Van Wassenaer: VI Concerti Armonici La Sfera Armoniosa & Mike Fentross

• Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer (1692 - 1766): Concerto Armonico I:
• 1 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico I: I. Grave 01:45
• 2 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico I: II. Allegro 02:57
• 3 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico I: III. Un poco andante 03:46
• 4 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico I: IV. Allegro 02:15
• Concerto Armonico II:
• 5 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico II: I. Largo andante 03:51
• 6 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico II: II. Da capella presto 01:46
• 7 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico II: III. Largo affettuoso 02:06
• 8 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico II: IV. Allegro moderato 01:56
• Concerto Armonico III:
• 9 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico III: I. Grave sostenuto 00:38
• 10 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico III: II. Da capella - Andante mordante 02:35
• 11 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico III: III. Largo andante 03:01
• 12 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico III: IV. Vivace 02:54
• Concerto Armonico IV:
• 13 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico IV: I. Largo 02:10
• 14 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico IV: II. Da capella non presto 01:48
• 15 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico IV: III. Largo affettuoso 03:31
• 16 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico IV: IV. Allegro 02:09
• Concerto Armonico V:
• 17 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico V: I. Adagio- Largo 02:56
• 18 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico V: II. Da capella 01:58
• 19 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico V: III. Con sordini 03:31
• 20 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico V: IV. A tempo giusto 01:33
• Concerto Armonico VI:
• 21 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico VI: I. Affettuoso 02:33
• 22 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico VI: II. Presto 01:38
• 23 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico VI: III. Largo 01:10
• 24 Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico VI: IV. Vivace 02:38
• Total Runtime 57:05

Info for Van Wassenaer: VI Concerti Armonici

A live recording of van Wassenaer's Concerti Armonici by the well established Dutch ensemble La Sfera Armoniosa. This is the third instalment in La Sfera Armoniosa survey of most important Baroque orchestral works from the Netherlands.

Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer (1692-1766) is one of the most remarkable personalities in Dutch music history. Until 1980, his music - the six 'Concerti armonici' - was well known to every lover of early music, but not his name. These works were universally understood to be by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi or by Carlo Ricciotti, who published them in 1740 but did not compose them. Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer was well known to Dutch historians as a descendant of the renowned noble Van Wassenaer family, but nobody knew that he was also a composer. Thanks to a lucky find by the Dutch musicologist Albert Dunning in 1980, man and music could be connected with one another. In 1740, a collection of six concertos for strings and basso continuo, was published in The Hague under the title VI Concerti armonici. The Concerti armonici can be associated with musical performances that took place in the 1720s in The Hague.

La Sfera Armoniosa
Mike Fentross, conductor

La Sfera Armoniosa
is a world-class baroque ensemble and orchestra and is known for its surprising and pioneering programmes. Besides music by famous composers such as Monteverdi, Händel and Vivaldi, the ensemble also performs lesser-known music that has been distilled from 17th- and 18th-century music prints and manuscripts after extensive research.

Lutenist, artistic director and conductor Mike Fentross and viola da gamba player Paulina van Laarhoven are the founders of La Sfera Armoniosa.

Mike Fentross
conducted in many festivals and concerthalls like the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. the Festival van Vlaanderen, Festival d’Ambronay, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Paradiso Amsterdam, Monteverdi Festival Cremona, Festival de Musica Portico de Zamora, Festival Musica Antiqua Brugge, Vantaa Early Music Festival, Bayreuth Barock and Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht. For two times he had the honour to conduct in the presence of Queen Beatrix of Holland.

In 1988 Mike Fentross graduated at the Royal Conservatory The Hague where he studied with lute pionier Toyohiko Satoh. In 1994 he won the Van Wassenaer Competition in Amsterdam with violinist Helene Schmitt. He played chamber music with musicians as Yo Yo Ma, Ton Koopman, Janine Jansen, Marion Verbruggen, Sonia Prina, Maria Bajo, Wilbert Hazelzet, Bruce Dickey, Lucy van Dael, Andrew Lawrence King, Philippe Jarousski, Eduardo Lopez Banzo, Skip Sempe and Gerard Lesne. Mike has recorded more than 75 cd’s.

He studied conducting with Stefan Pas. As conductor he debuted in 1999 with La Dafne from Marco da Gagliano in a production of the New Opera Academie in Amsterdam. In 2006 he conducted in the presence of Queen Beatrix the modern world premiere from the opera l’Ipermestra from Cavalli in a prestigeous jubilee production from the Utrecht Early Music Festival and in 2008 he conducted a second unearthed Cavalli opera La Rosinda in a production from the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci Potsdam. In 2009 he conducted for the first time in the big hall from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and in the same year he was musical director in the production Granida performed in the presence of Queen Beatrix. About his debut as conductor from the Dutch Chamber Choir in 2010 in the Concertgebouw the press wrote: Conductor Mike Fentross rivalled Caravaggio with the score of the Maria Vespers. His first time conducting the Nederlands Kamerkoor was a resounding success.

Mike doesn’t only conduct Early Music, in 2004 he conducted Pierrot Lunaire from Arnold Schoenberg. The press wrote: There was great enthusiasm for Mike Fentross as conductor of a double bill consisting of Monteverdi’s Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire. Mike Fentross gave a performance of Pierrot lunaire that ‘appeared to come from another planet’.

In 2012 Mike made his Austrian debut in the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt with great success in a program with coloratura soprano Simone Kermes and in the same year he conducted the pre jubilee concert for the Concertgebouw in a program with solo violinist Lucy van Dael and singers Henk Neven and Andreas Scholl. In 2013 he conducted the Fairy Queen with his orchestra and the Netherlands Chamberchoir.

Since 2013 he is regularly conducting the baroque orchestra and choir of the Royal Conservatory. In 2014 he was invited by Paradiso Orchestra to conduct Beethovens Eroica. In 2016 he conducted the Netherlands Chamber Choir in a Bach, Faure program live broadcast on national radio. In 2018 he conducted a big jubilee concert with music from 1518, the birthyear of the big St. Laurens Church in Alkmaar. In 2019/20 he concucted and recorded a new program with his orchestra La Sfera Armoniosa with concerti grossi from Willem de Fesch. Release will take place in the autumn of 2020.

This album contains no booklet.