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Japanese Renaissance Music Organized by Bill Verdone

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by Idirz . Updated: 12 months ago . Taken at Forest Hills, Queens, NY

Forest Hills, Queens, NY View larger map

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Renaissance Music as the Shogun may have heard it in 1591

Japanese Early Music Ensemble Anthonello
Photo: African Views
Japanese Early Music Ensemble Anthonello
Renaissance Music as the Shogun May Have Heard It: 1591

There is a great deal happening in early music in Japan, which has a large number of extremely talented world class performers and ensembles. One of these is the Early Music Ensemble Anthonello who on Saturday 11 June 2011 were scheduled to bring an intriguing and unusual program to New York. Unfortunately this particular concert was postponed, and I have just heard from ensemble Anthonello that it will now take place in mid April, 2012, with the same performers and program.

This unique program will be a musical bridge spanning between Europe of the 16th and 17th centuries and Japan of the time of the Shogunate. The audience will be entering the period of the early missionary activities of the Jesuits, who controlled the feudal fiefdom of Nagasaki between 1580-1587.

Anthonello will perform a repertoire that:

“could well have been performed before the great warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1591 by the four Japanese Christian boys who traveled all the way to Rome to be received by the Pope. In the second half of the program, Anthonello will perform early baroque pieces; the kind of music never to be heard in Japan as the country by then was closed to the outside world by the Shoguns.”

The Early Music Ensemble Anthonello show their enthusiasm, dedication and “open-hearted” performing style in this short video interview from Japanese Television. Don’t miss the song at the end after all the instrument introductions.

The Ensemble Anthonello came together in 1994 to perform music from the European Renaissance and Baroque repertoire, and their members are:

Yoshimichi Hamada (cornetto and recorder) - leader
Kaori Ishikawa (viola da gamba)
Marie Nishiyama (harpsichord and historical harp)
and for this concert the ensemble is joined by
Tadashi Miroku (countertenor)

The Ensemble take their name from the late medieval Italian composer Antonello da Caserta.  Da Caserta was a monk, and active as a composer in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, possibly working for a time for the Visconti family in Milan.

Each of the individual members of the ensemble is also a well-known solo performer, and their playing has been been positively received, especially their interpretative flair. The ensemble leader Yoshimichi Hamada is a fourth-generation musician, a great-grandson of the founder of Japan’s first private Music University, which has now become the Tokyo Music University.

The ensemble’s aim is to play with animation, liveliness and spontaneity fitting “the spirit of the period” and improvisation is certainly a central feature in both their stage performances and recordings.

Early Music Ensemble Anthonello do not believe in “conservative viewpoints” and aim for an “open-hearted early music“, absorbing influences from both ethnic and popular genres.

Following the trend of other early music ensembles, Anthonello has founded its own record label “Anthonello MODE“, gaining critical acclaim from both press and public alike.

If I was in NY next year in time for their concert, I would definitely go alon

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