Recording at Studios 301, Dec 2020
I’ve had an interesting and productive last few weeks with a Marais Project concert for Sydney Living Museums and a Marais recording session for a future video we are making. I’ve also completed a massive project compiling a Playlist of all the female viol players who are on Spotify. More of that below.
2021 season
Will there be a formal Marais Project concert series in 2021? We will continue to give concerts in 2021 but we are holding off making a decision about a formal season at this point in time. Two of our preferred venues are not yet taking bookings, for example, and the recent rapid shutdown in South Australia illustrated just how quickly the landscape can change. We are open to each and every invitation to perform so please contact me if you have any ideas. Elysian Fields will do concerts come what may!
Viol Women – female viola da gamba players from across the globe
Some time ago I had the idea of putting together a Spotify playlist of women viol players. I originally thought at most I would find 25-30 players. At the time of writing there is almost 60 included! They truly come from everywhere: Europe, Asia, Australasia, North America, South America and the Middle East. I’ve mostly selected 3-5 pieces from each performer, less if the pieces are long. The three Bach viola da ga gamba sonatas, for example, are played by German, an American and an Australian. The repertoire covered goes from Renaissance to baroque, French, Italian and English repertoire through to contemporary. If you would like a summary of the players and the music they perform just email me. Please have a listen and suggest anyone I may have left out.
Duo Recording session
As most of our 2020 season was cancelled we decided to make a film of one of our scheduled concerts, ‘Duo.’ The concept behind Duo is that lutenist/guitarist Tommie Andersson and I each play a solo section then come together to play as a duo. For those interested, Tommie recorded some of his solos on the gallichon, a later version of the baroque lute. We recorded the audio at Studios 301 (see photos) and are currently editing and mixing. We will film the video component in December for release in the New Year.
‘Nevermind’ plays Telemann
‘Nevermind’ (flute, violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord) is one of the upcoming historically informed groups that sets new standards of ensemble, tone colour and exuberant virtuosity. They also pay exceptional attention to the quality of their recorded sound – those tempted to record a few tunes and release them on a streaming platform please take note! Nevermind has turned their attention to Telemann’s Paris Quartets and the result is exquisite. I could not find a local store listing the CD so ordered mine through Amazon Australia. You can hear an excerpt from this latest recording on this link.
Best wishes as always.
Jenny Eriksson
Director, The Marais Project, Elysian Fields and Da Vinci’s Apprentice
November 30, 2020