There are still relatively few ensembles with similar specialization in the Czech Republic. Collegium 419 therefore aims for studying and staging ensemble and choral works, which are well-known and often shown in Europe but which still remain undiscovered or rare in Bohemia.
The ensemble puts high demands on the vocal culture of its own members; most singers study privately solo singing and have wide experience with ensemble or solo singing. Shared interest in old music and refined aesthetical taste are the main motivations for their collaboration in Collegium 419.
When interpreting works with orchestral accompaniment, Collegium 419 works with outstanding instrumental ensembles that follow historical performance praxis of early music, e.g. Hipocondria Ensemble, La Gambetta, Ritornello and others.
The ensemble was founded by Marika Pečená in 1999 with the main aim of discovering German Baroque Protestant music (Schein, Schutz, Buxtehude, Bach…). In 2004, Čeněk Svoboda started working with the ensemble and broadened the range of the repertoire with music of European high Renaissance (Victoria, Palestrina, Tallis, Lassus, Gallus…) and Italian Baroque music (Monteverdi, Lotti, Caldara, Astorga…). In autumn 2007 he took the role of artistic leader of the whole ensemble.
Collegium 419 pays special attention to preparation of coherent dramaturgy, takes into consideration liturgical and thematic affinity of its programmes and tries to perform according to period praxis.
The most successful projects of Collegium 419 in the past few years were, in particular: 2003: Dietrich Buxtehude - Membra Jesu nostri 2004: Heinrich Schütz - Musikalische Exequien 2005: Tomás Luis de Victoria - Officium defunctorum 2006: Johann Sebastian Bach - Motets 2007: Dolorosi martir (Musical Inspiration in Rudolphine Prague) 2007: Richte uns, Gott! (Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy - Psalms and Te Deum)
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition and variation of sections.
A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm and face gestures.
Collegium Vocale Gent is a Belgian musical ensemble of vocalists and supporting instrumentalists, founded by Philippe Herreweghe. The group is dedicated to historically informed performance.
Masaaki Suzuki is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and musical director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for which he is also recording Bach's concertos, orchestral suites, and solo works for harpsichord and organ. He is also an artist-in-residence at Yale University and the principal guest conductor of its Schola Cantorum, and has conducted orchestras and choruses around the world.
Bach Collegium Japan (BCJ) is composed of an orchestra and a chorus specializing in Baroque music, playing on period instruments. It was founded in 1990 by Masaaki Suzuki with the purpose of introducing Japanese audiences to European Baroque music. Suzuki still remains its music director. The ensemble has recorded all of Bach’s cantatas, a project that extended from 1995 to 2018 and accounts for over half of its discography.
Trinity Baroque is an English group of musicians who focus on the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Founded at Trinity College, Cambridge, they are formed of a pool of 6-8 singers, sometimes expanding to larger vocal and instrumental forces. The ensemble has formed close relationships with the music of Heinrich Schütz, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and Johann Sebastian Bach, and focus on one-to-a-part performances. Their programmes usually blend sacred and secular music, and are in a style which often joins the chosen pieces into a semi-theatrical sequence on a particular theme or season.
Lars Ulrik Mortensen is a Danish harpsichordist and conductor largely in Baroque solo and chamber music and Early music repertory. He was a professor in Munich in 1996-99 and has since then been artistic director of Concerto Copenhagen. He received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize in 2007.
In the years centering on 1600 in Europe, several distinct shifts emerged in ways of thinking about the purposes, writing and performance of music. Partly these changes were revolutionary, deliberately instigated by a group of intellectuals in Florence known as the Florentine Camerata, and partly they were evolutionary, in that precursors of the new Baroque style can be found far back in the Renaissance, and the changes merely built on extant forms and practices. The transitions emanated from the cultural centers of northern Italy, then spread to Rome, France, Germany, and Spain, and lastly reached England. In terms of instrumental music, shifts in four discrete areas can be observed: idiomatic writing, texture, instrument use, and orchestration.
Peter Kooij is a Dutch bass singer who specializes in baroque music.
Baroque music is a period or style of Western art music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750. This era followed the Renaissance music era, and was followed in turn by the Classical era, with the galant style marking the transition between Baroque and Classical eras. The Baroque period is divided into three major phases: early, middle, and late. Overlapping in time, they are conventionally dated from 1580 to 1650, from 1630 to 1700, and from 1680 to 1750. Baroque music forms a major portion of the "classical music" canon, and is now widely studied, performed, and listened to. The term "baroque" comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning "misshapen pearl". Key composers of the Baroque era include Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Claudio Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, Alessandro Scarlatti, Henry Purcell, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Arcangelo Corelli, François Couperin, Giuseppe Tartini, Heinrich Schütz, Dieterich Buxtehude, and others.
Klaus Mertens is a German bass and bass-baritone singer who is known especially for his interpretation of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach for bass voice.
Patrick Van Goethem is a Belgian countertenor, known for performing early music.
Marius van Altena, born Marius Hendrikus Schweppe is a Dutch tenor. He was one of the pioneers of historically informed performance of Baroque and Renaissance music. He has also sung Baroque opera, worked as conductor and as an academic teacher.
La Chapelle Rhénane is a French baroque musical ensemble conducted by Benoît Haller, also a soloist in the ensemble.
Benoît Haller is a French conductor and tenor, born in Strasbourg in 1972.
Hana Blažíková is a Czech soprano and harpist. She is focused on Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music, appearing internationally. She has recorded as a member of the Bach Collegium Japan, among many others.
Lautten Compagney is an instrumental ensemble based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1984 by Hans-Werner Apel and Wolfgang Katschner, now the principal conductor, it specialises in Early music and Baroque music, notably the operas of Handel.
Greta De Reyghere is a Belgian soprano who specializes in early music and Baroque music in historically informed performance but also performs a variety of other classical music in concert. She is a teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Liège.
Joël Suhubiette is a contemporary French choral conductor. In particular, he conducts the chamber choir Les Éléments which he founded in Toulouse and with which he received a Victoire de la musique classique in 2006 and the Ensemble Jacques Moderne in Tours.
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