RTÉ Music
RTÉ LYRIC FM LAUNCHES NEW BACH CD
Irish Baroque Orchestra Plays Bach
At a reception today (14 September 2006) in the National Gallery of Ireland Minister John O’Donoghue officially launched a new CD on the RTÉ lyric fm label: The Irish Baroque Orchestra Plays Bach.
Speaking at the launch the Minister O’Donoghue said;
“I’m very pleased to launch The Irish Baroque Orchestra Plays Bach. It is a wonderful collaboration between RTÉ lyric fm, the talented young musicians of the Irish Baroque Orchestra and director Monica Huggett, which brings to life the music of the Bach composers. The work of the orchestra, which is Ireland’s only professional period instrument orchestra, eminently deserves to be preserved in permanent form and made available to the widest possible audience. In that context, I was delighted to be in a position to provide €40,000 to the Irish Baroque Orchestra last month for the purchase of instruments to ensure that they have the ability to continue to perform at the highest level.”
Last June some of the most promising players in the international early music scene spent three days in Maynooth making this very special recording. The Irish Baroque Orchestra Plays Bach is a CD of music composed by various members of the world’s most enduring musical families, the Bachs, and played by Ireland’s finest musicians. On this recording the Irish Baroque Orchestra is directed by Monica Huggett, one of the world’s leading baroque violinists and a recipient of many awards for her recordings and work as a pioneer of early music.
“If this were a piece of baroque Irish furniture I would be telling you about its beauty, its grandeur or its exquisite carvings. Instead RTÉ lyric fm is proud that its new CD Irish Baroque Orchestra Plays Bach, is a superb modern recording on authentic instruments. This is truly a CD you will revisit again and again.” said Aodán Ó Dubhghaill, Head of RTÉ lyric fm.
Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the few composers that has influenced musicians across the entire musical landscape; from traditional to classical to rock and pop! The Brandenburg Concerto no.4 in G and Concerto for Two Violins in D minor are two of his most popular orchestral works. The slow movement of the Concerto for Two Violins has been described as a ‘melody of exquisite calmness and peace’. His cousin Johann Bernhard Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G minor sounds almost Italian and is played with great gusto by the IBO. Whilst JS Bach’s elder son, Wihelm Friedman Bach in his Adagio and Fugue in D minor presents us with a most moving piece which many will hear here for the first time.
RTÉ lyric fm’s The Irish Baroque Orchestra Plays Bach will be available in shops from 2 October
Issued by RTÉ Radio
Date: 14 September 2006
For further information please contact: Sarah Hegarty, RTÉ Radio Press Office, Tel: 01 208 2312 / 087 750 1850, Email: sarah.hegarty@rte.ie
Or
Eoin Brady, Producer, RTÉ lyric fm, Tel: 061 207335/ 087 9100168
NOTES TO EDITOR:
About RTÉ lyric fm
RTÉ lyric fm is a music and arts station catering for all tastes – playing classical, jazz and opera as well as music from the stage and screen, world and traditional music. RTÉ lyric fm reaches an average of 113,000 adults in an average week and primarily broadcasts from RTÉ’s Limerick studios.
For more information see www.rte.ie/lyricfm
About the Irish Baroque Orchestra
The Irish Baroque Orchestra is Ireland’s only professional period instrument orchestra. Established in 1996 by Mark Duley and Thérèse Timony (and originally named Christ Church Baroque), it has worked with many of the world’s greatest baroque players and conductors, including Andrew Manze, Paul Goodwin, Nicholas Kraemer, Laurence Cummings, Monica Huggett, Sarah Cunningham, Lucy van Dael and Elizabeth Wallfisch.
Amongst the orchestra’s members are some of the most promising young players in the international early music scene, many of whom work with the world’s finest ensembles. Using baroque instruments or modern replicas, the orchestra explores the playing techniques and stylistic practices associated with music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and gives Irish audiences the rare and precious opportunity to hear this music in live performances that recreate the vivid colours and textures of the baroque sound world.
Education initiatives are a vital aspect of the orchestra’s work, and foremost amongst these is the special relationship the ensemble enjoys with DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama. Players from the orchestra together with a guest string specialist work with DIT students on baroque repertoire and playing techniques.
The Irish Baroque Orchestra is grant-aided by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon. The orchestra has its own collection of period instruments, purchased with the assistance of an Arts Council capital grant.
For more information visit: www.irishbaroque.com
Biography: Monica Huggett
London-born Monica Huggett is one of the world’s leading baroque violinists. As both soloist and leader she has worked with all the major conductors and orchestras in Europe. She was invited to form the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra with Ton Koopman, and was the orchestra’s concert master from 1980-1987. Currently she spends much of her time in the USA, where she is artistic director of the Portland Baroque Orchestra, and also in Spain, where she holds the same position with the Seville Baroque Orchestra. In the UK her work centres on her ensemble Sonnerie, which has recently released CDs of Mozart Piano Quartets and Biber Violin Sonatas on ASV. The Biber CD won the prestigious Baroque Instrumental Gramophone Award in 2002. In the coming year Sonnerie will be releasing a CD of Biber Mystery Sonatas and they have already begun a project to record the complete Handel chamber music with strings.
Monica has been working on regular basis with the Irish Baroque Orchestra since early 2004, and in June 2006 was appointed musical director. As part of her commitment to the orchestra she also directs IBOCS – the IBO Chamber Soloists.