3438657388?profile=originalRecently I met up with John Mark Rozendaal and Zoe Weiss of LeStrange Viols, the up and coming early music ensemble, to talk about their upcoming concert of French repertoire on the Salon/Sanctuary Concerts series. I’m sure I’m not the only one whose curiosity was peaked by a performance including not one, but two instruments built before 1750, so I was eager find out more.

Tell us a little about the origin of your group. Did you always play together but in other ensembles? How did LeStrange Viols come to be?

 

JMR: The six musicians who make up LeStrange viols came together in the summer of 2014 to record the consort music of William Cranford. That project was so satisfying that we decided to work together to concertize.

Your program on Thursday is all French music. What attracts you to this repertoire? It’s not the expected choice for a viol consort which we usually associate with English rep.

 

JMR: We might not have thought to do this program had Jessica Gould of Salon/Sanctuary Concerts, not asked us to prepare a program of French music for her “Bernini in Paris” set of concerts. We are very glad that she did. We’ve spent a great deal of time looking at sixteenth – and seventeenth- century repertoire, and we’ve found ravishing stuff that we are loving to play. Like the literature of the grand siècle, this music is partly about emotional regulation. The strongest emotions are deeply expressed within an idiom that demands and depicts great personal self-control.

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ZW: This concept of a particular way of being human is the truly great achievement of ancient regime culture. Here we find music is functioning in one of its highest purposes.

 

Viols aren’t something you see every day. Can you tell us a little more about your instruments? Are they all as old as the music? How are they different than cellos?

 

JMR: The viola da gamba is basically a bowed guitar. It is made in many different sizes. Our consort usually uses three, the treble, the tenor, and the bass, corresponding roughly to the violin viola and ‘cello. The instrument flourished throughout Europe in the sixteenth and seventeen centuries. The instruments on stage on Thursday will include two antique instruments; the rest are modern reproductions. Zoe will be playing John Mark's English viol, made in 1650. Doug Kelley performs on a German viol from 1726, generously on long-term loan from The Caldwell Collection.

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ZW: Thursday's program actually explores French music that emerged from very diverse contexts. We'll play a some chanson, one with instrumental divisions, a piece of church music written on a chanson tune, dance music from operas, instrumental music for the royal court and some that was published for mass consumption.

 

Thanks so much for filling us in! I’m looking forward to your performance on Thursday!

 

JMR and ZW: Thank you!

 

LeStrange Viols performs L’Epitome Musicale: French Music for Viol Consorton Thursday, March 3rd at 8pm at the Abigail Adams Smith Auditorium, 417 East 61st Street. Tickets are available at http://www.salonsanctuary.org For more information on the ensemble, go to  http://www.lestrangeviols.org

 

The members of LeStrange Viols are Zoe Weiss, Douglas Kelley, James Waldo, John Mark Rozendaal, Loren Ludwig, and Kivie Cahn-Lipman.

 

Danielle Reed-Baty is a New York City based journalist who has written for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, and the New York Observer. She is a former resident of Paris and is married to French furniture maker Jean-Philippe Baty. They live in New York with their daughter, Julie.

 

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