Catherine Bott - soprano
Pavlo Beznosiuk - fiddle
Mark Levy - fiddle
Three acclaimed early music virtuosi bring to life the loveliest Medieval and Renaissance music
Concerts of early music often attempt to recreate specific occasions in history - renaissance royal weddings or medieval Christmas services at Notre Dame Cathedral. Although those performances can give us a taste of the past, there is no escaping the fact that we are living at the dawn of the 21st century. Modern life is unimaginably different from the "olden days" and we cannot think ourselves back into history just by listening to music. What we can do, however, is to let the music of the past come to us, and with their stylish, compelling and communicative stage presence, Catherine Bott and Friends have between them all the musical and expressive resources to help audiences enjoy all that is truly timeless in the subtle marriage of words and melody.
The Performers
Well-known to concert audiences and record buyers alike, Catherine Bott, Pavlo Beznosiuk and Mark Levy are all established soloists - and good friends, who have been performing and recording medieval, renaissance and baroque music together with various groups since the late 1980s. Now they come together as a trio to perform the most virtuosic and expressive chamber music from the middle ages and the dawn of the renaissance.
When Catherine was invited to take an ensemble of her own to the Santander Festival in Spain a couple of years ago, she immediately invited Mark and Pavlo to join her in exploring the wonderful, haunting sound of one voice and two fiddles. (The fiddle, or vielle, is a forerunner of the violin with extra drone strings, and in the hands of expert players can be used for the most intricate art music, or for the lusty dances and songs influenced by folk traditions. In the world of baroque music, Mark and Pavlo are players of international standing on the viol and violin, but they both relish the chance to play the virtuosic and often improvisatory music of the middle ages on the fiddle.)
On arrival in Spain, they found posters all over the city announcing "Catherine Bott y Amigos" - Catherine Bott and Friends. Somehow the name stuck, and it has the merit of being true. Since those first concerts in Santander, the three amigos have performed elsewhere in Spain, at the Flanders Festival and at several festivals in England, as well as giving as well as giving BBC Radio 3 recitals in Glasgow and Belfast. Most recently, their compelling and communicative performances have been received with delight by audiences in Estonia. A CD of favourites from their repertoire, Delectatio Angeli, was released in 2006 to great acclaim.
“No other singer I know of can summon quite as she can the Schubertian intensity and sense of drama in music that dates from 7 or 8 centuries ago”
The Times
“The programme demonstrated not only the technical marvel of Catherine Bott's soprano but also the instinctive, almost animal sense of ensemble that exists between her and the other musicians”
The Independent on Sunday
“True wonders of flexible ensemble playing: note how effortlessly they follow Bott's every variation of tempo and articulation”
Gramophone
Catherine Bott is acknowledged as one of the foremost interpreters of early vocal music, and among her numerous recordings in this field are Purcell's Fairy Queen with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, the title role in Dido and Aeneas with the Academy of Ancient Music and Bach's St. John Passion with Stephen Cleobury and the Choir of King's College, Cambridge. Her recital recordings include virtuoso Italian Arias and Mad Songs from the English Restoration Theatre, and Decca released "The World of Catherine Bott" last year. She is also much sought-after by contemporary composers, including Michael Nyman, Bo Holten and Michael Torke. Her current repertoire runs from Anon. (12th century) to Jonathan Dove, whose song cycle Five Am'rous Sighs she premiered last year in London.
“Unaccompanied singing may not be the only test of a good voice, but it surely tells whether a performer can communicate with and hold an audience. Bott's beautiful, intelligent and entirely persuasive account was genuinely moving, her mezza voce control and wide range of vocal colour adding to the intensity of the drama”
The Independent
“Bott was quite magnificent - fluent, controlled and measuring her performance with awesome artistry”
The Independent on Sunday
Pavlo Beznosiuk has appeared as soloist throughout Europe and as Concertmaster/Director with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Hanover Band and the Parley of Instruments, with whom he undertook important pioneering work in the use of the renaissance violin. His many recordings include Vivaldi violin concertos, Mozart's Haffner Serenade and Sinfonia Concertante and the Brandenburg concerti. As a long-standing member of the New London Consort he has earned a world-wide reputation as a performer on the vielle, rebec and lira da braccio. He is Professor of baroque violin at the Conservatory in den Haag, Holland.
“Pavlo Beznosiuk - the Heifetz of the medieval fiddle”
The Independent
“A musician whose range of ideas seems every time more amazing”
Gramophone
One of Britain's leading ambassadors for the viol, Mark Levy divides his time between solo and chamber recitals, directing his own ensemble Concordia, working with leading symphony orchestras, opera companies and early music groups and recording early and new music for CD, radio, television and film. He was artistic director of the Wigmore Hall's William Lawes 400th anniversary concert series in 2002; his innovative programming with Concordia has led to performances combining music with newly-commissioned dance, poetry and drama, including a set of monologues for Queen Elizabeth I, with Penelope Keith, to be heard again at the Temple Festival in 2008.
“Mark Levy doesn't put a finger wrong: his subtle variety of expressiveness and tone are a joy to listen to”
Gramophone
“Mark Levy's way with the viol is almost to make it speak, so colourfully modulated and rhythmically supple are his melodic lines”
International Record Review
Programmes
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