The Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg will feature identical concerts in the same week by Christophe Rousset and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, and by the MCO’s founder Sir John Eliot Gardiner with his newly created ensemble, the Springhead Constellation Orchestra and Choir.
Gardiner, who was sacked by the MCO after a violent incident, has got the first date. It looks a bit like a grudge match.
Make what you like of this Hamburg press release.
9 September 2024: Sir John Eliot Gardiner performs with his newly founded ensembles for the first time on 7 December. The Constellation Choir & Orchestra perform Christmas baroque music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Johann Sebastian Bach in the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall. The pioneer of historically informed performance practice originally planned to travel to Hamburg a week later with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists with the same programme. However, in July, the ensembles and Gardiner announced their separation after sixty years of collaboration. Gardiner is replaced by French baroque specialist Christophe Rousset on the rostrum for the concert on 14 December.
»It gives me great pleasure to announce the foundation of Springhead Constellation, a unique new project embodying a vibrant collective of musical ensembles, creative artists and makers. Our flagship groups, The Constellation Orchestra and The Constellation Choir will produce ambitious, multidisciplinary performance projects that tour around the world. (…) I am so excited and grateful to be working with such exceptional musicians once again, not forgetting the important lessons I have learnt and needed to learn from the past year,« says Sir John Eliot Gardiner in a press release about his new project.
Christophe Rousset is looking forward to working with the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras (MCO): »From an early age, I have been a great fan of [MCO] and its founding conductor. Having the chance to work with this wonderful ›instrument‹ at my fingertips is a great privilege.«
In his midnight mass »Messe de minuit«, composed around 1694, Marc-Antoine Charpentier elicits delightful rhythms and timbres from old French Christmas carols. The two Bach cantatas »Schwingt freudig euch empor« and »Unser Mund sei voll Lachens« were composed for the Christmas season in Leipzig’s Thomaskirche in 1731 and 1725 respectively.
The Elbphilharmonie Hamburg is the only place in the world where this special programme can be heard in both first-class interpretations within a very short space of time. Ticketholders of the concert featuring the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists have been given the opportunity to change the date of their tickets if they wish.
Sat, 7 December 2024, Elbphilharmonie, Grand Hall
The Constellation Choir & Orchestra
Marie Luise Werneburg soprano
Eline Welle mezzo-soprano
Peter Davoren tenor
Alex Ashworth bass
conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Messe de minuit à 4 voix, flûtes et violons, pour Noël
Johann Sebastian Bach: Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36c
Johann Sebastian Bach: Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110
Sat, 14 December 2024, Elbphilharmonie, Grand Hall
English Baroque Soloists / Monteverdi Choir
Hilary Cronin soprano
Bethany Horak-Hallett mezzo-soprano
Florian Sievers tenor
Florian Störtz bass
conductor Christophe Rousset
Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Messe de minuit à 4 voix, flûtes et violons, pour Noël
Johann Sebastian Bach: Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36c
Johann Sebastian Bach: Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110
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