BEMF presents Ensemble Correspondances in a program of works by Buxtehude and Schütz—April 29 in Cambridge and premiering online May 13
| ARTIST: | Ensemble CorrespondancesSébastien Daucé, director |
| WHEN: | Friday, April 29, 2022 at 8pm ETSt. Paul Church, Bow & Arrow Streets, Cambridge, MAVirtual Premiere: Friday, May 13, 2022 at 8pm ETAvailable until Friday, May 27, 2022 at 11:59pm ET |
| PROGRAM: | Membra Jesu Nostri: Music of Buxtehude and SchützDieterich Buxtehude: Membra Jesu NostriBuxtehude: Mit Fried und FreudHeinrich Schütz: Die mit Tränen säenSchütz: So fahr ich hinBuxtehude: Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr |
| TICKETS: | Tickets are priced at $80, $50, and $30 for the in-person performance, and $15 for the virtual event. All in-person tickets include a complimentary ticket for the virtual performance. To purchase tickets, visit BEMF.org or call the BEMF Box Office at 617-661-1812. Discounts are available for students and seniors. |
ABOUT THE PROGRAMSébastien Daucé and Ensemble Correspondances are renowned for recordings and performances of Baroque masterpieces that merge passion and elegance. They return to BEMF for the final concert of our 2021–2022 Season with a program showcasing Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri—a seven-part cycle of Passion cantatas written to texts from a medieval poem offering a mystical meditation of Christ on the cross—alongside intense expressive sacred motets by Schütz and Buxtehude.
COVID-19 SAFETY PROTOCOLSAs we return to in-person performances with our 2021–2022 Season, the health and safety of our audience, employees, and artists is our highest priority. BEMF is joining many of our colleagues around Boston in requiring patrons to provide proof that they are fully vaccinated. Patrons may use either paper or electronic documentation. All staff and musicians will also be required to be vaccinated.
In addition, we will require patrons to wear a well-fitted mask covering their nose and mouth at ALL times at the concert venue, including throughout the performance. We will be reducing capacity significantly to ensure socially distanced seating at all venues and will not be offering ticket sales or ticket pick-up at the concert venue. For our patrons who cannot—or chose not to—attend a performance after a ticket purchase has been made, we are offering ticket refunds for all in-person performances up to 2 hours before concert start time, as well as Virtual Ticket options for all events. Visit BEMF.org/safety to review our current safety policies.
ASSOCIATED EVENTSA pre-concert video featuring Ensemble Correspondances Director Sébastien Daucé and renowned Bach scholar Christoph Wolff will be released online on Monday, April 25.
ABOUT THE ARTISTSFounded in Lyon in 2009, Ensemble Correspondances brings together a group of vocal and instrumental specialists in the music of the Grand Siècle under the direction of harpsichordist and organist Sébastien Daucé. In a few short years of existence, Correspondances has become a benchmark ensemble in the seventeenth-century French repertory. Placing itself under the auspices of Baudelaire’s notion of correspondences between the arts, it performs music whose sonorities can still directly touch today’s listeners while presenting staged productions of rarer and more original forms such as the oratorio and the ballet de cour. The ensemble’s twin commitments to breathing new life into works already well-known composers and restoring the image of figures less familiar today but celebrated and frequently performed in their own time has already yielded fifteen critically acclaimed recordings. Correspondances is in residence at the théâtre de Caen, where they developed their first staged projects. It is also associate ensemble at the Opéra and Chapelle of the Château de Versailles, at the Louvre Museum and at the Théâtre de l’Aquarium at the Cartoucherie de Vincennes.
Organist and harpsichordist Sébastien Daucé is lit up with the urge to revive an abundant yet little-known repertory, the sacred and secular music of seventeenth-century France. It was during his training at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon that he met the future members of Ensemble Correspondances. Initially in demand as a continuo player and vocal répétiteur, he formed Correspondances in Lyon in 2009, assembling around him singers and instrumentalists with a passion for the French sacred repertory of the Grand Siècle. With this ensemble, which he directs from the harpsichord or the organ, he now travels throughout France and around the world, and frequently broadcasts on radio. Alongside his activities as a performing musician, Sébastien Daucé works with the leading scholars of seventeenth-century music, publishing regular articles and taking part in important performance practice projects. Passionately interested in questions of musical style, he edits the music that makes up the ensemble’s repertory. He has taught at the Pôle Supérieur de Paris since 2012.
ABOUT THE BOSTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVALRecognized as the preeminent early music presenter and Baroque opera producer in North America, the Boston Early Music Festival has been credited with securing Boston’s reputation as “America’s early music capital” (The Boston Globe). Founded in 1981, BEMF offers diverse programs and activities, including one GRAMMY Award–winning and five GRAMMY Award–nominated opera recordings, an annual concert series that brings early music’s brightest stars to the Boston and New York concert stages, and a biennial weeklong Festival and Exhibition recognized as the “world’s leading festival of early music” (The Times, London). The 22nd Boston Early Music Festival, A Celebration of Women, will take place from June 4-11, 2023, and will feature the North American premiere of Henry Demarest’s Circé. BEMF’s Artistic Leadership includes Artistic Directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, Opera Director Gilbert Blin, Orchestra Director Robert Mealy, and Dance Director Melinda Sullivan.
The Boston Early Music Festival is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Constellation Charitable Foundation, and WCRB Classical Radio Boston, as well as a number of generous foundations and individuals from around the world.
For more information, please contact Kathleen Fay at kathy@bemf.org.
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