[Hanneke] Hello I’m Hanneke van Proosdij [David] and I’m David Tayler
[David] We’re the directors of the Early Music ensemble Voices of Music. We play music
from the middle ages, renaissance and baroque on original instruments—that is, the instruments
from the time that the music was composed.
[Hanneke] In addition to well-known composers such as Handel, Vivaldi and Bach, we also
perform music from the time of Shakespeare, Michelangelo and Rembrandt.
[David] With an online audience of more than 14 million viewers, Voices of Music is the
most popular early music ensemble in the United States and one of the most popular musical
groups in the world today.
[Hanneke] Online music is amazing—it enables people anywhere in the world to see and hear
music--but there is nothing like live music--the concert experience—and you can see us perform
right here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
We’d like to talk to you today about our upcoming concert series, and we hope you will
come see us play in person.
[David] In November, we open our season with a celebration of the 300 anniversary of Carl
Philipp Emanuel Bach, one of the most talented and influential of Johann Sebastian Bach’s
sons. We will round out our program with virtuoso concertos by Vivaldi. Our soloists for this
program are Carla Moore, William Skeen, Tanya Tomkins and Hanneke van Proosdij.
[Hanneke] In January, we will present our second program on our series featuring musical
settings of the Great Poets—we begin with music from the court of Queen Elizabeth, and
the poets William Shakespeare, John Donne and Ben Jonson, and with music from the collaboration
of Henry Purcell and John Dryden. For this concert, we will be joined by internationally
renowned soprano Anna Dennis.
[David] For our last program of the season, an all-start cast will perform the Stabat
Mater of Agostino Steffani, as well as the oratorio Vanitas Vanitatum of Carissimi. The
Stabat Mater was written at the end of Steffani’s life, and is one of the finest pieces of the
baroque—Steffani presented a copy of the score to the Academy of Ancient Music in London,
after being elected honorary president, and he wrote that it was his last and greatest work.
Steffani composed the Stabat Mater at the same time as Pergolesi, and both works feature the harmonious
blend of voices, strings and continuo:
[Hanneke] It’s not expensive to subscribe to the entire season, and your subscription directly supports the musicians in the Bay Area.
We play in some of the most beautiful and natural acoustics in San Francisco, Berkeley,
Marin and Palo Alto: unlike many modern concert halls, the sound is never amplified or electronically
processed—it’s the real thing.
[David] We hope you can come, bring your friends, meet the artists, and have a wonderful evening
with Voices of Music.