| Imagine a culture in which persons with even a modest education not only knew poets and musicians by name, but could also quote passages of poetry from memory. In our world, such erudition is largely the province of academic scholars. The average audience member at a concert of vocal music depends on program notes and song texts to enhance appreciation of the performance.
England in the 17th century was a different story. In addition to the aristocracy, many members of the middle class were well acquainted with both poetry and music. English composers capitalized on this knowledge, exploring ways to meld the messages of text and sound in ways that heightened sensory impact.
Elizabethan and Jacobean England boasted the finest musicians in the western world and a stable of stellar composers equal to those of any other country. This disc celebrates the titans John Dowland and Henry Purcell, who stand as colossal bookends at opposite ends of the 17th century. While their individual backgrounds and careers differed, their achievement in the realm of accompanied solo song is strikingly similar. Soprano Jāma Jandroković, harpsichordist Jory Vinikour, lutenist Charles Weaver and viola da gambist Carlene Stober have recreated an evening of music-making in a civilized and cultured household, presenting accompanied vocal music and instrumental solos.
Each of these songs is a little jewel, expressed succinctly, with elegance, beauty, and refinement: a Fabergé egg, two centuries ahead of that concept. ‘Mercurial Love’ explores the full gamut of life’s most complex emotion: love’s exhilaration and frustration, volatility and fickleness, tenderness, despair, and myriad other qualities. "Sometimes several aspects occur within a single song," observes Ms. Jandrokovic. For example, Dowland’s ‘Come again’ presents eager anticipation in the first stanza, mourning and weeping in the second, and ends with despair. Similarly, but with the inverse trajectory, ‘Sweeter than Roses’ is chameleon-like. It first yearns, then becomes passionate, then languorous, and finally triumphant. The instrumental solos interspersed among the songs extend the mood to a more abstract realm, expressing the emotional state where the poetry and the melody lead the listener.
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Jāma Jandroković
Soprano Jāma Jandroković has charmed audiences and critics with her clear, pure soprano voice and engaging stage presence. A versatile interpreter of song, she is equally at ease in early music, new music, Lieder and Broadway. Native to the wind-swept plains of Wyoming, she has appeared in major international concert halls including Konzerthaus Berlin, Munich's Gasteig für Kultur and New York's Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Critics and audiences have thrilled to her artistry, delighting in her "lovely lyric soprano and gift for poetry" [New York Newsday] and praising her "appealingly sweet" [Opera News] and "clear and wonderful voice" [Glamour Magazine Germany].
Ms. Jandroković has a passion for poetry which guides her singing. She is most at home in the recital literature and has worked with the celebrated art song composer Lori Laitman and the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec. This collaboration prompted Opera News critic Joanne Sydney Lesser to applaud "her genuine desire to collaborate and communicate, as well as her commendable commitment to new music." The New York Times has observed, "Give this soprano credit for putting herself on the line." She has done so again with this CD which explores her interest in early music. Neither Dowland nor Purcell leaves the singer any place to hide. Ms. Jandroković confronts this nakedness, exposing private feelings, thoughts and experiences through her sensuous, unique voice.
JORY VINIKOUR is recognized as one of the outstanding harpsichordists of his generation. A highly diversified career brings him to the world’s most important festivals and concert halls as recital and concerto soloist, partner to several of today’s finest singers, and as one of the most visible continuo performers. Born in Chicago, Jory came to Paris in 1990 on a scholarship from the Fulbright Foundation to study with Huguette Dreyfus and Kenneth Gilbert. First Prizes in the International Harpsichord Competitions of Warsaw (1993) and the Prague Spring Festival (1994) brought him to the public’s attention, and he has since appeared in festivals and concert series throughout much of the world. A concerto soloist with a repertoire ranging from Bach to Nyman, he has performed as soloist with leading orchestras including Rotterdam Philharmonic, Flanders Opera Orchestra, L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic of Radio France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, and Moscow Chamber Orchestra with conductors such as Armin Jordan, Marc Minkowski, Constantine Orbelian, John Nelson and Fabio Luisi. He has participated in a recording of Frank Martin’s Petite Symphonie Concertante with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Armin Jordan (OSR, 2005), and also performed the Harpsichord Concerto by the same composer with the Symphony Orchestra of the MDR in Leipzig’s Gewandhaus under the direction of Martin Haselböck in January 2003. Increasingly known as an accompanist, he has appeared extensively in recital with artists such as David Daniels, Hélène Delavault, Magdalena Kozena, Annick Massis, Marijana Mijanovic and others. He has accompanied legendary Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter in recitals in Sweden, Norway, Spain and Paris and at La Scala in Milan. With luthenist Jakob Lindberg, a programme of English and Italian music of the 17th century, entitled Music for a While was released by Deutsche Grammophon.
CHARLES WEAVER plays lute and theorbo with the early music ensembles ARTEK and Repast. He has also performed with Hesperus, Piffaro, St. Luke’s, and the Yale collegium. His main interests are accompanying baroque opera and working with the New York Continuo Collective, a group that explores the tradition of reciting Italian poetry to music in the 17th century. With his duo partner, soprano Elizabeth Baber, he has created programs of 16th and 17th-century song praised for their "imagination in programming." The Washington Post has described his performances as "captivating" and "splendid."
CARLENE STOBER, Viola da Gamba, is a member of early music ensembles Empire Viols and the Grenser Trio and is continuo cellist for the celebrated Bach Vespers series at New York City’s Holy Trinity Church. In addition to performing with many ensembles, she has appeared at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on Prairie Home Companion, with the Utah Shakespearean Festival and Theatre for a New Audience. On modern cello, she served as principal cellist of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the Lake George Opera Festival Orchestra. |
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