The concert is planned for Saturday, 4 November at 7.30pm. Polly Sussex, pardessus de viole and bass viol; Martin Griffiths, Baroque cello; Rachael Griffiths-Hughes, harpsichord
This concert explores music written in France during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Focussing on the gardens at Versailles, the programme leads the listener on a journey through the gardens. Using readings from garden manuals and memoirs of the time, with music about some of the garden themes at Versailles, the audience will be taken through the exquisite experience of the lavish environment which Louis XIV created at his Royal residence. Music will be by Marais, Forqueray, Dollé, and other contemporary French composers.
The French bass viol was a Baroque bowed instrument with 7 strings, a little like a cello. Around 1700, the French were just discovering the cello as a solo instrument; they had preferred to use it for ensembles, not as a stand-alone instrument. The Italians had already given up writing for the 6-string viol in the late 17th century, preferring the new violin family, (violin, viola, cello). The French added a string and developed the 7-string bass viol into a virtuoso instrument, with a large repertoire of interesting music. The pardessus, smallest and highest of the French viols, was very popular with French ladies in the 18th century. After the French Revolution (1789), the instrument became extinct, to be revived in the last 20 years of the 20th century.
The harpsichord was the principal domestic keyboard instrument of the time. The French models were typically ornate with much gilt and charming bucolic scenes painted on the underside of the lids. Frequently, they had two keyboards and were called French double harpsichords.
The music presented in this concert will be solos for bass viol with harpsichord and cello accompaniment, solos for cello with harpsichord and viol accompaniment, solos for harpsichord, and solos for pardessus with accompaniment from harpsichord and cello.
PONSONBY BAPTIST CHURCH, 43 Jervois Road, E: p.sussex@xtra.co.nz
When? 7.30pm, Saturday 4 November.
Tickets? Book by emailing Polly, p.sussex@xtra.co.nz Adults, $35. Concessions, $25.
Under 12, free entry.
Payment? Cash on the night.
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Published: August 2023