Boccheriniana
Thursday October 13 | 7:30pm
Artistic Director Elinor Frey
Boccheriniana celebrates one of the most delightful and original voices of the classical era, Luigi Boccherini, alongside European composers from the same era, Mozart, JC Bach, and Maddalena Lombardi Sirmen. During this time, now known for its elegant “galant” music, Boccherini championed his instrument, the cello, and played as a travelling virtuoso until he settled in Madrid as court composer. This concert showcases a variety of chamber music favourites, and reunites string players Laura Andriani, Rossella Croce, Isaac Chalk, and Elinor Frey, together with the celebrated traverso player, Jan De Winne.
Laura Andriani – violin
Isaac Chalk – viola
Rossella Croce – violin
Elinor Frey – cello
Jan De Winne – flute
With intermission.
Thank you to Michael Pidgeon for sponsoring this performance.
PROGRAM
LUIGI BOCCHERINI (1743–1805)
Flute Quintet in B-flat Major, Op. 19, no. 5 (G 429) (10.5 min)
I. Allegro moderato
II. Allegro presto assai
MADDALENA SIRMEN (1745-1818)
String Quartet no. 2 in B-Flat Major (12 min)
I. Andantino
II. Allegro
W.A. MOZART (1756-1791)
Flute Quartet in A major, KV285 (1777) (11 min)
I. Andante
II. Minuetto
III. Rondo
INTERMISSION
BOCCHERINI
String Trio Op. 6, no. 5 in G minor (G 93) (9 min)
I. Adagio
II. Rondo allegro
III. Tempo di minuetto
J. C. BACH (1735-1782)
Quartet in G Major for flute, violin, viola and cello, op. 19, no. 3 (11.5 min)
I. Allegro
II. Andantino
III. Allegro
BOCCHERINI
Flute Quintet in D Major, Op. 17, no. 1 (G 419) (10 min)
I. Allegro assai
II. Minuetto: Amoroso
BIOGRAPHIES
Laura Andriani, violin
Laura Andriani excels in repertoire from classic to contemporary eras – both as a soloist and chamber musician – as well as having experience with baroque music. She studied with the members of the Amadeus Quartet, the Smetana Quartet, the Quartetto Italiano and she graduated at the Music-Akademie der Stadt Basel with Adelina Oprean. Her mentors have been Franco Gulli, Salvatore Accardo and Sigiswald Kuijken. As first violin of the Alcan Quartet, she performed in Europe, Canada, the United States, China and Korea and recorded many albums including the complete Beethoven Quartets Cycle. She has also been a part of ensembles specializing in the interpretation of contemporary music and orchestras such as the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Scala (Milan). She won the Special Jury Prize for her performance of the Sequenza VIII by Luciano Berio at the 44th International Competition Premio Paganini in Genoa. Laura is a course instructor at McGill University, guest professor at the University of Montréal and first violin of the Isabel Quartet in Kingston.
Isaac Chalk, viola
Canadian violist Isaac Chalk has received a rich musical training. In addition to his education as an instrumentalist, Mr. Chalk also worked extensively as a choral singer and attended the Maîtrise des Petits Chanteurs du MontRoyal in his earlier years. Mr. Chalk is a graduate of McGill University, where he was a recipient of many awards, including the Lloyd Carr Harris String Scholarship and the prestigious Golden Violin Award, the largest privately funded music scholarship in Canada. Mr. Chalk also holds a degree from the Mozarteum, in Salzburg. In February 2011, he had his Koerner Hall debut performing Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra conducted by Julian Kuerti. Mr. Chalk was named Principal Viola of les Violons du Roy in June 2013 and since then has performed with the orchestra in their regular series in Quebec City and Montreal, at the Lanaudière Festival, at the Domaine Forget International Festival and on tour in Canada, the United States and Europe. Mr. Chalk recently had his début with the orchestra in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. Mr. Chalk has been generously supported by the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Rossella Croce, violin
Rossella Croce graduated with top marks in violin in 1998 at the Conservatory A. Pedrollo of Vicenza under the guidance F. Missaggia. During her studies she won several scholarships and was finalist in various violin and chamber music competitions. She then specialized on the early violin repertoire at the Scuola Civica in Milan and at the Conservatory in Den Haag (Holland) studying with Enrico Gatti following at the same time also courses with R. Terakado, E. Wallfisch and others. She has an intense concert activity which leads her to play in the most prestigious concert halls and theatres in the world. She works, also as first violin, with many important early music groups such as Ensemble Aurora, Accordone, Accademia W.Hermans, Accademia Bizantina, Zefiro, etc. She played in several broadcasts for RAI Radio 3, RSI, WDR, Radio France, and recorded for the labels Sony Classics, Brilliant, Cipress, Naive, Arcana, Glossa, Alpha, Amadeus, Classic Voice, Eloquentia. Rossella has recently recorded the “Invenzioni a violino solo” op. X by Francesco Antonio Bonporti for La Bottega Discantica (Milan).
Elinor Frey, cello
Elinor Frey is a leading Canadian-American cellist, gambist, and researcher who specializes in early music and new music. Her acclaimed CDs on the Belgian label Passacaille – most of which are world premiere recordings – include La voce del violoncello (2013), Berlin Sonatas (2015) with Lorenzo Ghielmi on fortepiano, Fiorè (2017), which features soprano Suzie LeBlanc, and Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco: Cello Sonatas (2020) which received a Diapason d’Or. She will soon release Antonio Vandini: Complete Works, a project in collaboration with Marc Vanscheeuwijck. Her critical edition of Dall’Abaco Sonatas is published in collaboration with Walhall Editions. Frey’s album of new works for Baroque cello, titled Guided By Voices, was released on the Analekta label in 2019. In recent seasons she has performed throughout N. America and Europe, as well as with her quartet, Pallade Musica. Frey holds degrees from McGill, Mannes, and Juilliard. She teaches early cello at the University of Montréal, lectures at McGill University, and is a Visiting Fellow in Music at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. Frey was awarded Québec’s Opus Prize for “Performer of the Year” in 2021.
Jan De Winne (flute, traverso)
Jan De Winne studied flute, chamber music and transverse flute at the conservatories of Gent and Brussels and graduated in musicology and art history at the University of Gent. He completed his traverso studies with Barthold Kuijken. He was finalist of the prestigious international early music competition in Bruges in 1987.
He has been a member of the Collegium Vocale and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées (Philippe Herreweghe) for more than 15 years. In 2004 he decided to concentrate his energy and enthusiasm into the organisation and development of his own ensemble il Gardellino, which he founded with Marcel Ponseele in 1988. As a member of il Gardellino and as a soloist he has been performing in Europe, Asia, South and North America and he recorded over 60 CDs for Accent, Ricercar, Harmonia Mundi and Passacaille.
His passion for period instruments led him to research early flutes and to make baroque and classical flutes since 1988. Since 2006 he is the artistic director of the record label Passacaille.
Jan De Winne teaches traverso at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Dance of Paris and leads the early music department of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (KCB).