International Festival Montréal Baroque 2007

Concert Baroque SaMuse "7th Heaven "
21st Century Baroque Music composed and directed by Hendrik Bouman

Chateau Ramsay, Saturday, June 23, 2007 2:00pm

Hendrik Bouman renowned as "an extraordinary harpsichordist"* has emerged on the international scene as a prolific contemporary composer of music "which could just as well belong to the great baroque repertoire."**
He is the first virtuoso on the harpsichord and fortepiano in several centuries to perform his improvisations and compositions in baroque and classical styles on instruments he designed and built himself.
To date Hendrik Bouman has written over 85 compositions according to stylistic principles prevalent in France, Italy, Germany, England and Spain during the 17th and 18th century. 55 of his compositions have been premiered in his solo recitals, in duo, with his renowned colleagues and his ensembles Baroque SaMuse and Concerto Felice in Québec, Canadians Maritimes, France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Germany and India and recorded for Radio Canada /CBC television and radio and Radio France / France Musique.
*Diapason, Paris **Radio France, Paris

PROGRAMME & PROGRAMME NOTES

SONATA DA CHIESA (2002) - two violins and basse continuo: WORLD PREMIERE

PRELUDE NON-MESURE in A major (2000) - harpsichord

SOLO PARTITA in B minor (2006) - baroque traverse flute
prélude - courante - sarabande - gavotte - bourrée - menuet & trio - gigue

SONATE FÜR JUPPES in D major (1997) - violin and obligato harpsichord
largo - alla breve - andante - allegro

GIGUE in D major (2003) - baroque cello: WORLD PREMIERE

QUARTET PARC MONCEAU in G major (1999) - obligato harpsichord, violin, viola, cello
allegro moderato - aria - scherzo - menuet I & II - pantomime - finale

PROGRAMME NOTES:

SEVENTH HEAVEN proposes a fairytale-like time travel, as all the music, composed within the last ten years by harpsichordist/composer Hendrik Bouman, is written in historical styles, prevalent in Europe in the XVII th and XVIII th century.

The SONATA DA CHIESA, presented in world première, joins stylistically the Italian trio sonata of the early Baroque period. The various sections smoothly run over into each other, and the two violins mingle late Renaissance canzone counterpoint, rhetorical outbursts and gracious dance passages.

The PRÉLUDE NON-MESURÉ follows in the improvisatory tradition of the French harpsichordists of the late XVII th century, leaving through a specially designed white notation the rhythmical interpretation to the discretion of the performer.

In the FLUTE PARTITA as well as in the GIGUE from Hendrik Bouman's CELLO SUITE, presented here in world première, one single instrument provides at once the melody and its harmonic accompaniment. This unique genre, practised during the Baroque among others by J.S.Bach and Telemann, is highly suggestive and seems to count on a keen perception in the listener, by which missing harmonies are completed both by memory and anticipation.

The SONATA "für Juppes", written for baroque violinist Hajo Bäss, situates itself stylistically in the late Baroque, but still follows the older four movement format, slow-quick-slow-quick, to which also Bach adhered in his 6 Sonatas for the same instrumentation. Violin and right-hand harpsichord parts are equal partners and continuously exchange roles through imitation and counterpoint.

The multi-movement PARC MONCEAU QUARTET, dedicated to the composer's son, moves within a variety of Post-Baroque styles - known as Galant, Rococo, Pre-Classical, Sturm und Drang (tempest and drive), Empfindsamkeit (sensibility) - which one encounters around the middle of the XVIII th century. The formal constraints of the Baroque are being loosened, and many Baroque motives transformed. The string trio, besides providing accompaniment to the solo harpsichord, plays a fully independent role in the second Menuet and the Pantomime.

Baroque SaMuse
Hendrik Bouman - founder-director, harpsichord
Grégoire Jeay - baroque flute
Matthew Jennejohn - cornetto
Hélène Plouffe - baroque violon, viola
Olivier Brault - baroque violon, viola
Isabelle Bozzini - baroque cello

excerpt: Quartet Parc Monceau