Ensemble ALGO

Anne d’Anterroches, recorder / baroque bassoon
Robert de Bree, recorder / baroque oboe
Anna Katyńska, baroque cello / viola da gamba
Ere Lievonen, harpsichord

Ensemble ALGO in concert in 2008, with Anne d’Anterroches (recorder), Anu Gehlert (baroque violin), Agnieszka Oszańca (baroque cello) and Ere Lievonen (harpsichord)

Program ”Music from the Dutch Republic” (”Muziek uit de Republiek”)

Chamber music by Johann Schop, Henricus Albicastro, Quirinus van Blankenburg, Willem de Fesch, Jacob Nozeman, Carl Rosier, Johan Adam Reincken, Servaas de Konink, Pieter Hellendaal and Johann Christian Schickhardt

Behind the idea for this program was the fact that during the time of the Dutch Republic (1581–1795), the Netherlands was an important centre of printing and music publishing. The excellent trade connections and the low price of paper in the Netherlands contributed to this. Besides Dutch entrepreneurs, even publishers from abroad settled in Amsterdam to set up flourishing music publishing businesses, such as Roger and Le Cène. All this resulted, on one hand, in a lot of foreign music being published in the Netherlands; on the other hand, the music of many Dutch composers got published and subsequently distributed abroad, too.

For this program, we have not selected the well-known music of the best known Baroque composers from abroad (like Vivaldi and Handel); instead, we have chosen works by composers who may be less known today (like De Fesch, Van Blankenburg, Reincken and Hellendaal), but whose music was an integral part of the Dutch musical life of their time. Many of them were highly influential and respected musicians in the Netherlands in those days, as well as in England and Germany.

Of all the music we could choose from, our program concentrates on the music of Dutch composers and composers who worked in the Netherlands and had their music published there. It was very rewarding to search through this repertory, and in the process we made some rare finds indeed – for example the exquisite yet quite unknown violin sonatas of Jacob Nozeman. We also wanted to create a program that presents our ensemble in the most varied instrumental combinations possible. Besides trio sonatas, there are solos (accompanied or unaccompanied) for all the members of the ensemble. And since in the Protestant Netherlands, psalm tunes formed an important part of domestic music-making, we have also included one example of this from Van Blankenburg’s book of psalm settings. Furthermore, one of the earliest and most important published collections of instrumental music in the Netherlands, ”’t Uitnement Kabinet”, is not forgotten either.

All in all, this program is an exciting and varied selection of rediscovered chamber music from the 17th and 18th century Netherlands.

Program booklet from concert in The Hague in 2006, including program notes (in Dutch) (pdf)