Bettina Hoffmann | |
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| Born | 1959 |
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Bettina Hoffmann (born 1959) [1] is a German viola da gambist and cellist, musicologist, and music pedagogue. A specialist in Renaissance, and Medieval music, she is the leader of the Renaissance and Medieval ensemble of Modo Antiquo. She has an extensive discography, primarily on the Brilliant Classics and Tactus labels and participated in two Grammy-nominated recordings. [2]
Hoffmann was born in Düsseldorf. She received her diploma in cello under Daniel Grosgurin at the Mannheim Musikhochschule and then trained in the viola da gamba under Wieland Kuijken. [3] She moved to Florence in 1982 and was one of the founding members of Modo Antiquo. Hoffmann is married to Federico Maria Sardelli who founded Modo Antiquo in 1984. The group initially focused on Medieval and Renaissance music. When Sardelli established an additional 25-piece Baroque orchestra in 1987, Hoffman took over the directorship of the smaller Medieval and Renaissance ensemble. [4] [5]
The Medieval and Renaissance ensemble, which performs on modern copies of period instruments, records and tours a repertoire that includes Carmina Burana , music of the Crusades, and French, English and Italian medieval dances. In 1992 they made the first complete recording of the madrigals and ballate of the 14th-century composer Gherardello da Firenze for the Nuova Era label. The ensemble has also produced recordings of early music for the German broadcaster WDR. [4] [6]
As a musicologist, Hoffmann has contributed numerous articles to scholarly journals on early music, and particularly on the viola da gamba and related instruments. Her book La Viola da Gamba, a survey of the instrument's construction, technique and history from its origins to the classical period, was originally published in Italian in 2010 by L'Epos. It has since been published in German by Ortus in 2014 and in English by Routledge in 2017. Her other major work is Catalogo della musica solistica e cameristica per viola da gamba (Catalogue of Solo and Chamber Music for the Viola da Gamba) published by LIM Antiqua in 2001. [7] [8]
Hoffman is also a teacher of the viola da gamba, Baroque cello, and early music performance at the Conservatory of Vicenza and at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole. [3]
The viol, viola da gamba, or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitch of each of the strings. Frets on the viol are usually made of gut, tied on the fingerboard around the instrument's neck, to enable the performer to stop the strings more cleanly. Frets improve consistency of intonation and lend the stopped notes a tone that better matches the open strings. Viols first appeared in Spain in the mid-to-late 15th century, and were most popular in the Renaissance and Baroque (1600–1750) periods. Early ancestors include the Arabic rebab and the medieval European vielle, but later, more direct possible ancestors include the Venetian viole and the 15th- and 16th-century Spanish vihuela, a six-course plucked instrument tuned like a lute that looked like but was quite distinct from the four-course guitar.
Federico Maria Sardelli is an Italian conductor, historicist, composer, musicologist, comic artist, and flautist. He founded the medieval ensemble Modo Antiquo in 1984. In 1987, Modo Antiquo also became a baroque orchestra, debuting with the performance of Jean-Baptiste Lully's Ballet des Saisons in front of an audience of about five thousand.
Motezuma, RV 723, is an opera in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi with an Italian libretto by Alvise Giusti. The libretto is very loosely based on the life of the Aztec ruler Montezuma who died in 1520. The first performance was given in the Teatro Sant'Angelo in Venice on 14 November 1733. The music was thought to have been lost, but was discovered in 2002 in the archive of the music library of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. Its first fully staged performance in modern times took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, on 21 September 2005.
Hille Perl is a German virtuoso performer of the viola da gamba and lirone. She is considered to be one of the world's finest viola da gamba players, specializing in solo and ensemble music of the 17th and 18th centuries. She has a particular interest in French Baroque repertoire for seven-string bass viola da gamba. She also performs Spanish, Italian, German, and modern repertoire for the instrument and has released many CDs.
The Harp Consort is an international early music ensemble directed by Andrew Lawrence-King, specialising in Baroque opera, early dance-music, and historical World Music.
Vittorio Ghielmi is an Italian musician, conductor, compose Compared by critics to Jasha Heifetz ("Diapason") for his virtuosity, and described as "An Alchemist of sound" for the intensity and versatility of his musical interpretations, Vittorio Ghielmi attracted notice while still very young for his new approach to the viola da gamba and to the sound of early music repertoire. He is Professor for viola da gamba and Head of the Department für Alte Musik at the Mozarteum Universität Salzburg and visiting professor at the Royal College of London. He is graduate at the Università Cattolica di Milano.
Oni Wytars is an early music ensemble that was founded in 1983 by Marco Ambrosini and Peter Rabanser.
Lucia Ronchetti is an Italian composer.
Arsilda, regina di Ponto is a dramma per musica by Antonio Vivaldi. The opera was first performed at the Teatro Sant'Angelo in Venice on 27 or 28 October 1716.
Tieteberga is a partially lost dramma per musica by Antonio Vivaldi. The Italian libretto was by Antonio Maria Lucchini.
Archiv Produktion is a classical music record label of German origin. It originated in 1949 as a classical label for the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (DGG), and in 1958 Archiv was established as a subsidiary of DGG, specialising in recordings of Early and Baroque music. It has since developed a particular focus on "historically informed performance" and the work of artists of the Early music revival movement of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Didier François is a Belgian musician specialized in nyckelharpa and a sculptor living in Mechelen in Belgium.
The MA Festival Brugge, short for the festival Musica Antiqua Bruges in Bruges, Belgium, is a festival of early music and historically informed performances, started in 1960. The program includes concerts, master classes, conferences, visits in the region, exhibitions, instrument market, and international competitions that concentrates in a three-year cycle on organ, harpsichord, pianoforte and other period instruments, vocals, and baroque ensembles. The specialised festival is part of the Festival of Flanders.
Modo Antiquo is an Italian instrumental ensemble dedicated to the performance of Baroque, Renaissance, and Medieval music. It was founded in 1984 by Federico Maria Sardelli. Twice nominated for a Grammy award, the ensemble has an extensive discography, primarily on the Naïve, Brilliant Classics, and Tactus labels and have given the first performances in modern times of several works by Vivaldi. Modo Antiquo's larger ensemble is its Baroque orchestra led by Sardelli. It also has a smaller ensemble devoted to Medieval and Renaissance music led by Bettina Hoffmann.
Romina Basso is an Italian mezzo-soprano with an extensive discography of baroque opera recordings. She is particularly noted for her performances of Vivaldi.
Martha Elizabeth Blackman was an American viola da gamba player and lutenist, and the first American to perform on and teach the viol.
Myrna Herzog is a Brazilian-born Israeli musician, conductor, teacher and early music researcher. She is the player of the viol, viola da gamba and baroque cello.
Judith Davidoff was an American viol player, cellist, and performer on the medieval bowed instruments. She was considered the “Grande Dame of the viol”, "a master of the viola da gamba and other stringed instruments" and "a central part of the early-music scene." Her recorded performances reflect her wide range of repertoire and styles, including such works as Schoenberg's Verklaerte Nacht and 13th-century monody. She is responsible for the catalog of 20th- and 21st-century viol music.
Musica Fiorita was an ensemble for baroque music founded in 1990 and based in Basel, which was conducted by the harpsichordist Daniela Dolci. The ensemble concentrated in particular on rediscovering unknown works by composers of the 17th and 18th centuries and their historical performance practice. In March 2020, it ceased its concert activities.
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