Project

Ensemble Cairn presents a musical journey around the figure of William Shakespeare, putting in perspective the English Renaissance (William Bird, John Dowland) and the premises of Baroque (Mathew Locke, Henry Purcell) with today’s music: Johannes Schöllhorn, Kaija Saariaho and the english composer Jonathan Bell. Rewritings and transcriptions by the composers will complement this outlook, enabling us to rediscover the masterpieces of Elizabethan England in an innovative way.

Utopia might be here to imagine music that could not be placed in a specific era, reaching out from the 16^th and 17^th century towards our time. A utopian way of listening, answering the everlasting question: how to listen to our past in a renewed way?

In the Company of W. Shakespeare proposes to listen to the composers of our time, themselves listening to the music in our history. Jonathan Bell and Jérôme Combier will both write the transcriptions presented.

To close off the evening, Ensemble Cairn will play three extracts of the Tempest Notebook, cycle of works composed by the finish composer Kaija Saariaho using text of Shakespeare’s works, as Locke and Purcell did in their time.

For this project, Ensemble Cairn welcomes the soprano Léa Trommenschlager.

Programme

 Part 1 : English Renaissance

- Tears : Jérôme Combier, according to Lachrimae Antiquae by John Dowland

- Take o those lips away : J. Wilson / transcription by Jonathan Bell

- It was a lover and his lass : T. Morley / transcription by J. Bell

- O mistress mine : William Byrd / transcription by J. Combier

- In nomine : Johannes Schöllhorn, from Picforth

- Ye sacred muses : J. Bell, from William Bird

- Where the bee sucks : Robert Johnson

- Flow my tears : John Dowland / rewriting by J. Combier

Part 2 : English Baroque

- The Tempest - Introduction, Sarabande, Curtain tune : Mathiew Locke

- Larmes encore by Jérôme Combier, from Fantazia Upon One Note - Henry Purcell

- Vocal pieces from The Fairy Queen by Purcell : One charming night, If love is a sweet passion, O let me weep

Part 3 : Tempest Songbook by Kaija Saariaho

- Miranda's Lament

- Ariel's Hail

Distribution

Cédric Jullion : Flute

Aurélie Saraf : Harpe

Naaman Sluchin : Violin

Cécile Brossard : Viola

Frédéric Baldassare : Cello

Léa Trommenschlager : soprano