Download Over het Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam

GESUALDO CONSORT AMSTERDAM | HARRY VAN DER KAMP
Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa (c. 1561-1613) is the composer after whom the GESUALDO CONSORT
AMSTERDAM, the madrigal ensemble founded by Harry van der Kamp in the 1980s, is named. This
Neapolitan nobleman is the composer of experimental works in which he constantly explored new
expressive means. Through rhythmic and especially harmonic innovations he attained an
extraordinarily high level of personal expression. Gesualdo stands on the threshold between the old
musical style (prima prattica) and the new style (seconda prattica), a clear transition in music
history that occurred around 1600. A Janus-like figure, he commands a view of what happened in
the past and at the same time looks ahead to the future, thereby inspiring many composers right up
to the present.
The Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam aims to achieve this special expressivity in its
programmes and also in its performances. The whole madrigal repertoire of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries belongs to the repertoire of the Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam, but lots of
attention is also given to the other genres. Where possible connections are made with the music of
later centuries. In addition, several composers have dedicated works to the Gesualdo Consort
Amsterdam.
The Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam has appeared at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music,
Musikfest Bremen (among other works, Brahms’s Zigeunerlieder with the Roby Lakatos
Zigeunerensemble), Dollard Festival, Utrecht Early Music Festival, Bach-Fest Leipzig and many
other festivals in Europe.
Audiences are stirred by the concerts of the Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam and experience
them as an enrichment of their musical knowledge and consciousness. The press described the
concert of “Musica vulcanica” during the Utrecht Early Music Festival in 2006 as the finest concert
in the festival’s 25-year history.
The Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam’s strategy for making CDs is just as exciting. A lot of
emphasis is placed on repertoire that has not been accessible on CD before. Thus the world
GESUALDO CONSORT AMSTERDAM | HARRY VAN DER KAMP
première recording of the complete Lamentations and Responsories by the Roman composer Emilio
de’ Cavalieri (c. 1550-1602) has been issued, and the third madrigal book of Scipione Lacorcia
forms the centre of the CD Musica vulcanica (fl. 1590-1620), acclaimed throughout the world (and
nominated for an Edison prize in 2007). The CD recording of Gesualdo’s first three madrigal books
was described by Gramophone as a “landmark” in Gesualdo discography. A world premiere of
works by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and J.S. Bach won the Echo Klassik award in 2006.
The present recording of the complete works of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (a 23 CD/Book
edition by the Spanish label GLOSSA, also fits with this vision. This important oeuvre has never
been made completely available on CD until now.
October 2010 this so called Sweelinck Monument was presented to Her Majesty Queen
Beatrix of the Netherlands at the Old Church of Amsterdam, Sweelinck’s working place during his
whole life. On that occasion Harry van der Kamp was appointed Knight in the Order of the Dutch
Lion for his exceptional achievements on behalf of the Sweelinck Monument.
The start of the project (The Secular Works) was already awarded the Edison Award 2009
and the full series of The Sweelinck Monument and was given a nomination for the Edison 2011 in
the category of Documentary Recordings. The French magazine Diapason singled out the Gesualdo
Consort Amsterdam for praise. The singers won the Diapason d’or découverte for the international
edition of Sweelinck’s complete vocal works: Secular works, Psalms and Cantiones Sacrae.
The Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam was awarded the VSCD-prize 2010 in the category ‘Best
Performance of a Solo Ensemble’ (The Sweelinck Monument).
The internationally renowned bass HARRY VAN DER KAMP is an
alumnus of the Sweelinck Conservatory Amsterdam. His teachers
were Alfred Deller, Pierre Bernac, Max van Egmond and Herman
Woltman. He was one of the founding members of the internationally
known Cappella Amsterdam directed by Jan Boeke. After that he was a
member of the Netherlands Chamber Choir for 20 years (1974-94) and
as its artistic adviser (1980-87) he introduced much new repertoire and
many new conductors. With his own Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam he
has appeared in Europe and America with revolutionary works from
the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries.
As a world-renowned bass soloist, Van der Kamp has appeared on many international
concert podia from New York to Peking with repertoire from 1300 to the present. He has appeared
in operas from Peri, Monteverdi to Vivier, Knaifel and others, in Requiems from De la Rue to Verdi
GESUALDO CONSORT AMSTERDAM | HARRY VAN DER KAMP
and Lamentations from Tallis to Stravinsky. Numerous bass monologues and solo cantatas have
been issued on many CD labels. Many of his approximately 120 CD recordings have received
prizes. He was nominated for a Grammy award in 2008 for his performance in Lully’s Thesée. As a
conductor he has directed projects with Kapel van de Lage Landen, Cappella Amsterdam and the
Netherlands Chamber Choir
1986-1994 Harry van der Kamp taught singing at the Academy for Early Music Bremen
(Germany). From 1994 he holds a Singing Professorship at the University of the Arts Bremen. He
has been a visiting professor at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (1997-98) and is regularly active
in master classes (e.g. Royal Conservatoire at The Hague, Summer Academy at Neuburg an der
Donau, Mozarteum at Salzburg) and on juries (e.g. the International Johann Sebastian Bach
Competition Leipzig and Mendelssohn Competition Berlin).