Elizabeth Dobbin - soprano
Sofie Vanden Eyden - theorbo & baroque guitar
David Blunden - harpsichord
Marian Minnen, baroque cello & basse de violon
Romina Lischka, viola da gamba
The ensemble Le Jardin Secret presents the wonderful treasure of Baroque solo vocal literature accompanied by the full colour and beauty of original continuo and obbligato instruments. With soprano Elizabeth Dobbin, the ensemble performs a wide range of 17th and 18th century repertoire with dedicated attention to its historical context and to the possibilities of creative continuo playing and improvisation.
The music is intimate and highly expressive exploiting the powerful and contrasting affects of the poetry to which it is set, welcoming the listener into the most secret places of the heart. Le Jardin Secret (in French a metaphor for the heart) is a place of sensual beauty and delight, of mystery and contemplation, of lament, grief and suffering, of amusement and assignation.
The members of the ensemble, which won both the first prize and the audience prize in the Early Music Network International Young Artists’ Competition in York in 2007, are post-graduates of conservatories in Basel, The Hague and Brussels. It is the aim of the ensemble to bring alive the emotive energy of the music, opening the door to the aesthetic world of the Baroque in all its beguiling beauty.
Le Jardin Secret released their first CD, Musique pour Mazarin!, in 2008 on the Coro label – a recording made as part of their EMN Competition prize. It’s a delightfully varied programme featuring a diverse mixture of French and Italian music that would have been heard at the court of the flamboyant Cardinal Jules Mazarin. The juxtaposition of French and Italian works on this disc shows clearly the rich selection of music heard at Mazarin’s court in the late 1600s, demonstrating the stark contrast between the French and Italian styles of the period. The added ingredient of political and cultural rivalry and intrigue - the Italian born Cardinal importing Italian culture into a resistant French context - contributes a little "piquancy" to the mix!
www.lejardinsecret.com
".first-class debut disc.Le Jardin Secret have a very bright future indeed.the performances are superb."
The Telegraph, 12 July 2008
"The brief instrumental solos are delicious.a confident and attractively programmed recording debut"
The Independent, 8 June 2008
Elizabeth Dobbin, soprano
Elizabeth Dobbin was born in Sydney, Australia where she began her musical studies at the age of five with piano. She studied Law at the University of Sydney concurrently with music and at this time decided to dedicate herself full-time to singing. In 2006 she completed a degree in Early Music from the Royal Conservatory, The Hague in the Netherlands where she studied with Jill Feldman, Michael Chance, Peter Kooij, Rita Dams, Barbara Pearson and Diane Forlano. She has undertaken masterclasses with Christophe Rousset, Isabelle Desrochers, Emma Kirkby, and has performed with the Académie Baroque d’Ambronay with William Christie. Elizabeth appears regularly as a soloist in oratorios, cantatas, early opera and in song recitals. She has performed in festivals in Holland, Germany, France, England, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Norway, Ireland, the United States, Japan and Australia and with groups and conductors such as L'Arpeggiata, Richard Egarr, Sébastien Marq and Dutch-based classical orchestra, The New Dutch Academy. She has recorded for the Alpha label, Aliud Records and O.R.F.
Sofie Vanden Eynde, theorbo and baroque guitar
Sofie Vanden Eynde was born in Lommel, Belgium in 1978. She began her musical studies at the Brussels Conservatory. Her interest for the poetic music of Renaissance and Baroque led her to study lute and theorbo. She graduated with honours in 2002 at the Gent Conservatory, where she studied with Philippe Malfeyt. She completed her studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Hopkinson Smith and has since gained an international reputation as a specialist in historical plucked instruments. Sofie has participated in various opera projects with Christophe Rousset, Paul Mc Creesh (both as a member of l’Académie Baroque d’Ambronay), Howard Arman and Rick Stengaards. She appears together with La Cecchina, Les Cornets Noirs, Florilegium, Capriccio Basel, Nutmeg&Ginger, Naoki Kitaya and Le Jardin Secret, with whom she won the 1st Prize and Audience Prize at the Early Music Network Young Artists' Competition in York in July 2007. In 2006 she was awarded her home town’s prize of artistic recognition. Sofie was recently heard in the Festival van Vlaanderen, Regensburger Tage der Alte Musik, Midis-Minimes and the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht.
David Blunden, harpsichord
Born in Sydney, David began his musical training with piano and organ studies. He won a scholarship to study the organ with David Rumsey at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he completed his studies in 1997. A keen interest in early music led David to post-graduate studies at the renowned Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland where he studied organ with Jean-Claude Zehnder, harpsichord with Andrea Marcon and improvisation with Rudolf Lutz, completing his studies in 2002 with the rarely awarded "Summa cum laude". In September 2001 he won the prestigious Innsbruck International Organ Competition and in 2007 was selected as a finalist in the Sweelinck International Organ Competition. Living in Basel, David has established a lively career in Europe as a soloist, ensemble musician and accompanist appearing in major festivals, cities, theatres, and churches throughout the continent. As an organist his recent recitals include performances in the festivals of Treviso, Lausanne and Innsbruck and a recording of renaissance music on the organ of Rhysum, the oldest organ in Germany, dating from 1457. As an ensemble musician, David appears regularly as a continuo player in numerous baroque orchestras and ensembles both in Europe and in Australia. David has a great interest in opera. As well as working as a repetiteur at the Schola Cantorum, Basiliensis, he has worked as musical assistant and vocal coach in numerous productions at the Basel Theatre, most recently as assistant to Andrea Marcon in a production of Monteverdi's "Orfeo".
Marian Minnen, baroque cello and basse de violon
Belgian cellist, Marian Minnen, studied cello and chamber music at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven where she obtained a masters degree in 1996. In 1999 she obtained a postgraduate diploma at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam. The same year Marian started studying baroque cello with Wouter Möller, continuing this study the next year with Jaap ter Linden and Lucia Swarts at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague where she graduated in 2003. She has taken masterclasses with Collin Carr, Gaetano Nasillo, Anner Bijlsma and Charles Medlam amongst others. In 2002 she was a finalist in the international soloists’ competition “Musica Antiqua” (Bruges, Belgium). With the ensemble Rossi Piceno she obtained prizes in “Musica Antiqua” (Bruges, Belgium) in 2003 and “Bonporti” (Rovereto, Italy) in 2004, both prestigious international contests for ensembles. Marian collaborates regularly with some of the most respected names in early music, such as Barthold Kuijken, Sigiswald Kuijken, Peter Van Heyghen, Kris Verhelst and Ewald Demeyere and with orchestras and ensembles such as La Petite Bande, Les Muffatti, Ex Tempore and Bach Concentus. With these ensembles she has recorded on the Accent, Coro and Ramée labels.
Romina Lischka, viola da gamba
Viola da gambist Romina Lischka first encountered the gamba at the age of thirteen while studying classical guitar in her native Austria. Inspired by early music, she took her first gamba lessons with Jorge Daniel Valencia and attended masterclasses with Wieland Kuijken and Jordi Savall. She completed her studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Paolo Pandolfo and in Brussels with Philippe Pierlot. In 2000, Romina won the “Prima la Musica” competition in Austria. In 2004 she was selected to take part in the Académie Européenne d'Ambronay, conducted by Christophe Rousset. Romina is a member of Les Flamboyants directed by Michael Form, the Ludovice Ensemble and performs with the Ricercar Consort. Her concert activities take her to Switzerland, Belgium, France, Austria, Holland, England, Portugal and Germany.
Programmes
ORFe|O
Orphée, Orfeo, Orpheus - the story of the great mythic hero and musician has inspired art and music across cultures and through the ages. In this innovative programme of French and Italian music structured around the well-loved Clerambault cantata, we retrace with Orpheus his journey to the underworld in search of Euridice, and encounter some of his less-known companions and rarely-performed music on the way.
Music by: Clérambault, Luigi Rossi, Sartorio, Monteverdi, Telemann, Alessandro Scarlatti
Musicians: 1 soprano, 1 traverso, 1 violin, 1 theorbo, 1 cello/viola da gamba, 1 harpsichord
Songs from the Fairest Isle
An enticing collection of music by the English Orpheus and Amphion - Henry Purcell and John Blow.
Music by: Henry Purcell, John Blow
Musicians: 1 soprano, 1 theorbo, 1 cello/gamba, 1 harpsichord
Musique pour Mazarin!
This programme takes us to the Paris and Versailles of the seventeenth century, the musical pulse of France, where the fierce rivalry between elegant French and fiery Italian music was battled out centre-stage. The douceur and languid sweetness of the music of the greatest French masters of the time is presented alongside exuberant grand scenes and intimate moments by their Italian counterparts, who were staunchly supported and promoted by their powerful political patron and compatriot in Paris, the notorious Cardinal Mazarin.
Music by: Lully, Marin Marais, Luigi Rossi, Cavalli, Carissimi, Corbetta
Musicians: 1 soprano, 1 theorbo, 1 cello/viola da gamba, 1 harpsichord
In the still of the night
Fireside, family, home and hearth. Join us for an evening of exquisite baroque music-making in this heart-warming Christmas programme. Draw up your chair a little closer to the warmth of the fire, and celebrate the true spirit of the season with these lively yet intimate settings of traditional carols from England and France.
Music: French noëls by Delalande, Charpentier, Daquin, Balbastre. Improvised and written instrumental and vocal settings of English carols from traditional and anonymous sources.
Musicians: 1 soprano, 1 theorbo, 1 viola da gamba, 1 harpsichord
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