The King’s Consort is één van Europa’s toonaangevende ensembles dat oude instrumenten bespeelt. Het werd in 1980 opgericht door Robert King, het maakte – evenals het welbekende King’s Consort Koor – tournees over de vijf continenten, verzorgde optredens in bijna alle Europese landen, Japan, Hong Kong, het Verre Oosten en zowel in Noord- als in Zuid-Amerika.
Gedurende meer dan 30 jaar presenteerde The King’s Consort een avontuurlijke mix van repertoire uit de periode 1600 -1860 in vele prestigieuze concertzalen in Europa. Hoogtepunten daarbij waren 7 optredens in het kader van de BBC Proms, uitvoeringen van de spectaculaire Coronation of King George II, de Venetiaanse reconstructie van Lo Sposalizio, Bachs Mis in b klein en de Matthaeus Passion en Mendelssohns Elijah tijdens tournees in Engeland en Europa, uitvoeringen van Purcell’s The Fairy Queen in Spanje en Engeland, het openingsconcert van de Purcell-festiviteiten op BBC tv en het Réquiem van Mozart in het Alhambra te Granada. Daarnaast optredens met Händels Ottone in Japan en Engeland, Händel’s Ezio in het Théàtre des Champs-Elysées in Parijs en Purcells The Indian Queen in het historische Schwetzingen theater in Duitsland. Dan waren er nog tournées in Japan, Hong Kong en de Filippijnen, in Mexico, Brazilië, Argentinië, de Verenigde Staten en Canada.
The King’s Consorts veel geprezen opnamen sleepten talrijke internationale prijzen in de wacht. Er werden meer dan één miljoen exemplaren van verkocht. Het ensemble wordt in het bijzonder gewaardeerd om zijn vele opnamen van de muziek van Händel en Purcell, maar de discografie omvat ook instrumentale- en koormuziek van vele tientallen componisten van Albinoni tot Zelenka, inclusief concerten van Haydn en Hummel, Bachs Mis in b klein, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Mozart’s Sacred Music, Stabat Mater van Pergolesi, Astorga en Boccherini, Telemann’s Wassermusik en de omvangrijke Venetiaanse reconstructie van Lo Sposalizio. Vijfentwintig wereld- première opnamen van Purcells integrale Odes, Solo Songs en Sacred Music maakten The King’s Consort tot de absolute wereldtop op het gebied van de muziek van deze componist. Daarnaast is het ensemble ook zeer bekend vanwege zijn opnamen van meer dan een dozijn oratoria en opera’s van Händel.
Overige CD-projecten omvatten de zeer gewaarde serie “The Complete Sacred Music of Monteverdi”, inclusief de Vespers van 1610. Deze serie is het vervolg op de succesvolle 10-delige serie van Vivaldi’s integrale Sacred Music. Ook zeer goed ontvangen werden de bestselling opnamen van The Coronation of King George II en Händels kleurrijke Ode for St. Cecilia. Andere recente uitgaven omvatten een veel geprezen opname van Michael Haydn’s Requiem (winnaar van de BBC Music Magazine 2006 “Best Choral Recording” award) en een opname van Mozart’s Sacred Music met de sopraan Carolyn Sampson.
Huidige opnamen van The King’s Consort verschijnen op het huislabel VIVAT. De collectie omvat o.a. muziek van Stanford en Parry (Gramophone Award-finalist), Couperin, Monteverdi, Händel en Purcell en ‘A Voice from Heaven’, Brits-Romantische koormuziek van Stanford, Parry, Howells en MacMillan.
In Hollywood speelt het King’s Consort Koor een voorname rol in de sound tracks van Ridley Scott’s verfilmde epos The Kingdom of Heaven en in The Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Caribbean, Flushed Away en de Da Vinci Code.
Actuele projecten van het King’s Consort zijn gevarieerd als altijd en omvatten onder andere uitvoeringen binnen heel Europa van onder meer Händels Messiah en Requiem van Mozart en Michael Haydn.
2022/ 2023
PROGRAMMA
Handel: Alexander’s Feast
Remaining dates available are March 27, 28, 29 & 30, 2023
Carolyn Sampson soprano
Joshua Ellicott tenor
Matthew Brook bass
Choir of The King’s Consort (18 voices)
The King’s Consort (25 instruments)
Robert King conductor
First performed in 1736, to a libretto by Newburgh Hamilton based on John Dryden’s 1697 ode Alexander’s Feast, or the Power of Music, Handel depicts a banquet held in the captured Persian city of Persepolis by Alexander the Great and his mistress, the Greek courtesan Thais. During the feast, the court musician Timotheus performs, bringing about a series of mood changes in Alexander until, exacting a terrible revenge for his slain Greek soldiers, Alexander is incited to burn down the city. The score, full of especially fine arias and splendid choruses, boasts an unusually varied set of Handelian orchestral colours, including harp, recorders, horns and – depicting the Greek ghosts – the chilling sound of three bassoons and doubled violas. Glorious music!
Dido and Aeneas
Henry Purcell
Carolyn Sampson soprano Dido
Matthew Brook bass Aeneas
Hugh Cutting countertenor Sorceress/ Spirit
Julie Cooper soprano Belinda
Emily Owen Second Woman, First Witch
David de Winter tenor Sailor
Choir of The King's Consort (14 voices)
The King's Consort (17 instruments)
Robert King conductor
Purcell: Why are all the Muses mute? (Ode for King James, 1685)
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
Purcell's magical tale of love, deception, magic and eventual despair is one of the most perfect opera scores, full of glorious melodies, sparkling orchestral writing, a crackling plot culminating in Dido's heart-rending lament, "When I am laid in Earth". The performance will be semi-staged. TKC is renowned the world over for its performances of Purcell and here assembles a particularly strong cast, led by Carolyn Sampson and Matthew Brook. TKC pairs Dido and Aeneas with a striking Ode written in the same year, "Why are all the muses mute", full of fine music and with a devastating conclusion that finds Purcell once again at his melancholy greatest.
“Welcome, glorious morn”
Royal Odes by Henry Purcell
dates still being discussed with France, so we are open to date offers
Carolyn Sampson, Emily Owen soprano
Iestyn Davies, Hugh Cutting countertenor
Charles Daniels, David de Winter tenor
Matthew Brook, Edward Grint bass
The King’s Consort (12 instrumentalists)
Robert King conductor
Suite from Abdelazer
Purcell: Now does the glorious day appear (Birthday Ode for Queen Mary, 1689)
Suite from Dioclesian
Purcell: Welcome, welcome, glorious morn (Birthday Ode for Queen Mary, 1691)
A glittering programme featuring two of Purcell’s finest celebratory birthday odes written for his favourite royal patron, the much-loved Queen Mary. Filled with some of Purcell’s most memorable arias, and punctuated by striking instrumental music, all performed by an world-renowned line-up of Purcellians - and tying into a brilliant new recording which has recently been awarded Gramophone magazine’s “Editor’s Choice”. The short promo video at https://youtu.be/qzJnaT0s5Qg – this is an outstanding programme, fit for a King.
Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle
The King’s Consort
Carolyn Sampson, Emily Owen, Gwendolen Martin soprano
Hilary Summers, Sian Menna, Heather Cairncross alto
Joshua Ellicott, David de Winter, Graham Neal tenor
Matthew Brook, Jimmy Holliday, Andrew Rupp bass
Iain Farrington, Ashok Gupta 19th century piano
Richard Gowers french harmonium
Robert King conductor
Byrd: Mass in Four Parts (c.1593)
Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle
Rossini’s outrageously operatic Mass of 1864 is juxtaposed with one of the greatest of all Renaissance Masses, that by William Byrd, written nearly three hundred years before. This performance restores Rossini’s setting to the composer’s original scoring, where the performers included just twelve voices with an accompaniment of two grand pianos and a French harmonium (TKC has sourced suitable instruments, including two nineteenth-century grand pianos and a Debain harmonium – the same make that Rossini used in his first performance). The result is a performance which is fresh, full-blooded, operatic yet still maintaining its sense of devotion, and full of character, joie-de-vivre and French style.
A Voice from Heaven
British Choral Masterpieces
Choir of The King’s Consort (24 voices)
Robert King conductor
Naylor: Vox dicentis: clama
Stanford: Three Latin Motets (Justorum animae: Coelos ascendit hodie: Beati quorum via)
Howells: I heard a voice from heaven
Walton: Set me as a seal
Walton: Where does the uttered music go
Harris: Faire is the Heaven
Britten: A Hymn to St Cecilia
Hewitt Jones: Drop, drop, slow tears
Murrill: The souls of the righteous
Leighton: Drop, drop, slow tears
Stanford: I heard a voice from heaven
Harris: Bring us, O Lord God
Howells: Take him, earth, for cherishing (Motet on the death of President Kennedy)[A1]
A delicious programme of unaccompanied masterpieces from the finest British Romantics, including ravishing settings by Stanford, Howells, Walton and their contemporaries. The two Harris settings are especially fine: Herbert Murrill’s work is a perfect miniature, and Kenneth Leighton’s melancholy anthem wonderfully poised. Howells’ motet for the slain President Kennedy is a devastating masterwork.
Shakespeare’s London
Matthew Locke: Music to The Tempest
Robert Johnson: Hark, hark the lark (The Tempest)
John Wilson: Take, O take those lips away (Measure for Measure)
Locke: Curtain Tune to The Tempest
Thomas Morley: O mistress mine (Twelfth Night)
Robert Johnson: When that I was (Twelfth Night)
Purcell & Paisible: Suite from Timon of Athens
Anon: Lawn as white as driven snow (A Winter's Tale)
Richard Edwards: Where griping grief (Romeo and Juliet)
Locke: Music from The Tempest
Anon: The Willow Song (Othello)
Edward Johnson: Eliza is the fairest Queen
Purcell: Songs and instrumental music from The Fairy-Queen
Two golden musical ages linked together by the words of Shakespeare, with ravishing Elizabethan settings (including a wonderful selection of lute songs weaved amonst Matthew Locke's extraordinary music to The Tempest) paried with Purcell's own, highly coloured response to the words of England's greatest playwright. The King's Consort is regarded as one of the world's leading ensembles performing Purcell's music, with a huge recorded discography built up over quarter of a century.
Seven Stages of Love
Madison Nonoa: soprano
Hugh Cutting: Countertenor
The King's Consort: 6 instruments
Robert King: harpsichord, director
A splendidly varied programme tracking love in its journey through seven stages: Innoncence, Desire, Infatuation, Pursuit, Marriage, Offspring and Discord.
The music travels from the Renaissance and Baroque to the present day, with featured composers including Dowland, Campion, Purcell, Handel, Monteverdi, Fluck, Gershwin, Rogers, Hart and Cole Porter, along with a work written for TKC by Michael Berkeley.
Odes to St Cecillia
Carolyn Sampson: soprano
Robin Blaze: countertenor
James Gilchrist: tenor
Choir of The King's Consort: 18 voices
The King's Consort: 25 players
Robert King: conductor
Three wonderful settingsd in praise of the Patron Saint of music from three different centuries bring vivid musical contrasts. Purcell's Ode of 1683 includes delicious instrumental ritornelli and elegantly lilting choruses alongside the central, ravishing alto solo "Here the deities approve." Benjamin Britten's 1942 setting of W H Auden''s highly expressive poetry is brilliantly crafted miniature masterpiece for unaccompanied choir.
Lo Sposalizio
The symbolic wedding of Venice to the Adriatic sea was celebrated annually on Ascension Day during the era when Venice was at the height of its cultural and economic powers. Accompanied throughout by the most lavish spectacle and music, the procession would leave the Doge’s Palace, cross the lagoon on the Buccintoro, rowed by 400 oarsmen, and hold a service on the Lido in the Church of San Nicolò. At the central point of the Sposalizio the Doge would drop a gold ring into the lagoon. Robert King has reconstructed this ceremony for the celebrations of 1600. At this time the remarkable music of Andrea Gabrieli was still fashionable, and that of his nephew and successor Giovanni Gabrieli was at its peak. The reconstruction contains some of the most glorious music ever written, making a spectacular concert. The reconstruction falls into two halves: the first part features the secular music that accompanied the procession as it left the Palace and crossed the lagoon, including the Doge’s Piffari (five silver trumpets), madrigals on Venetian and aquatic themes and instrumental canzonas for large- and small-scale forces, closing with Giovanni Gabrieli’s sumptuous fifteen-part madrigal ‘Udite chiari’. In the second part the service held in San Nicolò is reconstructed, with large-scale fanfares and canzonas, a twelve-part Kyrie, Andrea Gabrieli’s stunning sixteen-part Gloria, further motets and the Sanctus, culminating in Giovanni Gabrieli’s monumental 22-part sonata, written for five separate choirs of instruments.