Project

Eyes on G.P. Telemann continues the lineage of transcription projects initiated a few years ago by Ensemble Cairn. Pursuing this outlook on yesterday’s and today’s music, this project focuses on Telemann’s repertoire and period instruments. Regular performers of early music, the musicians of Ensemble Cairn’s string trio meet the harpsichordist Violaine Cochard in a program associating Telemann’s works to composition commissions.

For this project, Ensemble Cairn has commissioned the german composer Johannes Schöllhorn, professor at the Musikhochschule Freiburg. Eyes on G.P. Telemann links the composer and his history, testimony of a specific identity and way of listening to our past.

Programme

G. P. Telemann – Trio Sonatas (Essercizii Musici N°4 et N°6, sonate en La mineur Twv 42:a7), Duo in Bb minor, Fantaisie for harpsichord, Cello and harpsichord sonata, Canonic Sonata

Johannes Schöllhorn : In Nomine, Grisaille, Camaü

Camaü, Johannes Schöllhorn

            For harpsichord, violin, baroque viola and viola da gamba

Having been inspired by a solo cello piece recently created by Dirk Wiethegger at the Paris Maison de la Radio, I pursue a new path for this piece, based on the notion of tuning and the specific color of period string instruments. I try for a very soft sound, not based on rhythm but using the musician’s breathing as the axis for constructing tempi and a time figure. Writing for period instruments gives me the opportunity to develop this idea in different ways: by creating a special harmonic world, a polyphony of sound and gesture, by exploring simultaneously density, and the flow of velocities that derive from the phrasing. Although my music is often linked to music from our past, I do not wish to specify a particular relationship to Telemann for this piece. I wish to use the specific color and soul of the instruments, for the body of the instruments itself represents the past. There will therefore not be any Telemann nor Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe directly appearing in this music; however their spirit will linger over my work nevertheless.

Ensemble Cairn musicians

Naaman Sluchin : violin

Cécile Brossard : viola

Frédéric Baldassare : cello

Invited musician :

Violaine Cochard : harpsichord