Opening ceremony and concert: L’Arpeggiata – Alla Napoletana

In the 17th century, Naples was the capital of music as well as the birthplace of opera and the Commedia dell’Arte. The prestigious Neapolitan conservatories promoted the emergence of exceptional musicians and composers, as well as the famous castrati. L’Arpeggiata delves into this seicento Napoletano, and explores the vocal repertoire, both Baroque and traditional: In the Gulf of Naples, a war breaks out between small and large fish caused by an unfaithful sardella; at the cradle of the infant Giesù, the pastori sing ninne nanne and tarantelle; in the streets of Naples, one observes flaming dances, while virtuoso airs of the castrati resonate in the palaces.

Tarantellas, folie, cantatas, dances and Canzone Napoletane by Andrea Falconieri, Cristoforo Caresana, Pietro Antonio Giramo and Luigi Rossi. A program as dramatic, varied, lively and colourful as the city of Vesuvius.

L’Arpeggiata is directed by Christina Pluhar, one of the Early Music scene’s most innovative performers. Her instruments are lutes and harps, and she also excels in composition and arranging old pieces in new and creative ways. The ensemble is famous for mixing early material with elements of jazz, pop etc. Ancient music has never felt so updated as in the hands of L’Arpeggiata.

This wonderful team is joining Christina Pluhar on stage:

Céline Scheen – Soprano
Vincenzo Capezzuto – Alto
Anna Dego – teatrodanza
Doron Sherwin – Cornetto (Zink)
Lathika Vithanage – Baroque violin
Marcello Vitale, Baroque guitar
Josep Maria Marti Duran – Theorbo & Baroque guitar
Leonardo Terrugi – Double bass
Matteo Rabolini – Percussion

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127 candidates of 39 nationalities gave the jury an extremely difficult task in choosing only eight winners, and we are delighted to present to you some of the finest young Early Music singers in the world. Together with leading musicians of the Nordic Baroque Scene’s four orchestras, they will perform their own curated programmes over the span of two concerts this evening. Artistic leader of the first concert is concertmaster of Concerto Copenhagen Fredrik From, and for the second concert one of the concert masters of the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Anthony Marini.

The concerts will also be streamed, and audience members and viewers all over the world will be invited to vote for their own favourite online here. The prize winners will be announced at the Prize ceremony on Saturday, July 2. For the Aria Borealis Sessions members, also the rehearsals will be open, so we highly recommend joining us in a town that’s sure to be buzzing and brimming with Baroque music for over a week.

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The members of the jury, soprano Emma Kirkby DBE, soprano Tuuli Lindeberg, tenor Anders J. Dahlin and harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen, join forces with a hand-picked group of musicians from the Nordic Baroque Scene, choosing pieces from their favourite repertoire to share with the festival audience. 

Dame Emma Kirkby first entered the music scene as a breath of fresh air in the 1970s. Hailed for her brilliant nightingale-like voice and her non-diva way of interpreting Early Music, her recordings soon became the gold standard within this repertoire. Now she leans on a whole career’s worth of performing experience, when she hands her knowledge on to future soloists in the Aria Borealis Bodø Competition. In this concert, she joins in with younger singers of the jury,  Tuuli Lindeberg and Anders J Dahlin. In addition to these singers and select musicians of the four NBS orchestras, the harpsichord legend Lars Ulrik Mortensen can be experienced live in this concert. A dynamic force field of a musician, he is not easily forgotten, once seen in action. 

Between these strong musical personalities and their hand picked pieces, this is sure to be a concert night to remember. 

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Hailed as a ‘multi-disciplinary force of nature’ (A Closer Listen), Nordic Affect has been making sound since 2005, combining new compositions with the music of the 17th and 18th centuries. For this event they join forces with one of the world‘s leading performing composers, Maja S. K. Ratkje. Together they shape a new, creative collaboration grounded in some of Ratkje’s songs and instrumental compositions, arranged and elaborated by the whole ensemble into the shape of a concert titled Rökkur.

Twilight is the time when shadows fall, a time of ambiguity and magic. When rökkur, or twilight fell in pre-electric times, a space appeared for storytelling, reading, yarn spinning, singing, or even for entering a dreamlike state of dozing. Inspired by this shared tradition, Maja and the members of Nordic Affect have embarked on a journey driven by reflection, experimentation and fantasy. A unique and strong encounter inspires new ways of sensing together, albeit through familiar tools; Rökkur becomes a path for transition and morphing between the familiar, the magic of the past and the yet to be imagined future. Since their first appearance at Dark Music Days in Iceland in 2019, the project continues to evolve in relation to each new performance. Join us for an event set to reveal various shades of noise and timbre, with Ratkje blending her extended vocals with the Baroque instrumental sound of Nordic Affect, everything treated and re-established in real-time by the cyborgic electronic extensions of Ratkje’s live-instrument.

“This was music-making of staggering brilliance and imagination… At the end, I didn’t want to leave (…) i wanted to stay and bask in its afterglow, savouring the dying embers and echoes of the magic that had been made.”

– Simon Cummings, 5against4.com on Rökkur

PERFORMERS: 

Maja Ratkje, vocals and live electronics
Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir, violin
Marie Stockmarr Becker, viola
Hanna Loftsdóttir, cello
Guðrún Óskarsdóttir, harpsichord

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Baroque violinist Bjarte Eike pushes the boundaries of classical music, constantly looking for new projects in the borderland of genres and reaching out to new audiences with his infectious playing and style. In this concert, he leads his fellow Baroque musicians into an encounter with another genre who has more in common with Early Music than one might assume: A playful, improvisatory approach to easy going, singable melodies and bass oriented accompaniment, and to top it all – a guest appearance by the South Sámi yoiker Frode Fjellheim.

Expect fun and surprises in this unmissable event. 

Bjarte Eike, violin
Tore Johansen, trumpet
Frode Fjellheim, vocal

BODØ RHYTHM GROUP
Martin Högberg, guitar
Trygve Waldemar Fiske, bass
Finn Sletten, percussion

BAROKKANERNE
Maria Ines Zanovello, violin
Mari Giske, viola
Gunnar Hauge, cello
Fredrik Blikeng, bass
Jadran Duncumb, lute & guitar
Hans Knut Sveen, harpsichord

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