Issuu

HESPERUS Les Très Riches Heures ABOUT THE PROGRAM This manifestation of HESPERUS’s continuing celebration of its reincarnation as an Early Music Improv Collective features director, Tina Chancey and collective member Mark Rimple, with slides and other whimsy by Shawn Keener, ably brought to life by Oliver Weston. Our twelve, (well, thirteen, one reprise) medieval improvisations are inspired by these dozen manuscript illuminations from the Limbourg Brothers’ Book of Hours, Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. HESPERUS tries to reflect variety, narrative nature and immediacy through their choice of genres. Four pieces are dances: one Italian Istampitta, Belicha, an English Estampie that’s surprisingly full of major thirds, an improvised Estampie in the style of the 13th c. French Danses Royales, and Bel Fiore (Lovely Flower), from the Codex Faenza. The program has a variety of strophic songs; Bache Bene Venies from the Carmina Burana (a collection of student songs), Eisamen com la Pantera from the trouvère repertoire, and Divinum Stillant from the Aquitanian tradition. Only one piece is attributed to a composer – the haunting virelai Dame, vostre doulz viaire by Guillaume de Machaut. The Cantiga, Como Poden per sas culpas, is a Spanish form of virelai, or villancico. La Spagna is a bassadanza tune; another dance, but, improvised over the “Tenore del rey di Spagna,” that first appeared in 1455 but continued to inspire composers over the next two centuries. The final two pieces from the Codex Faenza, Rosetta and an anonymous piece #42, are expressive and virtuosic; through-composed pieces that cry out for rhetorical gestures, which HESPERUS is only too happy to provide. ABOUT THE ENSEMBLE AND ARTISTS Since 1979, audiences from Maine to Hawaii and Borneo to Bolivia have celebrated HESPERUS for making connections between the rich musical past and curious 21st century listeners through collaborations with film, theater and world music. Founded by recorder virtuoso Scott Reiss, the ensemble has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, the Far East and South America; been featured at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Cloisters, Ryman Auditorium and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival; and has two dozen CDs and DVDs and a score of prizes and honors to its credit. In 2024, the group said “Why not?” and reconstituted itself as an Early Music Improv Collective. www.hesperusplayszorro.com . Director of HESPERUS (currently known for its early music soundtracks for classic silent films), Tina Chancey has been described as “Practically a legend in the early music world” (Fanfare). She plays medieval and traditional fiddles and viol on roots music from Sephardic and Irish to Joni Mitchell and jazz, with a focus on multi-style improvisation. Her specialty is the pardessus de viole, with debut concerts at Carnegie Recital Hall and Kennedy Center and five pardessus recordings. Recent concert tours and artist residencies have taken her to Turkey, Australia, France, Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand and Hong Kong. In DC, she was recently a featured artist at the Freer Gallery’s Friends Day celebrations and the Hirschhorn Museum’s SoundScene festival, as well as music director for Expat Theatre’s Scorched and the InSeries’ Misticas. A member of Trio Sefardi and Passio, and frequent guest artist with Magdalena, she is a former member of the Folger Consort, the Ensemble for Early Music and Blackmore’s Night. www.tinachancey.com Mark Rimple has appeared with The Newberry Consort, Piffaro, The Folger Consort, Severall Friends, Blue Heron/Les Delices, Seven Times Salt, Tempesta di Mare, Cygnus Ensemble, Network for New Music, and Trefoil, with whom he has recorded ars subtilior repertory. His solo lute recording Tre Liuti (available online) earned praise for his “expressive” and “extraordinarily sensitive playing”, and he recently released an online recording, Convergence, featuring music for lute and guitar. As a composer, he often blends the contemporary with the antique. A sampling of his art songs and chamber works can be heard on his recording January. Last year his Phantasmagoria was