The Harp Consort's recording of 'Luz y Norte', released world-wide on the DHM/BMG label won a Diapson d'Or and was voted "L'evenement du mois" in France. In Australia, the CD has been #1 in the Classical charts for six weeks consecutively. There is also a CD single 'Amores Pasados' featuring Chilean tenor Rodrigo del Pozo and viola da gamba and lirone player Hille Perl in two songs by ex-Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Look out for the special edition which offers you the complete 'Luz y Norte' AND the 'Amores Pasados' as free bonus tracks. In the USA, the record is being sold under the title 'Spanish Dances'. BMG's promotional activities have included full page colour photos of The Harp Consort in Early Music Magazine, a promotional video based on the music of the 'Xacaras' and a French TV advertising campaign 'musique de voyage'.
'Exquisite Consorts', including Lawes' monumental G minor Pavan 'for the Harp Consort' was performed at the 1995 Boston and Utrecht Early Music Festivals, and has now been released on Berlin Classics. Purcell's 'Musick's Hand-Maid', (first heard in Musikfest Bremen 94) has been released on Astree Auvidis, and was presented in Paris at the Theatre Grevin in January.
The Harp Consort performed Handel concertos for harp, lute and lyracord; and for organ; a Vivaldi concerto for double harp, theorbo and baroque guitar; and a new reconstruction of Bach's 'Italian Concerto' to rave reviews at concerts in Berlin and Bremen in 95, with a recording to be released soon on BMG/DHM. Meanwhile, plans are afoot for a collaboration between The Harp Consort and the internationally renowned Freiburger Baroque Orchestra, bringing new continuo colours to Vivaldi's Four Seasons - on tour in December and on record next year.
Andrew's new solo programmem entitled 'La Harpe Royale' (Louis Couperin, Francois Couperin and Robert De Visee), was performed in Berlin and Paris and has been recorded for DHM. In another DHM recording to be released next year, viola da gamba soloist Hille Perl has invited Andrew to accompany her in music by St Colombe, the inventor of the seven string viol celebrated in the film 'Tous les matins du monde'.
After performances in Leipzig, Berlin and Bremen 'Amor ist mein Lied', a recital by flautist Laurie Dean accompanied by Andrew on single-action pedal harp has been recorded for release later this year.
Andrew joins singer Paul Hillier in songs by the Trouveres and the Vigo 'cantigas de amigo' by Martin Codax on two records for Harmonia Mundi USA, which were recorded at George Lucas' 'Star Wars' studio at Skywalker Ranch. Another record, of medieval and modern texts sung to ballad tunes and traditional melodies is in preparation.
Andrew will be visiting Japan, coaching students and performing Monteverdi with Jordi Savall at the end of October. Andrew returns to Japan for a solo tour, his second in the land of the rising sun, in Februrary.
Andrew Lawrence-King's recording of Handel's 'Almira' will be released soon on CPO with an international cast headed by Anne Monoyios and David Thomas. After last year's production and live broadcast of 'Dido and Aeneas' in Helsinki, Finnish radio have invited Andrew back to direct the Florentine Intermedi. Plans for 1997 include Monteverdi's 'Orfeo' in Sweden and the first American opera, Torrejon's 'La Purpura de la Rosa' in Holland and Germany.
Regular classes in solo harp, continuo playing and improvisation in Early Music continue at the Akademie fur Alte Musik in Bremen, now part of the German state Hochschule system. Visiting students are welcome:- contact Almut Heibult by snail-mail at HFK, Dechanatstr, Bremen, Germany. Courses are also planned for 97 at Den Haag and Barcelona.
The Lacock summer school runs from July 21-26 and is open to singers and to players of both melodic and chordal instruments. This year's production is Cavalieri's 'Rappresentatione di Anima e Corpo' (1600) - the 'first oratorio'. This setting of a pilgrims progress story is an ideal introduction to the Italian early baroque singing and accompanimental style and offers acting roles of all sizes as well as elegant choruses and sinfonias. Contact (snail-mail) Andrew van der Beek, Cantax House, Lacock, Wilts., UK.
Andrew will take his baroque triple harp to this bastion of the harp establishment in July, playing French and English baroque music with 'La Harpe Royalle'. This will be his second solo recital in Seattle this year: the first was 'Harp and Double Harp' at the end of March. He returns to the US twice more, performing at the Berkeley Festival with renaissance violin band The Kings Noyse, and lecturing at the prestigious Society for 17th Century Music conference in Boston.
Han Tol (recorders) and Andrew tour Germany in September and October, giving master-classes and performances of English and Italian division music, iincluding variations improvised at first sight of a 'new' ground. At the first performance in Boston, Andrew began the second half by opening a sealed envelope in front of the audience: the surprise bass-line provided by festival director Paul O'Dette was thoroughly baroque and thoroughly bizarre, with tortured chromatic twists and turns that challenged the improviser's skills to the utmost!
Singer Caitriona O'Leary, lutenists Paul O'Dette and Pat O'Brien and fiddle player David Douglass will join dancer Steven Player and other members of The Harp Consort in 'Carolan's Concerto'. Like the Spanish music of 'Luz y Norte', this project combines the early music 'authenticity' of sources and instrumentation with new research on accompanying styles, the energy of the dance and the spontaneity of ensemble improvisation, guided by detailed investigation of traditional styles of variation and ornamentation. The programme is based on Carolan's life and career, illustrated by songs inspired by his meetings with nobles, poets and the flower of English and Irish female beauty; by courtly minuets, traditional jigs and country dances; and by excerpts from his poetry in English and Gaelic. 'Carolan's Concerto' will be recorded for DHM, and there is a US tour planned for March 97.