Emma Kirkby, soprano,

Jakob Lindberg, lutenist

Saturday, October 24, 2009, 8:00 PM, Smith Theatre

Emma Kirkby’s uniquely beautiful voice and brilliant performing technique are the quintessence of pure sound in the singing of early music.

Program:

“Music at Twilight” – Songs and Solos from Early 17th-Century Europe.

Jakob Lindberg performs on a 10-course Renaissance lute by Sixtus Rauwolf, Augsburg c. 1590.

www.emmakirkby.com; www.musicamano.com
Photo by Bibi Basch

Emma Kirkby, soprano

Originally, Emma Kirkby had no expectations of becoming a professional singer. As a classics student at Oxford and then a schoolteacher she sang for pleasure in choirs and small groups, always feeling most at home in Renaissance and Baroque repertoire. She joined the Taverner Choir in 1971 and in 1973 began her long association with the Consort of Musicke. Emma took part in the early Decca Florilegium recordings with both the Consort of Musicke and the Academy of Ancient Music, at a time when most college-trained sopranos were not seeking a sound appropriate for early instruments. She therefore had to find her own approach, with enormous help from Jessica Cash in London, and from the directors, fellow singers and instrumentalists with whom she has worked over the years. Emma feels privileged to have been able to build long-term relationships with chamber groups and orchestras, in particular London Baroque, the Freiburger Barockorchester, L’Orfeo (of Linz) the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Fretwork, the Purcell Quartet, and now with some of the younger groups, such as Florilegium and the Armonico Consort. To date, she has made well over a hundred recordings of all kinds, from sequences of Hildegarde of Bingen to madrigals of the Italian and English Renaissance, cantatas and oratorios of the Baroque, works of Mozart, Haydn and J. C. Bach. Recent recordings include: “Handel – Opera Arias and Overtures 2” for Hyperion, Bach wedding cantatas for Decca, Bach Cantatas 82a and 199 for Carus, J.C.Bach Motets with L”Orfeo for CPO, and Byrd Consort Songs with Fretwork, for Harmonia Mundi USA. Since 2000 Emma’s happiest collaboration has been with the Swedish record company, BIS. For them she has recorded Handel motets and cantatas, Christmas pieces and Couperin with London Baroque, lute songs with Anthony Rooley and Jakob Lindberg, songs by Amy Beach, and many more programmes, mostly in the magical acoustics of Laenna church in Sweden. This year BIS issued a compilation entitled “The Artistry of Emma Kirkby”, drawing on nine CDs in all. In 1999 Emma was voted Artist of the Year by Classic FM Radio listeners; in November 2000 she received the Order of the British Empire, and November 2007 saw her appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She was delighted in June 2008 to return to her alma mater, Oxford University, and receive an Honorary Doctorate of Music. Most surprisingly of all, BBC Music Magazine, April 2007, in a survey of critics to find “The greatest sopranos”, placed Emma at number 10. While such things are inevitably parochial, partial, controversial, and outdated as soon as they appear, she was pleased at the recognition this implied for an approach to singing that values ensemble, clarity and stillness alongside the more usual factors of volume and display. Despite all the recording activity, Emma still prefers live concerts, especially the pleasure of repeating programmes with colleagues; every occasion, every venue and every audience combine to create something new from this wonderful repertoire. Updated June 2009

Jakob Lindberg, lutenist

Jakob Lindberg was born in Djursholm in Sweden and developed his first passionate interest in music through the Beatles. He started to play the guitar and soon became interested in the classical repertoire. From the age of fourteen he studied with Jörgen Rörby who also gave him his first tuition on the lute. After reading music at Stockholm University he went to London to study at the Royal College of Music. Here he further developed his knowledge of the lute repertoire under the guidance of Diana Poulton and decided towards the end of his studies to concentrate on renaissance and baroque music. Jakob Lindberg is now one of the most prolific performers in this field. He has made numerous recordings for BIS, many of which are pioneering in that they present a wide range of music on CD for the first time. He has brought Scottish lute music to public attention, he has demonstrated the beauty of the Italian repertoire for chitarrone and he has recorded chamber music by Vivaldi, Haydn and Boccherini on period instruments. He is the first lutenist to have recorded the complete solo lute music by John Dowland and his recording of Bach’s music for solo lute is considered to be one of the most important readings of these works. Jakob Lindberg is an active continuo player on the theorbo and arch lute and has worked with many well known English ensembles including The English Concert, Taverner Choir, The Purcell Quartet, Monteverdi Choir, Chiaroscuro, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and The Academy of Ancient Music. He is also in demand as an accompanist and has given recitals with Emma Kirkby, Ann Sofie von Otter, Nigel Rogers and Ian Partridge. He assisted Andrew Parrott in the musical direction of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas given by The Royal Swedish Opera at Drottningholm Court Theatre in 1995. He also directed from the chitarrone the much-acclaimed performances of Jacopo Peri’s Euridice given there in 1997. It is particularly through his live solo performances that he has become known as one of the finest lutenists in the world today; he has given recitals in many parts of Europe and in Japan, Mexico, Russia, Australia, Canada, Korea, China and the USA. Jakob Lindberg also teaches at the Royal College of Music in London, where he succeeded Diana Poulton as professor of lute in 1979.

Jakob Lindberg, lutenist 10-course Renaissance lute by Sixtus Rauwolf, Augsburg c. 1590

In 1991 I bought a very rare lute in an auction at Sotheby’s in London. A brand mark identifies the maker as Sixtus Rauwolf, a prolific luthier who lived and worked in Augsburg. Only three other lutes by him are known to have survived; one is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, one in the Claudius Collection in Copenhagen and one in a private collection in England. My instrument is from c.1590 and has been carefully restored by the two lute makers Michael Lowe and Stephen Gottlieb, and by the violin maker and restorer David Munro. Dendrochronology (a method of dating wooden objects which involves examining the tree-rings) confirms that the soundboard is original and dates the wood to 1418-1560. My instrument is thus, to my knowledge, the oldest lute in playable condition with its original soundboard. To celebrate the completion of the restoration I recorded a recital programme of music by Silvius Leopold Weiss (BIS-CD-1524, issued in 2006). On Musique and Sweet Poetrie (BIS-SACD-1505, issued in 2006) my very special Rauwolf lute can be heard both in an accompanying role and as a solo instrument. The pitch is a’=392, one tone below modern pitch.