Baroque music night at the Vadim Sidur Museum

Moscow Department of Culture

Manege Museum and Exhibition Association

Marina Volkova – transverse flute (Baroque flute)

Darina Ablogina – transverse flute (Baroque flute)

Anton Izgagin – viol

Back in the times of Baroque, European countries were involved in an undeclared musical contest. What is better — Bach’s maths, Louis XIV’s theatre, Italian violins? Are any comparisons justified at all? Young musicians, enthusiasts of early music, have chosen several composers of the Baroque period to address the agenda. The performance will be divided into several themes reflecting the popular trends of the time as they appeared in the music of different countries, particularly Germany, France and Italy.

The musicians will perform Baroque music in its authentic style. “Universities abroad got their first departments of early music back in the 1960s, while Russia joined the trend only in 1997,” Darina Ablogina says.

Germany. “Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784) was considered Johann Sebastian Bach’s most gifted son. Yet, brilliant as he was in composing and mixing together the gallant style with Baroque traditions and North German expressive approach with scholastic academism, the question remains open of his inability to fully realize his genial potential,” the musicians explain. The well-known Six duets for two flutes apparently continue the numerical pattern set by the low-profile organist and emerge now as a singular piece to be discovered, enjoyed and admired.

France. “The musical vogue of the French Baroque period shaped around courtyard set-up plots, composers’ dynasties and certainly Louis XIV, the “Sun King” who was known to have a great love of theatre. The music of the period is known for an abundance of fantastic decorations and the accompanying notes with emotional recommendations for performers,” the musicians explain. The families of Hotteterre, Marais, Chedeville, Philidor, Couperin, and Rameau served at the court of Louis XIV and had to comply with his moods, so all of this music is a pure theatre with decorations at the background. That may be the reason why Hotteterre and Philidor invented the oboe and Marais mainstreamed the viola da gamba.

Italy. The flute in its two configurations, the recorder and the transverse flute, was hugely popular in Italy. “The history of the instrument is somewhat awkward, illogical and funny. Is it such a big deal that it once stroke recorder player Michele de la Barre to try and play it differently by blowing across rather than blowing along? The idea gained traction among masters, composers, and performers! However, the recorder has never lost its appeal and huge repertoire in some countries. Lost in debate over such awful discrimination, we decided to include in our program duets for the recorder and the transverse flute together. We liked the results of this experiment,” Marina Volkova says.

Performers:

Darina Ablogina is a gifted young flute player, the winner of international competitions in Bulgaria and Lithuania and a participant of workshops of many recognized masters. After graduation from the Ufa Specialized Secondary Music School, she continued her studies at the Historical and Contemporary Performance Department of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and at the Department of modern and Baroque flute of the University of Troms? in Norway.

Traveling between Moscow and Troms?, the flautist has gained an invaluable experience of solo and orchestra performances, as she has played with the National Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Bashkortostan, performed flute concertos by Mozart and Reinecke and many programs of chamber music. Today, Ablogina is a post-graduate student of the Moscow Conservatory and an intern of the Studio for New Music Ensemble led by head conductor I. Dronov and artistic director V. Tarnopolsky. Her studies in this unique music group helped the flautist acquire new skills and extend her repertoire by adding new avant-garde pieces.

Anton Izgagin (born in 1988) is a multi-instrumentalist and improviser playing the double bass, bass, viola da gamba, Medieval and Renaissance instruments, oriental percussion. A graduate of the Ural Conservatory, he has played with different bands, including the Intertext ensemble of modern music, the Harmonia Caelestis chamber music band performing Baroque and modern music (currently – the Orchestra of the Ural branch of the Union of Composers), the Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Sverdlovsk Philharmionic, the Flos Florum ensemble of early European music. Izgagin participated with the consort of viols of N. Kozhukhar, Pratum Integrum, Alta Capella, the Orchestra of the Historical and Contemporary Performance Department of the Moscow State Conservatory. Today, he is a soloist of the Baroque music ensemble Claris Verbis.

Marina Volkova (born in Ulyanovsk in 1982) graduated from the Schnittke Musical College where she specialized in playing the flute; she continued her studies at the Historical and Contemporary Performance department of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory majoring in the flute and transverse flute. She won a prize of the Maria Yudina International Music Competition in the Chamber ensemble category and participated in the 2008 flute competition in Bucharest. She performed with the Pratum Integrum orchestra of authentic instruments from 2006 to 2009, participated in recordings and traveled on solo and concert tours in Russia and Europe. Volkova graduated from the Institute of Journalism and Literary Art, where she majored in literary essay writing (class of L. Anninsky).

Media Accreditation: Manege Association | +7 (495) 645 92 76 | pr.manege@gmail.com

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