Jane Bryden, soprano

Joel Cohen, director and lute

Frank Hoffmeister, tenor

Gian Lyman, viola da gamba

Friedrich Von Huene, recorder, flute and krummhorn

‍

The Cambridge Consort was named a winner of the 1973 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. The ensemble of two singers and three instrumentalists from the Camerata of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston were dedicated to recreating the intimate and informal social music of old Europe's courts and villages. Performing on both historic instruments and faithful reconstructions - recorders, flutes, krummhorns, viols, and lute - The Cambridge Consort brought the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance to life in a wide variety of textures and contexts. Troubadour melodies, bawdy German drinking songs, Elizabethan love songs, Italian 'frottole', instrumental fantasias and dances were presented not simply as historical curiosities, but as engaging and vital works of musical art.

The Cambridge Consort gave lectures, seminars, and workshops in the performance of early music. In conjunction with its normal concert programs, the Consort's members, singly and in teams, gave lecture-demonstrations concerning their instruments, coached beginning and advanced singers and players, discussed problems of editing and interpreting older music, and organized informal ensemble sessions.

As part of their Naumburg prize, the Cambridge Consort was awarded a commission by John Harbison "Moments of Vision" composed in 1975. receiving its world premiere by the Cambridge Consort in Northampton, Mass. in 1989. The work, written for soprano, tenor, recorder, lute and viola da gamba is set to poems by Thomas Hardy.

The movements for Moments of Vision are:

I. Prelude

II. Moments of Vision

III. First or Last

IV. During Wind and Rain

V. Last Love

VI. So, Time

‍

Critical Acclaim

"Utterly charming from start to finish" - Providence Journal

"A lesson in how to make music of the French Renaissance unstuffy was the recent offering by the Cambridge Consort...

Mr. Cohen, who provided the delightful narrative, explained that much of the music the group was about to play was intended for musicians who came together to enjoy themselves ... But there was much more than fun involved, for all members of the group are fine musicians, and the evening was a musical treat of the highest order. To mention all the highlights would mean describing the entire program ... the entire ensemble played with great technical skill and warm feeling ... - The Boston Globe

‍