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1610 Vespers

Presented by Ars Lyrica Houston at Hobby Center - Zilkha Hall

November 13, 2010

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Over the last 12 years, Ars Lyrica Houston has “set the agenda for imaginative period-instrument programming in Houston,” according to the Houston Chronicle, Its annual season includes five subscription programs at the Hobby Center’s acoustically superlative Zilkha Hall as well as repeat programs at area venues and special events.

The upcoming 2010-2011 season, devoted to the diverse delights of the Baroque Teatro Mundi, features dramatic music for the stage, church, concert hall, and salon.

"We are more excited than ever about the incredible performances, events and collaborations that we have planned over the next fifteen months," said Artistic Director, Matthew Dirst. "This is an important and exciting period for our organization. The ensemble’s thematic programming and its advocacy of the unfamiliar has given it a distinctive edge, both in Houston and in the international early music community."

The November 13 subscription concert features Claudio Monteverdi’s monumental 1610 Vespers.  The 400th anniversary of Claudio Monteverdi’s monumental 1610 Vespers is being celebrated worldwide in 2010. In November Ars Lyrica brings its splendor and drama to Houston and Dallas, in collaboration with the critically-acclaimed Orpheus Chamber Singers and the Whole Noyse, one of the world’s finest Renaissance wind bands.

Two of Texas’ premiere music ensembles, Ars Lyrica Houston and the Orpheus Chamber Singers, are pleased to join forces for two performances of Claudio Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers on November 13th in Houston and November 14th in Dallas.

This collaboration is part of the worldwide celebration of the work’s 400th anniversary. The Monteverdi Vespers, the most extravagant piece of church music from before the time of Bach and Handel, consists of large-scale settings of various psalms (thought to be intended for a Marian Vespers celebration) plus intimate solo movements on more sensual texts, mostly from the Song of Solomon.

The work is scored for multiple voices and instruments, including a number of archaic instruments from the late Renaissance, including cornettos, recorders, and sackbuts (early wind instruments), plus Baroque harp, theorbo (a large lute), strings, and harpsichord.

Joining Ars Lyrica and the Orpheus Chamber Singers for these performances is one of the world’s finest period wind bands, The Whole Noyse, plus tenor soloists Eduardo Tercero and Derek Chester.

Ars Lyrica Artistic Director Matthew Dirst is delighted to revisit such a magnificent work, and notes that the opportunity to hear the famed Monteverdi Vespers live with original instruments is all too rare, a once-in-a-lifetime thing for most listeners. Ars Lyrica always includes at least one significant work from the 17th century on its annual subscription series at the Hobby Center. This kind of music, according to Dirst, “is all about extravagant expression, and is an amazing feast for the ears.”

The Orpheus Chamber Singers, under the direction of Artistic Director Donald Krehbiel, was founded in 1995 with the goal to enrich, inspire, and educate North Texas audiences through exceptional performances of chamber choral music from the past six centuries. The critically acclaimed choir is an ensemble of 24 of the finest singers, many of them recognized soloists, blending into a richly satisfying group capable of mastering music of every period.

The Whole Noyse is currently celebrating its 25th year as one of the country's leading early brass ensembles. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the group models itself after the versatile wind bands of the 16th and 17th centuries. In keeping with the variety of instrumentation expected of early players, its members double on a number of instruments, including recorders, flutes, crumhorns, shawms, slide trumpet, gittern, violin, and viola.

The performances are on Saturday, November 13th, 2010, 7:30pm at the Hobby Center’s Zilkha Hall, and Sunday, November 14th, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Virgin of Guadalupe, 2214 Ross Avenue at Pearl Dallas, Texas. Tickets for the Hobby Center performance may be purchased at www.arslyricahouston.org or by calling 713.315.2525. Cathedral of the Virgin of Guadalupe performance tickets may be purchased by calling 214.546.1252 or online at: www.orpheuschambersingers.org.

About Ars Lyrica Houston
Founded in 1998 by harpsichordist and conductor Matthew Dirst, Ars Lyrica Houston is a group of primarily Houston-area musicians who perform world-class Baroque music using period instruments. Ars Lyrica’s distinctive programming “sets the agenda for imaginative period instrument programming in Houston” (Houston Chronicle) which are drawn from the rich chamber and dramatic repertories of the late Renaissance, Baroque and early classical periods, and often feature exceptional works that merit revival and reexamination.

The ensemble’s first commercial release, on Naxos International, features the world première recordings of Alessandro Scarlatti’s La Concettione della Beata Vergine and Euridice dall’Inferno . This disc has brought international recognition to the ensemble: Gramophone, the leading journal of the classical recording industry, recently praised this CD for its “exemplary skill and taste,” and Ars Lyrica’s musicians for their “impassioned performance” of never-before recorded works. For more information visit www.arslyricahouston.org.