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The ensemble of ancient music "Altera Musica"The Bach's Society in SamaraThe concert programs of "Altera Musica"
"Altera Musica", the ensemble of ancient music, is a unique project created by well-known Samara musicians. The ensemble is conceived with the aim of performing, studying, and popularizing ancient music. "Altera Musica" was founded by Olga Ostrovskaya in 1998. The school of earlymusic is considered one of the most prestigious in the contemporary musical culture. Lately this field has been attracting the ttention of the world best performers. Thousands of concerts and festivals take place all around the globe. In Russia , however, this movement has barely started. In Samara, "Altera Musica" is the only ensemble playing ancient music. In spite of the extremely difficult conditions of rehearsals, lack of available concert halls, and insufficient advertisement the concerts of the ensemble invariably gather the full house. Peter van Heigen ( Belgium ), Jane Gauer ( Holland ), Andrey Reshetin ( Russia ), world-renown authorities in the field of early music, have highly praised the performance of "Altera Musica". "Altera Musica" presents prominent works of Baroque music in authentic interpretation, in the artistic context of the epoch, with musicological commentaries. The ensemble also uses poetic texts and elements of choreography.
In the beginning of 2003, on the initiative of musicologist Natalya Eskina, in Samara was created The Bach's Society on the basis of "Altera Musica". Ensemble "Altera Musica" performs works of the epochs of Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, music of gallant style, of European royal courts, pieces created for balls, masquerades and fireworks, rare works of Russian musical Baroque; it revivd Catherine. A number of the programs is dedicated to the early periods of Russian music. The XVIII century, a period in Russian musical culture little known even to professionals, is shown in these programs in all its splendor. The ensemble also performs pieces from a unique musical document, so-called "Yaroslav Notebooks" - a musical manuscript found in the store-room of a Russian provincial museum, containing works of anonymousserf composers, probably the earliest known professional works by Russianmusicians. Ancient music presupposed the closeness to the poetic word, was connected to the science of musical rhetoric. Poetic word plays during the concerts of the ensemble an important role; some programs contain, in addition to the music, poetic texts of German and English Baroque, especially translated for "Altera Musica" by Natalya Eskina. It is worth noticing that some of these poets, such as Martin Luter, Angelus Silezius, Christian Weise, Jakob Regnart, Katarina Regina von Greiffenberg, Daniel Czepko, Quirin Kuhlman and others, have few or no translations into Russian. Owing to the brilliant translations of N. Eskina , in the program "Poetry and music of German Baroque" the public could hear the poems of such geniuses of German Baroque as Martin Opitz, Paul Gerhardt, Andreas Gryphius, Johann Rist, and Christian Hoffman von Hoffmanswaldau; the translations were presented by professional actors as well as by the author. Another revelation of "Altera Musica" was the first performance in Russia of works of several English composers of the Shakespearean epoch, personal friends of the famous playwright. In the program "Poetry and music of Renaissance" the public enjoyed the works of Dowland and the music of Byrd written for the premiere of "Hamlet" in the theater "Globus". "Altera Musica" aims to revitalize the ancient music, to bring it closer to our time, and to avoid the pompousness of the official academic concerts. Its performances often take form of a dialogue with the public, become an original game, include elements of theater, dance, poetic word. For example, at the opening of Samara Bach's Society on Bach's birthday, the concert included a theatrical performance of a comic play in verse "Trio Sonata" (with the participation of the honored artist of Russia Oleg Sviridov), especially created by Natalya Eskina for this occasion. The comic program "Little feline concert in the style of Rococo" included poems by A. Bolshakov and N. Eskina ; a well-known Samara artist Elena Orlova took part in the performance. The playful nature of the concerts of "Altera Musica" attracts not only adult, but also young public. School children are the most grateful listeners of the ensemble. Ancient music interests also the students of music schools and make them wish to study the harpsichord and the ancient wind instruments. The musicians of the ensemble are preparing their successors. Little musicians, the so-called "Mini Altera Musica" are taking part in the concerts of the "adult" group. The musicologist, accompanying the concerts, not only talks about the music in terms, accessible to the young listeners, but also organizes the flow of the concert, deciding when to concentrate the children's attention or let them relax and have fun. The music which sounds in the concerts of "Altera Musica" is also open to children's understanding: it is merry, pure and naive, and contains easily remembered musical formulaes ("golden sequences", dance rythms). The contact with "Altera Musica" is especially good for the youngest listeners. The sublime art of the "golden centuries" of music, Renaissance and Baroque forms the soul. However, also adults love the sound of beautiful ancient music. Just by its timbre, the sound of harpsichord and flute, can bring inner peace, help relaxing and take away the negative emotions. Music of Vivaldi, Bach, Haendel, Mozart, constantly sounding during the concerts of "Altera Musica", has healing powers and is full of positive energy. Joy, peace, harmony with the world are the noble qualities of the music of XY - XYIII centuries, which it generously shares with its admirers.
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