ABOUT THE MUSIC
A Note from Bethany Shepherd
The program is designed to give a glimpse into three distinct (and sometimes overlapping) areas in which women during the Baroque period were able to explore and express their musicality.
The first is the sacred sphere. We have two examples of very different traditions: a continuo song from a Pietistic Lutheran prayer book written by a German countess. The songs and poetry in this book were intended to function as daily meditations encouraging piety in everyday life, the simplicity of the musical style reflects the somewhat austere aesthetic of early Protestantism. In direct contrast to this simplicity is a solo motet taken from the renowned musical convent of Saint Radegonda in Milan. This motet is full of vocal virtuosity, motivic innovation and occasional harmonic surprises.
We then move in to the private sphere, peeking in to the musical lives of courtiers and aristocracy. Women of the upper classes were expected to have a certain degree of musical training and ability as a general accomplishment. Performance and publication of compositions of particularly talented women occurred occasionally. Music amongst courtiers was often used as a means of dialogue, either to debate general topics by presenting songs on a topic exploring different perspectives, or sometimes as a more direct conversation between individuals playing at courtly love. Inspired by this idea of publicly private conversation, I have created a little dialogue that charts the course of an imaginary doomed relationship between a capricious French courtier and her insecure, jealous English lover.
The final world we enter is the most extraordinary: that of the professional female Baroque composer. Here we hear the music of Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and Barbara Strozzi, two women whose phenomenal musical talents could not be denied or repressed. In defiance of all expectations set upon their gender, the music written by these two women was acknowledged as brilliant in their own time, and deserves a legacy as exalted as any achieved by their male contemporaries.
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Amalia Catharina von Waldeck-Eisenberg,
Countess of Erbach-Erbach (1640 – 1697)
Buss Lieder: Das Dritter
From Andächtige Sing-Lust, Hildberghausen, 1692
When the sun's light begins to rise brightly,
so you can easily see the little dust.
Whoever is really clean, / sweeps and cleans his house,
he throws out the dust and dirt out his window.
The coarse sand seems to him to be nothing but pebbles;
But for whoever loves dirt / everything will appear dust.
He however / whose heart lets God's spirit shine
he sees the dust of sin / that he could grind it up
he lives in constant repentance / and washes with Christ's blood
always makes up for his mistakes / and makes it good for him:
He flees / that which is vice / because the dust frightens him
for Christ alone will save the true penitent.
Always wipe off the dust / so the clothing does not get stains
it always stays clean / you do not need to hide.
Anyone who wears clean clothes / can with confidence hold their head high
and stand undaunted by the greatest nobility:
Thus my dear Christian / wipe off from your soul every day
the black dust of sins / so salvation will not be missed.
Send me to this / O my joy and delight!
Enlighten soul and heart / You bright sun of grace
so that I can see the dust / which makes the soul so unclean
when I recognize righteousness / then I do not go astray.
Give / that I recognize you / and let me not spare my own sins
so you will reward me there undeservedly.
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Rosa Giacinta Badalla (c. 1660 – c. 1710)
O Serene Pupillae
From Motetti a Voce Sola, Venice, 1684
O serene pupil
O pleasant heart
Prepare your tears.
Rise up, don't delay
there are many errors
many wrongs
and you, ungrateful soul
forsake your stains,
flee from your sins.
How many stars in the serene sky,
How much are the various flowers in the meadow,
how much sand are in the sea
so many errors are with me.
Then arise and sigh
In deep sadness
Do not sleep Soul
if you do not desire to perish.
How sweet to stand with you, dear Jesus.
Pains, sicknesses,
and unjust sadness
are truly joys.
To love you always,
To stand with you,
how sweet dear Jesus.
In grieving pain
Wretched sighing
Afflicted weeping
And every sin today I will wash.
Then, accept me,
Loving Redeemer
If, with the utmost piety
I desire you.
Alleluia.
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Mademoiselle Bocquet (after 1660)
Prélude, Gigue, and Sarabande
From Guitar Music by Women Composers, Quebec, 2009
Transcription for guitar by Annette Kruisbrink
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Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665 – 1729)
Les Rossignols
From Receuil d’airs sérieux et a boire, Paris, May 1721, and Nouveau recueil de chansons choisies, iv, The Hague, 1729
The nightingales, since the day begins
Sing about love, which animates all of us
If the birds cede to its power
What ill could we do
Wanting to feel its movements!
If their instinct is full of innocence,
What ill could we do
Following such a sweet penchant?
Happy herds grazing on the green
Love never has pains for you
You have nothing but the law of Nature
Possessions and grandeur
Do not know how to touch your hearts;
Reason never murmurs to you,
Possessions and grandeur
Are not worth your sweetness.
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Lady Mary Dering (1629 – 1704)
And Is This All? What One Poor Kiss?
From Henry Lawes Second Booke of Ayres and Dialogues, London, 1655
And is this all?
What one poor kisse?
Thinkst thou my heart contented is
With this gratuity?
No Cloris, no:
Or give me all,
That Lovers love,
And pleasure call,
Or by a free and full deny,
Permit me to despair,
And so despairing die!
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Anne Madeleine Guédon de Presles (17?? – 1754)
Chansonnette
From Meslanges de Musique Latine, Paris, 1729
You accuse me of being fickle
Said the young Annette to Colin
And I saw you with Catin (Catherine)
In our dark forests
Searching for dense foliage:
Do you believe that at my age I am ignorant
Of the tricks of a lying lover?
Ah! Because I loved you,
I was more wise
I was less discerning.
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Lady Mary Dering
A False Designe to be Cruel
From Henry Lawes Second Booke of Ayres and Dialogues, London, 1655
In vaine fair Cloris you designe
To be cruell, to be kind;
For we know with all your arts,
You never hold but willing hearts;
Men are too wise grown to expire
With broken shafts and painted fire.
And if among a thousand swains
Someone of love or fate complains
And all the stars in Heav’n defie
With Clora’s lip, or Celia’s eye:
‘Tis not their love the youth would chuse
But the glory to refuse!
So the rude wave securely shocks
The yeelding bark but the stiff rocks
If it attempts, how soon again,
Broke and dissolv’d it fills the Main:
It foams and roars, but we deride
Alike its weakness and its pride.
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Anne Madeleine Guédon de Presles
Air Bacchique
From Meslanges de Musique Latine, Paris, 1729
War, immortal war
To you cold water drinker
Flee, you critical hypochondriac
I want to join this bacchic meal
To empty my barrel despite you:
Sacrilegious rebel
We cannot believe you
When you preach against wine:
For me who wants to play
In a happier destiny
To all your reasoning
I conclude that I have to drink
I conclude that I have to drink.
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Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre
Allemande, Sarabande, and Menuet from Suite in G Major
From Pièces de Clavecin qui peuvent se jouer sur le violon, Paris, 1707
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Barbara Strozzi (1619 – c.1664)
Che Si Può Fare?
From Arie (Opus 8), Venice, 1664
What can you do?
The stars,
contrary/intractable,
have no pity.
Since the gods don't give
a measure of peace in my suffering,
what can I do?
What can you say?
From the heavens disasters
keep raining down on me;
Since that treacherous Cupid
denies respite to my torture,
what can I say?
That's how it is with cruel destiny the powerful tyrant,
it condemns the innocent:
thus the purest gold
of constancy and faithfulness, alas,
is continually refined in the fire of pain.
Yes, yes, I have to suffer,
yes, I must sigh,
I must breathe with difficulty.
In order to eternalize my trials
heaven denies the final period of death
on the sentence of my lifespan
to my destiny.
You spirits of the damned,
you're blessed,
since all the cruel Eumenides
are intent only on torturing my soul.
Since the furies of Diss
have disappeared,
you spend your days in the Elysian fields
while I molder in hell.
Thus it happens that he who follows
the shadow of a blind god
stumbles in the end.
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Barbara Strozzi (1619 – c.1664)
Amor Dormiglione
From Cantate, Ariette, et Duetti Venice, 1651
Cupid, no more sleeping!
Up, up, wake up right now,
for while you sleep
my joys sleep, troubles are wakeful,
don’t be useless, Cupid!
Arrows, arrows, fire,
arrows, arrows, get up, get up,
fire, fire, get up, get up!
Sleep no more, wake up!
Oh you idle laggard,
you've got no sense!
Foolish Cupid,
cowardly Cupid,
ah, what can I do?
In spite of all my ardor
you slumber:
that’s all I need!
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Bethany Shepherd (1989) discovered her voice by accident while dancing in musicals in her home town of Armidale, Australia. She decided to further her musical education undertaking a Bachelor of Music in Performance at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, studying under Joseph Ward and Lisa Gasteen. Having uncovered a passion for historically informed performance practice, she moved to the Netherlands in 2013 to undertake a Master in Early Music at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
While studying at the Royal Conservatory, together with friends she created the ensemble Le Voci delle Grazie, which specialized in female early Italian Baroque music. With this group she performed in early music festivals across Europe and took part in the prestigious eeemerging programme designed to support young talented early music ensembles.
Bethany recently became a core member of the Dutch Chamber Choir (Nederlands Kamerkoor) where she has sung everything from Franco-Flemish polyphony to Stockhausen, working with renowned choral conductors such as Peter Dijkstra, Paul van Nevel, and Martina Batič. In addition to the Dutch Chamber Choir, Bethany sings with many Dutch ensembles including the Radio Choir (Groot Omroepkoor) and the Dutch Bach Society (Nederlandse Bachvereniging).
As a soloist, Bethany has performed major oratorio repertoire by composers such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Graun. On the opera stage she has sung the amongst others roles of La Fée (Cendrillon, Massenet), Belinda (Dido and Aeneas, Purcell) and Norina (Don Pasquale, Donizetti).
In addition to singing, Bethany enjoys dancing, reading and baking – both the cooking and the eating part! She lives in the Netherlands with her partner and their very spoilt cat.
First hearing the classical guitar on his family’s Julian Bream records, Jeremy Stafford was inspired to begin learning the instrument, and that spark carries through in his playing today. Jeremy received his Bachelor of Music from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in 2020, graduating with distinction, three consecutive awards for academic excellence and the coveted guitar prize for best performance. He was also the first guitarist invited to participate in the Brisbane Club Award as a finalist, in the history of its institution at the Conservatorium. Jeremy studied with ARIA-winning guitarist Karin Schaupp and has participated in masterclasses with renowned guitarists such as Chrystian Dozza, András Csáki, Minh Le Hoang and Timothy Kain. As a concerto soloist, Jeremy was featured as a student with the QCGU symphony orchestra, and performed Nigel Westlake’s “Antarctica” with the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra to a sold-out audience. In addition to his solo experience, Jeremy has performed with various ensembles in the Sunshine Coast Chamber Music Festival, Adelaide Guitar Festival, Tyalgum Music Festival and the Brisbane Festival. Ongoing chamber collaborations include a duo with Melbourne-Brisbane flautist Anna Rabinowicz, and the Jacaranda Guitar Quartet. Recent highlights include a performance residency at the European Masterpieces exhibit at GOMA, performing at the Griffith University graduations to over 2000 people, and in duo with Karin Schaupp in the Brisbane Music Festival. Jeremy is a passionate educator, having managed a busy private studio in Manly West for several years, and works as a guitar tutor at various educational facilities in the south-east of Brisbane. In 2022, Jeremy has been contracted for performances in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, and will release an album focusing on Australian music for solo classical guitar.
Cellist Katherine Philp’s work ranges from the classics, to cutting edge contemporary art music, as well as improvisation, arranging and composing. She is particularly interested in projects that engage in respectful intercultural collaboration, and actively supports the generation of new works by women and non-binary composers. She regularly appears in ensembles and as a soloist at many Australian festivals including the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Tyalgum Festival, Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, and the Woodford Folk Festival. Katherine’s performances and arrangements have been broadcast live and recorded for ABC Classic FM and ABC Radio National. She is currently the principal cellist of Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra, and maintains a busy and eclectic freelance career.
In 2009 Katherine undertook an Asialink residency (supported by Arts Queensland and Australia Council) at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in Dharamsala, India, where she studied Tibetan classical and folk music. This formative experience has led to 15 years of close collaboration with Tibetan Singer and Instrumentalist Tenzin Choegyal on a series of projects including performances at the Woodford Folk Festival, the Sydney Opera House, Tyalgum Festival, the annual Festival of Tibet at the Brisbane Powerhouse, and recordings for ABC Radio National.
More recently, Katherine has become increasingly acknowledged for her performance of new and experimental music, and has undertaken study with Rohan de Saram and Lucas Fels (of Arditti String Quartet). Recent new music highlights include performances with Melbourne-based Rubiks Collective, performing in a portrait concert of Liza Lim’s works with Arcko Ensemble, While You Sleep (a collaboration between composer Kate Neal and artist/animator Sal Cooper), creating improvised solo cello film scores for film-makers Amiel Courtin-Wilson and Jordan Giusti, and recording with the Australian Art Orchestra.
Katherine has performed and studied in India, the UK, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, taken part in the Impuls Academy and the International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt, and recently received an award for Best Performer, playing Berio’s Sequenza XIV at the San Marino New Music Project.
Hailed as a “born communicator” (The Australian), a “brilliant young musician” (Otago Times), and a “soloist of superb virtuosic skill and musicality” (Limelight), Alex Raineri (b. 1993) is active Internationally and throughout Australia as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, writer, producer and educator.
International performances include tours throughout America, Southeast Asia, United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Germany and Austria. Within Australia, Alex has appeared as a feature artist in many major festivals and venues. As a concerto soloist he has appeared with the Queensland, Tasmanian, Darwin and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, Ensemble Q, Southern Cross Soloists, Orchestra Victoria, Four Winds Festival Orchestra, Bangalow Festival Orchestra, Queensland Youth Symphony and the Queensland Pops Orchestra. He has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio NZ, California Capital Public Radio, ABC Classic FM and all of the Australian MBS Networks.
Alex is the Artistic Director of the annual Brisbane Music Festival. He is a passionate exponent and commissioner of contemporary music, having given 109 World Premieres + 147 Australian Premieres to date.
Major awards include the Kerikeri International Piano Competition and Australian National Piano Award. He was the recipient of the Queensland Luminary Award in the 2021 APRA/AMCOS Art Music Awards and received a Kranichsteiner Musikpries at the International Summer Courses for New Music (Darmstadt, Germany).
Notable collaborations include Andreas Ottensamer, TwoSet Violin, eighth blackbird, ELISION, Sara Macliver, Natalie Clein, Natsuko Yoshimoto, Karin Schaupp, Greta Bradman, Li Wei Qin, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Jack Liebeck, Kathryn Stott, Slava Grigoryan, Brett Dean, William Barton, Ensemble Offspring, Orava Quartet, and many others.
Additionally to a full-time performative profile, Alex is a radio-presenter on 4MBS Classic FM, a reviewer for The Music Trust’s ‘Loudmouth’, and holds associate artist positions at both the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University + University of Queensland.
VENUE – LOYAL HOPE OF THE VALLEY LODGE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SUPPORT
Bethany Shepherd's appearance in the 2022 festival is generously supported by Cass George.
Alex Raineri’s appearance in the 2022 festival is generously supported by Loris Orthwein.
The Brisbane Music Festival is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
With gratitude to the following partner organisations and funding bodies for their support.
With thanks also to Gretel Farm, Simply Classical, The Brunswick Green and the countless individuals who have privately supported the 2022 BMF.
