Chamber recital explores early music

In any recital, musicians are usually the acclaimed stars. However, two luminaries of the renaissance and baroque music era are likely to hijack the attention at the upcoming St. Albert Chamber Music Recital.

Early Music Alberta, the recital’s featured guest, is introducing a program of pre 19th century music that has been historically researched and performed on rarely heard period instruments.

Once the harpsichord, an older sister of the piano, and the viola da gamba, a bowed six-string instrument that superficially looks like a cello, were primary instruments played in the salons of kings and nobles.

But by the late 19th century, they were viewed as antiques and relegated to the back burners until about 50 years ago. Thanks to the 1960s experiments of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, a resurgence of early music’s instruments swept the pop charts introducing vintage instruments to a new generation.

“The viola da gamba and harpsichord were soft instruments suited for small salons. When music was played in larger halls, music became louder and louder. That’s when the viola da gamba and harpsichord were ditched,” explains Early Music Alberta founder Josephine van Lier.

A versatile musician equally at ease on baroque cello, five-string violoncello piccolo or viola da gamba, van Lier will perform two sonatas by Bach with Judy Loewen on harpsichord. Also featured is soprano Jolaine Kerley singing a number of short pieces accompanied by harpsichord.

The renowned cellist was born in the Netherlands and has lived in Edmonton since 1995. As a youth she was at the forefront of early music revival in Europe.

“Manuscripts were so over edited, they didn’t make sense anymore. So people went back to see what it was like and reread the treatises,” van Lier notes. “Music was approached the same way. The length of notes was the same and music lost its rhetoric. It didn’t make much sense anymore.”

While the world was taking part in this revival, little was done in Edmonton’s classical arena, in part due to the rarity of instruments.

“I’m a baroque cellist and I really missed performing music that way. If I want to play early music, I had to do it myself.”

In 2010, she founded the Early Music Alberta Society where musicians could dedicate their expertise to perform recitals under strict guidelines. The music had to be written prior to 1850; it had to be historically informed and based on researched manuscripts. Finally, the instruments had to be either originals or copies of originals.

“The music comes alive more. They (instruments) understand what the music was written for and it speaks differently.”

The St. Albert recital covers an array of smaller works including compositions from Handel and Bach, two equally sensitive baroque masters.

“There is something about Bach. He understood the instruments so well in the sonatas, and in this piece Judy and I are equal partners and that makes it so special and fantastic.”

Van Lier flows with praise when discussing Kerley’s pure, crystal sound.

“It’s a little less heavy. It has a little less vibrato. Not every singer has an instrument like hers or has the ability to sing like that.”

Opening the concert is harpsichordist Faith Holwerda, 17, a Grade 12 student with plans to enter nursing and eventually join Doctors Without Borders.

She performs the six-minute Premier Livre de PiÄŤces de clavecin, by French Baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. The three-movement composition is romantic in style with a lot of free movement.

Excited to perform with three top tier classical musicians, Holwerda says, “This concert is going to be a great eye-opener. It’s a cool way to experience music in a new way.”

The Early Music concert is held at Don’s Piano Showroom on Saturday, November 23.