To all our friends and supporters, we hope you are staying safe and well in these strange and uncertain times.
As with musicians everywhere, this has been a challenging time for our ensemble, but like our friends and colleagues around the world we are meeting this challenge with creativity, courage, and resilience. Due to the unprecedented circumstances created by Covid-19, we have once again been separated for an extended period. In a dramatic turn of events, Hannah rushed to the airport with her harp to depart for Sydney on the day the Victorian/New South Wales border closure was announced, in order to avoid further performance cancellations, while Nick has remained in Melbourne and endured the lengthy Stage 4 Restrictions.
Despite being located in different cities for what will be almost half a year — when Hannah finally returns to Melbourne at Christmas —we have remained very much connected in our collaboration on the creative direction of the ensemble for 2021, including the development of some exciting new concert projects, which we look forward to announcing soon, and the artistic planning for our debut recording ‘Plucked’, which will take place in the first half of next year.
Introducing the Baroque Lute: Music from the Melbourne Lockdown
During the second Melbourne lockdown, Nick has taken advantage of this time without concert engagements to immerse himself in the practice of the baroque lute, a stunning but too-rarely heard instrument, whose rich and beautiful repertoire we look forward to sharing with you as part of our 2021 concerts and recording. In dedication to everyone who generously supported our Australian Cultural Fund Matched Funding Campaign for ‘Plucked’, Nick has recorded a luscious Siciliana by one of the greatest lutenists and composers of the baroque era - Sylvius Leopold Weiss, which you can enjoy via our SoundCloud here.
Melbourne Digital Concert Hall: Garlic and Anchovies, 7pm, Thursday 19 November 2020
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Nick in concert tomorrow night via the wonderful pandemic initiative that is the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall. Created to support local musicians during Covid-19, Melbourne Digital Concert Hall brings Australia’s finest musical talent into your living room, providing invaluable performance opportunities for musicians during this time of ongoing concert cancellations, with ticket proceeds going directly to the artists.
Nick joins two of our favourite Melbourne-based collaborators, Donald Nicolson (harpsichord) and Laura Vaughan (viola da gamba) for Garlic and Anchovies, a journey through the sensual and vivacious music of seventeenth century Italy and Spain, the perfect accompaniment to a nice glass of Mediterranean wine and a plate of pasta or paella. Pop open that bottle of Prosecco and get your live baroque music fix tomorrow night in this captivating programme, streamed live to your living room anywhere in the world. Featuring racy and rowdy dances, suave melodies and sophisticated musings on madrigals with the exotic timbres of theorbo, lirone, viola da gamba and harpsichord, performed by some of Australia’s finest early musicians, who cannot wait to get back on stage and share this fabulous music with you.
Find out more and purchase a ticket for tomorrow’s performance here.
Pinchgut Opera: A Delicate Fire
Against great odds, Hannah made it up to Sydney with her baroque harp at the beginning of July, which allowed her to perform in the groundbreaking new opera film from Pinchgut Opera, A Delicate Fire, featuring the glorious music of Barbara Strozzi, one of Ensemble 642’s favourite composers, who defied the social conventions of her time to become one of the most prolific and influential composers of vocal music in the seventeenth century.
A ‘total feast for eyes and ears’ (Limelight Magazine), A Delicate Fire (the title comes from a beautiful poem by Sappho) is available to stream for a limited time until 13 December 2020. Find out more, watch the trailer, and stream the film here.
Watch the ‘Behind the Scenes’ Documentary here to hear Hannah speaking about the unique experience of making a recording under Covid-19 restrictions.
Reviews for A Delicate Fire:
‘Its sound is glistening and sensual, its symbolism witty and thoughtful and its message one of pain and hope.’
Five stars, The Sydney Morning Herald, read the full review here.
‘The handpicked band from Orchestra of the Antipodes is magnificent. At the top of the sound sit violinists Matthew Greco and Karina Schmitz who deliver virtuoso performances. Lower down, Simon Martyn-Ellis’s sprightly theorbo and baroque guitar are complemented by the lush tones of Hannah Lane’s baroque harp. Anthea Cottee does triple duties down below on cello, gamba and lirone. Whether or not the orchestrations are original or have been extrapolated here by Helyard and his musicians, it’s a sumptuous sound, beautifully recorded in the ideal acoustic of Sydney’s City Recital Hall. Not only that, Costi’s clever deployment of them in the film reveals a group of players as charismatic on camera as the singers.’
Four and a half stars, Limelight Magazine, read the full review here.
Hannah will be performing live with Pinchgut Opera for their return to the concert hall in early December 2020 in a joyful Christmas program around Charpentier’s stunning Messe de Minuit. If you are outside of Sydney you will also have the opportunity to enjoy this performance from the comfort of your living room. Find out more and purchase a ticket here.
Hannah in Sydney
As well as her recent recording and film engagement with Pinchgut Opera, Hannah has experienced a joyful return to the stage with a busy schedule of live concert performances as well as making a film recording with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra for their annual Noël! Noël! program, which she will perform live in mid-December for their concert series at Sydney’s City Recital Hall.
She has garnered rave reviews for her recent live performances with The Song Company (Canberra, Wollongong, Sydney) and Musica Viva (Sydney).
‘A sublime evening of memorable music…Lane also performed several works solo on the baroque triple harp…the pensiveness of “Ancor che col partire” (Even with leaving) by Antonio de Cabezón from the 16th century was especially beautiful…the audience was clearly charmed by these superb artists and their excellent program.’
Canberra CityNews review for ‘Esperar, Sentir, Morir’, a duo program with Song Company Principal Artist Roberta Diamond, soprano. Read the full review here.
‘The sound was seamless yet startling in its intensity; an intensity which cut through the fog of a long year…A thoughtful and exquisite concert…Perhaps we are emerging from the depths.’
Four and a half stars, The Sydney Morning Herald for Erin Helyard & David Greco: Peace and Joy (Musica Viva). Read the full review here.
’What a welcome return to the concert hall this was for audiences, and a classy, stylish way for Musica Viva to take to the stage for the first time since March...Helyard was joined by frequent collaborator, baritone David Greco, and a quartet of similarly distinguished musicians – violinists Matthew Greco and Rafael Font, harpist Hannah Lane, and viola da gambist Anton Baba…An ideal return to the concert hall.’
Four stars, Limelight Magazine, for Erin Helyard & David Greco: Peace and Joy (Musica Viva). Read the full review here.