The 2014 Bowral Autumn Music Festival

What an exciting month this will be! The Australian Historical Performance Initiative and the Bowral Autumn Music Festival will be presenting three early music concerts that I will feature prominently. I will be accompanying many fine performers in a wide range of pieces from the Baroque era on the theorbo. This is certainly one of the highlights of the year for me.

See the AHPI website for details of performers and the repertoire: www.austhpi.org.au

Bowral Autumn Music Festival - Concert II
Date: Friday 28th March 2014, 7.30pm

Bowral Autumn Music Festival - Concert IV
Date: Saturday 29th March 2014, 5.30pm

Bowral Autumn Music Festival - Concert V
Date: Sunday 30th March 2014, 2pm

Venue: St Jude's Church, Bendooley Street, Bowral NSW
Tickets: Tickets available through Visitor Information Centre, Mittagong.
Phone: 1300 657 559. Also at the door.
Admission: $45/$35 (All concerts in festival $210/$165)

Here is the official blurb from the festival's official publicity:

The Bowral Autumn Music Festival is now in its eighth year and well established in the classical music program of St Jude's Church and indeed the cultural calendar of the Southern Highlands. It has build an enviable reputation for its imaginative programs and quality of performances involving some of Australia's leading performers and ensembles.

Artistic Director Yvette Goodchild has worked very hard to ensure that the 2014 festival is no exception and it promises to offer a weekend of quality Chamber Music from the Baroque to the Romantic (and a little beyond). 

I hope you will join us and enjoy the 2014 festival. 

Dr Allan Beavis

Festival Director

DMA Recital: YouTube and the programme

By chance, I managed to get a copy of the video of my DMA recital. In Australia, out of four examiners, three are required to be external (and presumably experts in the field). The one internal examiner is required to belong to another department within the music faculty, i.e. someone who is not in my department, but a doctor in a different area of music. For that reason, the examination is recorded and sent to the external examiners so that they can examine my thesis accompanied by some nice background music. :)

After watching the video, I felt that it was such a shame that no one would probably ever listen to this again, especially since so many of the pieces are so obscure. Yet many of these pieces are extremely important in understanding the viol tradition in France. Unlike a musicologist, who is able to publish parts of his doctoral thesis in a journal after his studies, a performer does not usually have the opportunity to release his recital as a recording. Thanks to the Internet and YouTube, I am able to do this. I hope people who watch this video will be inspired to find out more about this wonderful repertoire. For posterity, the entire programme will be uploaded track by track to YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/shaunkfng

Programme

Nicolas Hotman          Selected pièces from manuscript

(d. 1663)                     Warsaw: Biblioteka Warszawskiego Towarzystwa Muzycnego,

PL-Wtm, R. 221 In. 377

                                                Allemande

                                                Courante – Variation 1 – Variation 2

                                                Sarabande – Variation

                                                Ballet

Antoine Forqueray     Première suite from Pièces de viole (Paris, 1747)

(1671–1745)                           Allemande La La Borde

                                                La Forqueray

                                                La Couperin

                                               

Sainte Colombe           Excerpts from manuscript Concerts à deux violes égales

(d. by 1701)                Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms Rés. Vma.ms. 866.

                                                Tombeau Les regrets

                                                Le retour

                                                           

Marin Marais              Suite in D major from Pièces de viole (Paris, 1686)

(1656–1728)                           Prélude

                                                Fantaisie

                                                Allemande – Double
                                                Sarabande  
                                                Chaconne

The Australian Historical Performance Initiative

With a great deal of excitement (and fear!), I would like to announce the launch of the website of a non-profit organisation I am apart of. The Australian Historical Performance Initiative is Sydney's answer to more early music events. Together with my committee, I will work on putting up more concerts, education workshops and other related events so that audiences will be able to experience and appreciate the music that so many of us in the field of historical performance are so passionate about. Click here to visit the website.

Hymn to the Sun

Akhnaten image by Isabel Doraisamy

One often does not get the opportunity to perform Philip Glass; after all, as far as I know, he never wrote anything specifically for period instruments. This July, I join the ensemble Thoroughbass, in conjunction with Ondine Productions, to take matters into our own hands and rework this modern composer's opera, Akhnaten, for period instruments. It is going to be an interesting project, something that may prove slightly more challenging that the usual early music repertoire which I am accustomed. I believe the result is something that will surprise many (in a good way!). Here are the details of the cast and performance:

Date/Time: 27 July 2013 7.30pm
Venue: Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Website Link



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Tears and Transcendence

Paul Whelan and Andrew Collis in the 2005 Perth International Arts Festival 

A few days ago, I performed 'Komm, süßes kreuz' for a live audience at the ABC studios here in Brisbane for programme that will be broadcasted next week (16th March). I think it went rather well; some members of the audience thought so too. I am now reminded of my time in a Holland, when my gamba teacher gave me my first gig to play this piece with a youth choir. I cannot remember what the choir was called unfortunately, but even at that time I thought it was rather amazing how a youth choir would attempt such a difficult piece. You must admire the Dutch and the great tradition they have created for themselves of making one of the greatest masterpieces of western art a staple of their musical culture. To listen to the whole programme, click here.

Sound Files

Shaun Ng is interviewed by Graham Abbott for 'Keys to Music' on ABC Classic FM at Ultimo, NSW. Includes studio recordings Shaun made of music by Diego Ortiz, De Machy, Marin Marais and Georg Telemann.
 

Performed by Shaun Brown (bass), Shaun Ng (viola da gamba) and Michael Fulcher (organ) at ABC Brisbane Studios at South Bank as part of 'Into The Music' programme.

St Matthew Passion

Bach St Matthew Passion: Beginning of Komm, süsses Kreuz

This month, I am very fortunate to be part of an extremely special performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion. Unlike usual ensembles, which present this work as a concert piece, Opera Queensland is staging the performance.

Brendan Joyce, leader of Camerata of St John’s, is leading the ensemble while Lindy Hume,  Opera Queensland's artistic director is directing the performance. According to Brendan, previous performances of this version of the work were very well received by both audience and critics.

For the next three weeks, I will be in Brisbane, where I will rehearse with the soloists (see website), the orchestra (Camerata of St. John's) and the choir. In addition to the solo parts for the gamba (Komm, süsses Kreuz and Geduld), the conductor Graham Abbott, has requested that I be responsible for all recitatives. This too, is not the usual way this music is usually performed. However, having worked with different conductors in the past, I can see why he might have done this.

Too often I have seen conductors asking cellists to perform in a certain way, a way that, to me, only seems comfortable with the underhand bow grip of the viol. Yes, this is quite difficult to explain, but I believe the underhand bow grip allows for more varied articulation than the overhand.  Of course, the gamba is not quite capable of pulling-off some of the extremely cellistic parts in the music, but likewise the cello would not be able to play Komm, süsses Kreuz with quite the same panache.

Komm, süsses Kreuz is one of those pieces that a gamba players train for when they are studying in conservatory. Because of this piece, St Matthew Passion is usually the only gig that gamba players get in Europe during the period approaching Easter. The wonderful thing about this aria is that it is truly idiomatic for the instrument. It may have been originally written for the lute—I believe Bach wrote it as a lute aria before changing his mind—but it falls so nicely under the hand. It does, however, take some time to learn. It's not one of those pieces most student gamba players could perform with one week's notice.

As I've grown with the piece, I've learnt to make it more 'süss' than 'kreuz'. I used to play it quite quick, but now I like to slow it down to bring out all the detail; the harmonies are too complex to simply gloss over. With so many four-note chords, it would be such a waste to simply arpeggiate away without giving these chords time to resonate properly; resonate in the same as it would on a lute.

I am certainly looking forward to this few weeks of what may be the most artistically fulfilling time of the year. Details of the performance can be found at Opera Queensland's website.

Elizabeth Bay House

Come and experience the rich culture and stunning sounds of the Baroque period as evidenced through the music of this golden age. This concert – our first all baroque programme in partnership with Birubi – will be performed on period instruments by Meredith Beardmore (baroque flute), Jennifer Stevens (baroque violin), Shaun Ng (theorbo). This talented ensemble will perform pieces by the greatest composers of the period, including Marin Marais, Robert de Visée, Jacques-Martin Hotteterre and more.

Includes concert, delicious canapés and beverages

Elizabeth Bay House
Sunday 28 October
5.00pm — 7.00pm
Members $49 General $59

Click here for more information and tickets


Location: 7 Onslow Avenue, Elizabeth Bay, NSW 2011
Contact: 02 8239 2266

Seaven Teares Poster

Off with His Head!

Our next concert is all about Liz I and her lovers and spies in collaboration with the Sydney University Madrigal Choir. Join us for some very cool and rare music from the depths of Fisher Library + poetry and other nonsense! Includes music by Dowland, Ferrabosco, Morley, Tallis, Byrd and many more. Click here for more information. Tickets at the Door: $25 adult | $20 concession | $10 USU access card holders

Lunchtime concerts at St James King Street

1:15pm Wednesday 18 April
Shaun Ng (viola da gamba) with Timothy Willis (violin) ans Joanna Tomaszewska (harpsichord)
Works by Bertali, Castello and Selma y Salaverde

1:15pm Wednesday 2 May
Shaun Ng (theorbo) with Meredith Beardmore (traverso)
Works of Hotteterre and Philidor