Ensemble Chaconne to perform at London's National Gallery, other venues in England, May 2012

April 28, 2012 - PRLog -- Now celebrating its 26th season, Ensemble Chaconne, a period-instrument group from Boston, Massachusetts, will perform music from Thomas Gainsborough’s circle, featuring works by leading European composers who were friends and colleagues of the master painter:   J.C. Bach, Felice de Giardini, Carl Friedrich Abel, Johann Christian Fischer and others (all captured in fine portraits by Gainsborough).

“vitality and character…style and verve”   -- MusicWeb International
“virtuosity, balance and charm”  -- The Portland Press Herald

Venues and Dates:

Tuesday, 8 May 2012 at 1:10 pm
St Mary-le-Tower Church
Tower Street, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 3BE, United Kingdom
Admission free, retiring collection, refreshments available from 12.20pm
Information:   01473 289 001    

Wednesday, 9 May 2012 at 1:10 pm
Riverhouse Arts Centre, Riverhouse Barn, Manor Road
Walton-on-Thames, Surrey KT12 2PF, United Kingdom
12.15 pm lunch, 1.10 concert
Tickets £14 with lunch, £9 concert only
Information:  01932 254 198   or   01932 253 354
http://www.thelittleboxoffice.co/riverhouse/event/view/929

   Friday, 11 May 2012 at 6:00 pm
The National Gallery, Room 34
Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN, United Kingdom
Free Admission
Information:   02077 472 885   
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/calendar/conce...

Saturday, 12 May 2012 at 7:30 pm
Gainsborough’s House Museum
46-47 Gainsborough Street, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2EU, United Kingdom
Tickets:  £30   Reservations required
Information:  01787 372 958
http://www.gainsborough.org/page.php?pid=453&event_id=52



ENSEMBLE CHACONNE (Peter H. Bloom, baroque flute; Carol Lewis, viola da gamba; and Olav Chris Henriksen, baroque lute and English guitar) will perform A Musical Portrait ~Thomas Gainsborough and His Circle, a dazzling concert celebrating the great English painter’s passion for music.  The program features works by noted European composers who were colleagues of Gainsborough: Johann Christian Bach, Carl Friedrich Abel (the last great viola da gamba virtuoso), illustrious Italian violinist Felice de Giardini, lutenist and harpsichordist Rudolf Straube (a favorite student of J. S. Bach), and famed oboist Johann Christian Fischer, who eloped with Gainsborough’s oldest daughter.   The concert also includes a piece by society lady Anne Ford (shown in a stunning Gainsborough portrait holding her English guitar) and music by African composer Ignatius Sancho, who was born on a slave ship and rose to become a composer and a man of letters in London.  Like the other composers, Sancho was the subject of a fine portrait by Gainsborough.

Performed on historical instruments, the concert showcases the English guitar (popular in 18th century England but rarely heard today), with baroque flute, viola da gamba, and baroque lute.  Selections include Che ciascun per te sospiri by J.C. Bach, Sonata I, Opus 6 in C major by Abel, Trio V in C major by Giardini, Sonata IX in d minor by Fischer, viola da gamba solos by Abel, English guitar solos by Straube, Presto by Anne Ford, and Sweetest Bard by Sancho.

Hailed for “vitality and character….style and verve,” (MusicWeb International), Ensemble Chaconne (founded in 1985) has toured widely at concert halls, museums, historic sites, festivals and other venues.  Among its many concerts, the group has performed at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Yale Center for British Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, Massachusetts), Atlanta’s famed Spivey Hall, The 40th Annual Meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America, The Bach Festival Society of Winter Park Florida, the venerable Edison Theatre in St. Louis, and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Residency at Davidson College.  In 2009, Ensemble Chaconne was named to Early Music America’s North American Touring Roster, one of only 33 ensembles to receive the honor.  The Boston Globe called Bloom’s playing “a revelation for unforced sweetness and strength,” and praised “Lewis’s fiery, incisive gamba playing,” while hailing “unabashed virtuoso Henriksen” for his stunning performance on lute.

Ensemble Chaconne records on the Americas Musicworks label.  The group’s CD, Measure for Measure: The Music of Shakespeare’s Plays (AM CD 1594) is available at
http://www.americasmusicworks.com/shakespeare_music.html
or   http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ensemblechaconne


Ensemble Chaconne is managed exclusively by Americas Musicworks, Rebecca DeLamotte, director.  Email:  delamotte-amw@comcast.net  Telephone: 1-617-776-8778. Visit:  www.americasmusicworks.com