Het Retorisch Kwartet

Het Retorisch Kwartet has disbanded, nearly seven years after the first performance.

Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform a programme of Lutheran music in Rotterdam, with guest musicians Raphael Schulte, Margo Fontijne, Carine Blanken and Iris de Leur.

• 20:15 Saturday, 13 January 2018
• Lutherse Andreaskerk, Heer Vrankestraat 51, 3036 LB Rotterdam
• Entrance: €12.50, online advance sales €10.00 (under 18s €5.00)

Programme:

• Aus tieffer Not - Johann Walter (1496–1570)
• Beati immaculati - Walther
• Aus tiefer Not - Arnold von Bruck (c. 1500 – 1554)
• Non moriar sed vivam - Martin Luther (1483–1546)
• Non moriar sed vivam - Ludwig Senfl (c. 1486 - 1543)
• Aus tiefer Not - Lupus Hellingk (c. 1493 - c. 1541)
• Ecce quam bonum - Senfl
• Aus tiefer Not - Balthasar Resinarius (c. 1485 - 1544)
• Nun komm der Heiden Heiland - Resinarius
• Nun komm der Heiden Heiland - anonymous
• Nun komm der Heiden Heiland - Walter

interval

• Aus tiefer Not - Benedictus Ducis (c. 1492 - 1544)
• Da Jesus an dem Kreuze hing - Senfl
• Aus tiefer Not - Ducis
• Absalon fili mi - Josquin des Prez
• Aus tiefer Not - Vogelhuber
• Christe lux es - Walther
• Aus tiefer Not - Walther

Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform a programme of Lutheran music in Alkmaar, with guest musicians Raphael Schulte, Margo Fontijne, Carine Blanken and Iris de Leur.

• 15:00 Sunday, 19 November 2017
• Lutherse Kerk, Oude Gracht 185-187, 1811CD Alkmaar
• Entrance: €5

Programme:

• Aus tieffer Not - Johann Walter (1496–1570)
• Beati immaculati - Walther
• Aus tiefer Not - Arnold von Bruck (c. 1500 – 1554)
• Non moriar sed vivam - Martin Luther (1483–1546)
• Non moriar sed vivam - Ludwig Senfl (c. 1486 - 1543)
• Aus tiefer Not - Lupus Hellingk (c. 1493 - c. 1541)
• Ecce quam bonum - Senfl
• Aus tiefer Not - Balthasar Resinarius (c. 1485 - 1544)
• Nun komm der Heiden Heiland - Resinarius
• Nun komm der Heiden Heiland - anonymous
• Nun komm der Heiden Heiland - Walter

interval

• Aus tiefer Not - Benedictus Ducis (c. 1492 - 1544)
• Da Jesus an dem Kreuze hing - Senfl
• Aus tiefer Not - Ducis
• Absalon fili mi - Josquin des Prez
• Aus tiefer Not - Vogelhuber
• Christe lux es - Walther
• Aus tiefer Not - Walther

On 2 April 2017, Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform a private concert at Woonzorglocatie Laurens Blijdorp in Rotterdam, with a selection of previously-performed secular songs, in Italian, French, Dutch and German.

Programme:

• O Occhi manza Mia – Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594)
• Au joly boquet croist la violette - Jacob Clemens non Papa (c. 1510 – 1555)
• Pour une, las, j’endure - Clemens non Papa
• Een vrouelic wesen - Matthew Pipelare (c. 1450 – c. 1515)
• Het molenarinneken - Matthew Pipelare
• ’T Meisken was jonck - Heinrich Isaac (c. 1450 - 1517)
• Madonna io non lo so perche lo fai - Adrian Willaert (c. 1490 – 1562)
• O bene mio - Adrian Willaert
• Un giorno mi prego - Adrian Willaert
• Vecchie letrose - Adrian Willaert
• Dissi a l’amata mia – Luca Marenzio (1556-1599)
• Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen - Heinrich Isaac
• Né più bella di queste - Heinrich Isaac

On 15 January 2017 Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform a concert at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, inspired by the exhibition Fra Bartolommeo - the Divine Renaissance.

• Sunday, 15 January 2017, 14:00-15:00, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Museumpark 18-20, 3015 CX Rotterdam

What sounds passed Fra Bartolomeo ears? What music penetrated his monastery cell? Probably not much, and certainly nothing frivolous. It is no small quest to discover what the Florentine sounds were in his time. This is not least due to the man who held Fra Bartolomeo under his influence in the last decade of the fifteenth century: Fra Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498). This Dominican ruled the Florentine Republic from 1494 until he died at the stake. He silenced all music and merriment. For him, everything not sober and devout was mere filth: poetry, classical culture, rhetoric, humanism, music, could all literally burn on the fire.

Fra Bartolomeo’s time is no easy context to programme a concert in. We first looked for composers of vocal music who were active in the years of Fra Bartolomeo in Florence. We stumbled on a musical battle between two composers from Brabant (Flemish Brabant): Heinrich Isaac (ca. 1450-1517) and Johannes Martini (1440-1497). Isaac worked from 1480 to 1492 in Florence, in the service of Lorenzo de Medici. Isaac met Martini here, when he was on his way to Rome in 1487. What exactly happened between the two, we do not know, but Lorenzo’s 1490-91 Canzoniere (songbook) begins with nineteen pieces, alternating between Isaac and Martini, generally considered to be a composition competition. Reason enough to place the two composers at the heart of our programme.

Savonarola did not fully grasp the Florentine culture, according to a letter from Marsilio Ficino (1433 – 1499) to Antonio Canigiani, published in 1495. Ficino explains that music is in fact healthy for mind and body, invoking a series of classical thinkers. Whoever belonged to Florentine underground: the monk or the humanist? We sing humanism in any case.

Meanwhile, Costanzo Festa sang in the papal choir and composed in Rome, but visited Ferrara, where Martini worked, in 1514. This was the year he published his first known work - Quis dabit oculis, which laments the death of Anne of Brittany, Queen of France. One year later, the influential Franco-Flemish composer Adrian Willaert also started work in Ferrara. These composers’ music from Ferrara was certainly well-known in Florence.

Programme:

• Qui condolens interitu - Constanzo Festa (1490 - 1545)
• Quis dabit oculis - Constanzo Festa
• Gaudeamus omnes - Heinrich Isaac (c. 1450 - 1517)
• ’T Meisken was jonck - Heinrich Isaac
• Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen - Heinrich Isaac
• Né più bella di queste - Heinrich Isaac
• Ave decus virginale - Johannes Martini (c. 1440 - c. 1497)
• Magnificat secundi toni - Johannes Martini
• Missa Christus Resurgens - Kyrie - Adrian Willaert (c. 1490 – 1562)
• Missa Christus Resurgens - Gloria - Willaert
• Missa Christus Resurgens - Agnus Dei - Willaert

On 1 October, Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform a selection of sacred and secular works by Adrian Willaert and Jacob Clemens non Papa. On 2 October, Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform the same programme at a private concert.

Adriaen Willaert (1490 - 1562) has returned to the spotlight since last Utrecht Early Music Festival. This is indeed a return, as Willaert enjoyed great fame in his own time. He was a master at combining complex compositional techniques with clarity and affect, setting text to music. This was new in his time.

The works of Clemens non Papa (1510 - 1555/56) also illustrate this trend, even more expressively. Clemens was an exceptional figure, famous for his music, but also notorious for his lifestyle. He owes his nickname to the latter: indeed, he was ‘not the Pope’.

With both sacred and secular music by Willaert and Clemens, Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform music that aims for zest, for warm expression, and for a rich life. There is humanism in this music.

• 20:00 Saturday, 1 October 2016, Lutherse Kerk, Oude Gracht 185-187, 1811CD Alkmaar
• Entrance: €12.50, advance sales €10 via hbvanniekerk@online.nl

Programme:

1. Un giorno mi prego - Adrian Willaert (c. 1490 – 1562)
2. O bene mio - Willaert
3. Madonna io non lo so perche lo fai - Willaert
4. Vecchie letrose - Willaert
5. Dulces exuviae - Willaert
6. Mirabile mysterium - Willaert
7. O magnum mysterium - Willaert
8. Missa Christus Resurgens - Kyrie - Willaert
9. Pour une, las, j’endure - Clemens
10. Au joly boquet croist la violette - Clemens
11. Crux fidelis - Clemens non Papa (c. 1510 – c. 1555)
12. Missa pro defunctis - Clemens

On 17 January 2016 Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform a concert at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, inspired by the exhibition From Bosch to Breughel. The quartet will, of course, sing music from the same period, showing how the madrigal evolved at the time. For example, while notes and lyrics were initially two separate elements in this form of art song, the notes later became a musical interpretation of the text. By the end of the sixteenth century they merge into a single unit.

Het Retorisch Kwartet will sing in various locations around the museum, performing music by Matthew Pipelare, Pierre de la Rue (a contemporary of Hieronymus Bosch), Cypriano de Rore, Adriaen Willaert, Claudin de Sermisy, Luca Marenzio and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. Although we start in the Netherlands, a madrigal programme requires a visit to Italy, where Marenzio lived, where Willaert and De Rore worked, and where the art of the madrigal flourished. The programme ends with a return to the Netherlands and a delightful secular song by Sweelinck: Tes Beaux Yeux.

• 14:00-15:00, Sunday, 17 January 2016, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Museumpark 18-20, 3015 CX Rotterdam

Programme:

• Een vrouelic wesen - Matthew Pipelare (c. 1450 – c. 1515)
• Het molenarinneken - Matthew Pipelare
• Myn hert altyd heeft verlanghen - Pierre de La Rue (c. 1460 – 1518)
• Autant en emporte le vent - Pierre de La Rue
• Jouyssance vous donnerai - Claudin de Sermisy (1490 – 1562)
• Sempre mi ride - Adriaen Willaert (1490 – 1562)
• Beato mi direi - Cipriano de Rore (1515 – 1665)
• Amor ben mi credevo - Cipriano de Rore
• Ben qui si mostra il ciel - Cipriano de Rore
• Dissi a l’amata mia - Luca Marenzio (1556 - 1599)
• Vezzosi Augelli - Luca Marenzio
• Tes Beaux Yeux - Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621)

On 10 October, Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform a short programme of four Italian madrigals as part of the Kunstroute Kralingen-Crooswijk. The two short performances will be at Lambertusstraat 104 in Kralingen, Rotterdam, where a number of artists have their studios.

• Saturday, 10 October 2015, 1 pm and 3 pm
  Lambertusstraat 104, 3062 XA Rotterdam

Programme:

• Beato mi direi - Cipriano de Rore
• Amor ben mi credevo - Cipriano de Rore (c.1515-1565)
• Ben qui si mostra il ciel - Cipriano de Rore
• O bella man, che mi destringi ’l core - Luca Marenzio (1556-1599)
• Candido leggiadretto e caro guanto - (second part of O bella man)

On 3 May, Het Retorisch Kwartet, featuring Robert Andriessen, will perform at the opening of an exhibition at Galerie Kralingen that coincides with the Dutch national remembrance day on 4 May.

The programme, which will last for about fifteen minutes, includes three short pieces centred around Jean Mouton’s setting of the text Quis dabit oculis? - a lament written to mark the death of French queen Anne of Brittany in 1514, whom Mouton worked for.

• Sunday, 3 May 2015, 4 pm - Galerie Kralingen, Gashouderstraat 9, 3061 EH Rotterdam

Entrance: free

Programme:

• Ave Maria… benedicta tu - Jean Mouton (c. 1459 – 1522)
• Quis dabit oculis? - Jean Mouton
• Tenebrae factae sunt - Tomás Luis de Victoria (c.1548 – 1611)

Two years after their first collaboration, Het Retorisch Kwartet and Blokfluitensemble Praetorius Leiden will perform a programme based around Carolus Luython’s setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah for six voices. This programme features guest singers Anneke van der Hoek (soprano) and Robert Andriessen (bass).

Tickets: €15 on the door, €10 (+ handling fee) via online ticket sales.

• Friday, 13 March 2015, 8:15 pm
  Lutherse Kerk (Trinitatiskapel), Vriesestraat 22, 3311NR Dordrecht
• Saturday, 14 March 2015, 8:15 pm
  Nederland-Hervormde kerk, Veneweg 188, 7946LN Wanneperveen
• Sunday, 15 March 2015, 3:00 pm
  Kerkplein 1, 7231 AE Warnsveld, Netherlands

At the end of June 2014, Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform a concert programme near Groningen and Rotterdam, with music by Orlando di Lasso and Leonhard Lechner. Lasso was born in Mons/Hainaut in 1532 and died in 1594 in Munich. He was a prolific composer. For this concert we will present various facets of Lassus’ music: airy madrigals alongside the beautiful and dark La Nuict froide et sombre. As well as secular works we will present some of his sacred music, such as the chromaticism of Christe Dei soboles and the polyphony of the first Lamentations of Jeremiah.

Leonard Lechner was born in 1553 in South Tyrol (northern Italy) and died in 1606 in Stuttgart. Lasso and Lechner crossed paths in Munich, where Lasso was for a long time choir master at the court of Albrecht V. As a boy, Lechner sang Lasso’s choir. This program clearly shows the transition from Lasso’s late-polyphonic style - the legacy of the great Flemish tradition - to the first signs of the trends from Italy that would radically change the music.

In summary, we will hear the transition from di Lasso’s highly developed compositional sophistication to Lechner’s more emotionally expressive music.

• Friday, 27 June 2014, 8:15 pm
  Dorpskerk Rhoon, Dorpsdijk 65, Rhoon
• Saturday, 28 June 2014, 8:15 pm
  Middeleeuwse kerk Zuidwolde, Boterdiep Westzijde 43, Zuidwolde (Groningen)

Entrance: €10, including tea or coffee.

Programme:

• O occhi, manza mia - Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594)
• Madonna mia, pieta - Orlando di Lasso
• La nuict froide et sombre - Orlando di Lasso
• Christe Dei soboles - Orlando di Lasso
• Lamentationes Jermiae Prophetae (Feria 5ta in coena Domini, Lamentatio prima) - Orlando di Lasso
• Welcher wird mir ein’ bringen - Leonard Lechner (c. 1553 – 1606)
• Ach, wer wird mir mein’ Geist mit Freuden stillen - Lechner
• Die mir mein Herz mit Freud erfüllt - Lechner
• Mein süße Freud auf Erden - Lechner
• Deutsche Sprüche von Leben und Tod - Lechner

On 22 March 2014, Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform at the opening of the Nothing But Good Live exhibition at Park in Tilburg, presenting work from 45 domestic and international artists.

17:00 - Saturday, 22 March 2014
Park - Platform for Visual Arts
Wilhelminapark 53
5041 ED Tilburg

Programme:

• Welcher wird mir ein’ bringen - Leonard Lechner (c. 1553 – 1606)
• Ach, wer wird mir mein’ Geist mit Freuden stillen - Leonard Lechner
• Schein uns, du liebe Sonne - Arnold Schönberg (1874 – 1951)
• Herzlieblich Lieb, Durch Scheiden - Arnold Schönberg

Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform a work by Leonard Lechner at de ketelfactory - the Nolet distillery’s art gallery in Schiedam.

• 30 November 2013, 15:00, de ketelfactory, Hoofdstraat 44, 3114 GG Schiedam

Programme:

• Deutsche Sprüche von Leben und Tod - Leonhard Lechner

Het Retorisch Kwartet performed as part of the Kunstroute Kralingen-Crooswijk event, including two works with improvisation by Eric Vloiemans.

• 12 October 2013, 13:00/15:00 - SKAR artists’ studios, Lambertusstraat 104, Rotterdam

Programme:

• Introitus, Missa defunctorum - Clemens, with Eric Vloiemans
• Christe Dei Soboles - Orlando di Lasso, with Eric Vloiemans
• Welcher wird mir ein’ bringen - Leonard Lechner
• Ach, wer wird mir mein’ Geist mit Freuden stillen - Leonard Lechner
• Die mir mein Herz mit Freud erfüllt - Leonard Lechner
• Mein süße Freud auf Erden - Leonard Lechner
• Gott bhüte dich - Leonard Lechner

Het Retorisch Kwartet, featuring Andrea Hayter, will perform a St Matthew Passion with Blokfluitensemble Praetorius Leiden.

• 15 March 2013, 20:15 - Lutherse Kerk, Hamburgerstraat 9, 3512 NN Utrecht

Meder’s St Matthew Passion, which predates the setting by Bach, is one of a small number of his works that survive.

After performing at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in October, Het Retorisch Kwartet will return in December with an expanded programme for an afternoon concert.

The concert includes an introduction to the van Eyck exhibition by Friso Lammertse.

Concert De weg naar van Eyck
14:00-15:00 - Sunday, 9 December 2012
Boijmans Van Beuningen, Museumpark 18-20, 3015 CX Rotterdam

Entrance: museum entrance + exhibition supplement + € 3,50

Programme:

• Introduction to the music, by Robert Andriessen
• Messe de Nostre Dame - Kyrie, Gloria - Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300 – 1377)
• Magnificat à 3 - Gilles Binchois (c.1400-1460)
• A solis ortus, cardine - Gilles Binchois
• Introduction to the paintings, by Friso Lammertse
• Salve Regina - Johannes Ockeghem
• Intemerata Dei mater - Johannes Ockeghem (1410/1425-1497)
• Déploration sur le mort d’Ockeghem - ‘Nymphes des Bois’ - Josquin des Prez (c.1450–1521)

Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform three early-renaissance pieces at the opening of the van Eyck exhibition at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, in Rotterdam.

Programme:

• Messe de Nostre Dame - Kyrie - Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300 – 1377)
• Magnificat à 3 - Gilles Binchois (c.1400-1460)
• A solis ortus, cardine - Gilles Binchois

Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform a selection of unaccompanied four-part arrangement of songs as part of an open-house event in Schiebroek - the Huiskamerroute Schiebroek-Hillegersberg.

13:00 and 15:00, Sunday, 16 September 2012

Address: Familie van Niekerk, Kastanjesingel 28, 3053 HM Rotterdam (Schiebroek) - map.

Programme:

• Sweet stay a while - John Dowland (1563-1626)
• Fine knacks for ladies - John Dowland
• Disdain me still - John Dowland
• All ye whom love or fortune - John Dowland
• If my complaints could passions move - John Dowland
• Weep, O mine eyes - John Bennet (1599)
• Now, O now, I needs must part - John Dowland

Het Retorisch Kwartet will give two short afternoon performances at the Rotterdams Odd Fellowhuis as part of Open Monumentendag Rotterdam, on Saturday, 8 September, at around 13:30 and 15:00.

Address: Rotterdams Odd Fellowhuis, Van Vollenhovenstraat 35 (map)

Programme - songs by John Dowland (1563-1626):

• Sweet stay a while
• Fine knacks for ladies
• Disdain me still
• All ye whom love or fortune
• Now, O now, I needs must part

Het Retorisch Kwartet and Blokfluitensemble Praetorius Leiden will perform at the Open Recorder Days:

• 20 May 2012, 18:00 - Posthoornkerk, 1013 EX Amsterdam

The programme is a selection from the works performed in Rotterdam and Utrecht:

1. De Plus a Plus - Binchois
2. Missa plus a plus (Kyrie & Gloria) - Johannes Ockeghem
3. Ma maîtresse - Johannes Ockeghem
4. Intemerata Dei mater - Johannes Ockeghem
5. Déploration sur le mort d’Ockeghem - Josquin des Prez
6. Deo Gratia for 36 voices - Johannes Ockeghem

Het Retorisch Kwartet, featuring Robert Andriessen, performing works by Johannes Ockeghem at the Lutherse Kerk in Utrecht on 19 May 2012.

Het Retorisch Kwartet, featuring Robert Andriessen, will perform a joint programme with Blokfluitensemble Praetorius Leiden, featuring works by Johannes Ockeghem.

• 12 May 2012, 16:00 - Hoflaankerk, Hoflaan 1, 3062 JA Rotterdam (Kralingen)
• 19 May 2012, 20:15 - Lutherse Kerk, Hamburgerstraat 9, 3512 NN Utrecht

Programme

The programme combines sacred and secular works - polyphony and chansons, by Ockeghem and his contemporaries:

1. Mort tu as navré de ton dart - Johannes Ockeghem
2. De Plus a Plus - Binchois
3. Missa plus a plus (Kyrie & Gloria) - Johannes Ockeghem
4. Adieu, adieu - Binchois
5. Ma bouche rit - Johannes Ockeghem
6. Fors seullement contre - Johannes Ockeghem
7. Aultre Venus - Johannes Ockeghem
8. Intemerata Dei mater - Johannes Ockeghem
9. Ma maîtresse - Johannes Ockeghem
10. La despourveneue - Johannes Ockeghem
11. Déploration sur le mort d’Ockeghem - Josquin des Prez

Het Retorisch Kwartet will perform at the opening of the Secret Garden exhibition on 5 April 2012 at Tent CBK, Witte de Withstraat 50, Rotterdam.

Programme:

• Hortus Conclusus - Rodrigo de Ceballos (ca 1530-1581)

Het Retorisch Kwartet’s first performance was at an art event organised by Robert Zandvliet and Harry Haarsma at De KetelFactory in Schiedam, on 15 January 2012.

Programme:

• Congaudeant Catholici - Albertus Parisiensis
• Je voy mille clairtez - Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
• Adoramus te Christe - Orlando di Lasso.

Photo (left to right): Olphaert den Otter, Peter Hilton, Henk van Niekerk