Claudia Norz | Andrew Benson-Wilson : Early Music Reviews +

Buxtehude & Tunder
Musica Poetica,
St Michael’s Church, South Grove, Highgate. 20 February 2016

Buxtehude: Laudate pueri Dominum, Membra Jesu Nostri; Tunder: Dominus illuminatio mea

One of a number of promising young early music groups formed in recent years is Musica Poetica, formed in 2010 by four students of the Royal Academy of Music, but now expandable into a range of sizes to suit the repertoire and led by Oliver John Ruthven. They have reinforced their North London base (they have been part of Hampstead Garden Opera for some time) by starting a series of contrasting concerts (every other month) at St Michael’s, on South Grove, Highgate. They opened the series with a concert of music from the North German masters, Dietrich Buxtehude and his predecessor at the Lübeck Marienkirche (and father-in-law), Franz Tunder. Tunder is usually unfairly overlooked in favour of his successor, but it was he who started the famous series of Lübeck Abendmusik concerts that traditionally took place on the five Sundays before Christmas every year; a tradition that lasted until 1810. They (and the then aging Buxtehude) famously attracted the young Bach in 1705. Continue reading →

klingzeug – Secret Destinations
Austrian Cultural Forum, 19 Nov 2014

I first reviewed the three members of the young Austrian group klingzeug in the curious surroundings of an open-sided pavilion in Innsbruck’s Hofgarten, so it was good to be able to hear them playing indoors. The title of their programme, ‘Secret Destinations’ could have applied to the London venue, the intimate setting of the Austrian Cultural Forum, hidden away in the backstreets near the Albert Hall. But, in reality, it referred to the Europe-wide range of pieces, from one of the first violin sonatas, by Cima (1610), to a lute concerto by the Austrian Johann Georg Weichenberger (c1700). This was almost inaudible in Innsbruck, but here the delicacy of David Bergmüller’s playing was evident.

The highlight of the evening was the musically sensitive violin playing of Claudia Norz, notably in Pandolfi’s Sonata la Biancuccia (a musical reflection of a singer in the Innsbruck court) which also demonstrated the virtuosity of her technique.