leader, Nicolette Moonen.

A further performance took place with the same choir of Bach's massive B minor Mass (April 8th), for which the orchestra expanded to its greatest size, about 26 players. We were lucky to have the wonderful Margaret Faultless leading the orchestra on this occasion.

Meteorology

Meteorology is exhibiting some of the more alarming effects of global warming, and it does not seem right that the Welsh Baroque Orchestra should bury its collective head in the sand and pretend that the phenomenon does not exist. For this reason it is preparing a programme based on musical observations of nature. Clearly Vivaldi's Seasons has to take centre stage and all four concertos form the core of the programme. But two other Vivaldi concertos have colourful titles: La Notte (solo bassoon Nathaniel Harrison) and La Tempesta di Mare (solo flute Claire Heaney). To this we added a short but startling Storm from the opera Alcyone by Marin Marais. Finally Andrew Wilson-Dickson wrote a short concerto grosso specially for the entire ensemble. Ominously, it is called 'greenhouse effect'.

Venues for this programme included:

Monday May 15th at All Saints Oystermouth (as part of the All Saints Alive Literature Festival)

Saturday May 20th at St Margaret's Church, Mountain Ash

Tuesday June 13th at Trinity College, Carmarthen (part of the Trinity College Arts Festival)

Wednesday July 5th at Drill Hall, Chepstow (part of Chepstow Arts and Community Festival)

The orchestra added another to its popular series of midsummer Brandenburg concerts, on Thursday 22nd June in the Norwegian Church Arts Centre, including Brandenburg 6, recorder concerti by Sammartini and Telemann (soloist Owen Morse-Brown), and Bach's Violin Concerto in A minor (soloist Marc Elton).

Last season:

2004-5 turned out to be a busy time for the orchestra. It played to a wide variety of audiences in Wales: in Swansea (as part of the Crwth concert series), in All Saints Oystermouth and The Arts Centre, Machynlleth, with Crispian Steele-Perkins (trumpet) and Siona stockel (soprano) and at the Llandudno Festival, joining forces with Consort de Danse Baroque under the direction of Philippa Waite. The orchestra added another concert to its regular series of midsummer Brandenburg Concertos (this time featuring Concerto no 4).

If you feel the orchestra deserves continued support from the Arts Council of Wales for its unique presentation of period music in Wales, do write to the Director of Music at the Arts Council, 9 Museum Place, Cardiff CF10 3NX in our support.


Best of all, come and enjoy our concerts!

I weld adolygiadau a lluniau o gyngherddau diweddar y Gerddorfa Baroc Gymreig, ymwelwch ag adran Amdanom ni.