York Early Music Festival brings entente cordiale to Anglo-French musical relations

In a festival whose motto is Entente Cordiale, York will play host such prominent early musicians as Andreas Staier; The London Handel Players; Andrew Parrott and his Tavernor Consort; The Sixteen directed by Harry Christophers and The Early Opera Company led by Christian Curnyn.

Taking part too in the festival run from July 2 to 11 will be distinguished Belgian vocalists the Huelgas Ensemble; Katie Debretzeni, Richard Boothby and Mahan Esfahani; The Clerks; Sylvia Abramowicz, Jonathan and Thomas Dunford and The Orlando Consort.

Delma Tomlin, the festival's administrative director, says: “The 2015 festival concert programme opens in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall on July 3 with a celebration of Baroque Dance, with the London Handel Players and specialist early music dancers Mary Collins and Steve Player recreating the spirit and spectacle of the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV to the music of Lully, Rebel, Handel and Corelli..

"Throughout the Festival we hope our audiences will discover something new in the culture of this fascinating period of Anglo-French history through its music and musicians.

"And as the Festival culminates with the 2015 International Young Artists Competition on July 11, during which we welcome ensembles from across the UK, Europe and the USA, our audiences will share our delight in spotting the early music ‘stars’ of the future in this competition, which has gone from strength to strength in the last two decades.”

In Entente Cordiale 1 at the National Centre for Early Music on July 4 at 11am, German harpsichordist Andreas Staier explores two great 17th-century national harpsichord traditions in works by the English composers John Bull, William Byrd and Henry Purcell, and the Frenchmen Chambonnières, D’Anglebert and Louis Couperin.

In Entente Cordiale 2, Kati Debretzeni violin, Richard Boothby bass viol, Mahan Esfahani harpsichord and organ, perform the English and French Baroque chamber music of John Jenkins, William Lawes, Jean-Marie Leclair, Marin Marais and Jean-Philippe Rameau at the York Guildhall on July 4 at 3pm.

The festival welcomes the long, long awaited return of the Taverner Consort & Choir, directed by Andrew Parrott, with soprano soloist Emily Van Evera, for Cross-Channel Connections in the Quire of York Minster on July 4.

The 7.30pm programme takes its lead from the historic meeting of Henry VIII and Francis I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, which gave the musicians of two Chapels Royal a rare opportunity to hear each other in action. Mass settings of Taverner’s Western Wind Mass and Crecquillon’s Missa Domine Deus Omnipotens will be interlaced with French secular chansons and intimate English songs.

University of York music department alumnus Christian Curnyn directs the Olivier Award-nominated Early Opera Company in a Baroque operatic double bill of Charpentier's Actéon and Purcell:Dido and Aeneas at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall on July 5 at 6.30pm.

Charpentier’s story of the unfortunate hunter Actéon, transformed into a stag and devoured by his own hounds for observing the goddess Diana bathing, is one of the great discoveries of recent decades, while Purcell's work charts the death of the tragic Carthaginian queen.

Sylvia Abramowicz, bass viol, and Jonathan Dunford, bass viol, and their son Thomas Dunford, lute and baroque guitar, present A Deux Violes Esgales, at the NCEM on July 5 at 9.45pm. Sylvia and Jonathan were first brought together by a shared love of the music of the great master of French Baroque viol, Marin Marais, and here they will play works from Marais’s First and Second Books of Pièces de viole.

Highlights of the second week of the festival will be previewed in the June 25 edition of What's On and full programme details can be found at ncem.co.uk/yemf Tickets cost £5 to £30 on 01904 658338, at ncem.co.uk or by emailing boxoffice@ncem.co.uk