September 29, Thursday, 6 pm
Evangelical Lutheran Church, Vokiečių g. 20
Sento nel core
Italian Baroque arias, cantatas and sonatas
MUSICA POËTICA, Spain
- Susanna Crespo Held– soprano
- Yair Avidor – theorbo
- Michele Barchi – harpsichord
From the days of Ancient Rome, the city of Rome has always been one of the largest and most important cities of the Western world. The arts have always flourished here, and naturally so too has music. A. Scarlatti was born in Palermo but soon moved to Rome where he was at the service of Queen Christina of Sweden. After the death of this patron and intellectual the Accademia dell˙Arcadia was established with the idea of continuing her ideas and developing ´buon gusto in the arts. The academy later came under the patronage of Ruspoli who invited the young Handel to be the maestro di cappella. The music of A. Vivaldi, B. Marcello and A. Caldara also reflects the tastes and aesthetic mores of Italy from those times.
The Musica Poëtica ensemble was formed in 2003 and was created from the merger of international active musicians with other prestigious early music groups, such as Il Giardino Armonico, Academia Bizantina, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Ensemble Elyma, Kammerorchester Basel, Al Ayre Español, etc.
Thanks to the successful synthesis of expression, technical ability and scholarly research Musica Poëtica performs numerous concerts in Europe, where it has always received great responses from audiences and critics alike. Musica Poëtica is based in Barcelona, though its members are originally from Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Israel.
The first recording of the ensemble with the charming soprano Susanna Crespo Held, released on Naxos, was dedicated to the music of Alessandro Scarlatti, and was the first performance of five chamber cantatas in our times.
Susanna Crespo Held, born in Germany, studied at the Conservatory of Valencia; she graduated in Baroque singing at the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan with a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Culture and receives tutoring from Carmen Bustamante in Barcelona.
She sings in international festivals and appears on stages with renowned musicians such as Jordi Savall, Gabriel Garrido and Ottavio Dantone. Besides the Baroque repertoire, she also performs vocal music of the Classical and Romantic periods such as masses and oratorios by Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Schubert. She has also sung in concerts broadcast on Spanish, Swiss, French, Italian and German radio and television stations.
Susanna Crespo Held has taught Baroque singing at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Valencia. In November 2011, the soloist’s second album with Musica Poëtica is due to appear, dedicated to the music of the brothers C. P. E and W. F. Bach.
Yair Avidor, born and raised in Tel Aviv, studied at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen and the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan, before completing his Masters at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Yair has played continuo with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, recorded with I Barrochisti (Switzerland) and Ensemble Galatea (Italy) and is a founder-member of the Amphion Consort.
Yair’s debut solo CD of music by Robert de Visee for the theorbo should come out later this year.
Apart from early music he also finds inspiration in jazz and Indian music.
Michele Barchi graduated in piano at the Milan Conservatory, and later obtained a diploma in harpsichord at the Conservatory of Brescia. He embarked on a career as a harpsichordist, both as a soloist and as a continuo player, with Il Giardino Armonico and has been invited to play in several orchestras conducted by Claudio Abbado and Riccardo Muti. He has recorded numerous CDs and DVDs for major German and French labels.
He has collaborated with several groups as a soloist, including Ensemble 415 directed by Chiara Banchini, and Ensemble Aurora led by Enrico Gatti and regularly works with violinist Monica Hugget.
He is also dedicated to the construction and decoration of harpsichords.