2024 will be an inspiring year for Accademia del Piacere

 

The year 2024, which has just begun, looks exciting for Accademia del Piacere. In addition to having two CDs in the oven with our programs Romances and On Fire, in which Spanish historical music is the protagonist, our group faces two extraordinary challenges: the residency at the Auditorio Nacional de Música and a double tour of America.

After our visit last October to the great musical center of the Ministry of Culture in Madrid, in this first half of the year, we will return twice as resident ensemble to the Auditorio Nacional: first on February 27 to perform our stage fantasy Gugurumbéwith the great Cordovan choreographer Antonio Ruz (National Dance Award 2018), and on May 17 to explore new territories of flamenco together with guitarist Dani de Morón with Metamorphosis.

Before that, in February and April, we will have joined Kiya Tabassian and her group Constantinople to tour our collaboration From Seville to Isfahan, first in Canada (Vancouver, Kelowna, and Edmonton) and then in the United States with stops in Milwaukee, New York and the iconic Dumbarton Oaks cultural center in Washington.

Other concerts in places as far apart as Trondheim (Norway), Valencia, Locarno (Switzerland), Seville, Fez (Morocco) and Potsdam (Germany), among others, will complete the agenda of the first half of a year in which we will later visit two great early music festivals such as the Utrecht Oude Muziek and the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival, to which we will bring the best Spanish historical music with ColombinaHispalis Splendens and Muera Cupido.

We hope to see you at our concerts! We leave you our complete 2024 agenda to make our appointment possible.

 

Agenda 2024

January 29: Barokkfest in Trondheim (Norway). Program: Colombina
February 4: CaixaForum in Valencia (Spain).
February 23 to 25: tour of Canada in collaboration with Constantinople. Program: from Seville to Isfahan.
February 21: Vancouver
February 23: Kelowna
February 24: Edmonton
February 27: Auditorio Nacional de Madrid. Program: Gugurumbé
March 8: Seville FeMÀS.
March 15. Locarno (Switzerland). Program: Músicas Mestizas
April 6 to 14: US tour in collaboration with Constantinople. Program: From Seville to Isfahan
April 6: Milwaukee
April 7: Dumbarton Oaks, Washington
April 8: Dumbarton Oaks, Washington
April 14: New York
April 18: Soria. Program: Rediscovering Spain
May 17: National Auditorium, Madrid. Program: Metamorphosis
May 19 and 20: Melk (Austria). Rediscovering Spain
June 1: Fez (Morocco). Program: Romances
June 9: Granada. Program: In Dulci Jubilo
June 14: Regensburg (Germany). Program: Rediscovering Spain, with Patricia Guerrero.
June 28: Pisa (Italy). Program: Udite Amanti: Udite Amanti
August 8: Festival En el Camino de Santiago, Jaca (Huesca, Spain). Program: Metamorphosis
August 24 and 26. Utrecht Oude Muziek (The Netherlands). Hispalis Splendens
September 12. Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival (Germany). Program: Muere Cupido, with Núria Rial.

Colombina, new CD by Fahmi Alqhai and Accademia del Piacere

The Colombina Songbook is undoubtedly one of the great musical monuments of the Spanish Renaissance. Accademia del Piacere, headed by Fahmi Alqhai, had the objective of historically recovering this jewel of our history, and the result of this effort is COLOMBINA, which takes it to the concert and to the CD. After a thorough revision of the musical context of the manuscript, and basing on very recent research combined with the creative spirit of Alqhai, Accademia del Piacere recreates in COLOMBINA the sound and practices of the musical ensemble for which the manuscript was created.

The Colombina Songbook (Cancionero de la Colombina) has been in the Library of the same name, next to the Cathedral of Seville, for five centuries, after being acquired in 1534 by the founder of the collection, Hernando Colón (son of the Cristóbal Colón and a great bibliophile). Despite its enormous importance, it has rarely been recorded or performed in concert, and new research (Lucía Gómez, 2017) has shed light on its creation: in all likelihood it was compiled at the Ducal House of Medina Sidonia, then based in Seville. Juan de Triana, the most frequent author of the Cancionero, was linked to it, and its instrumental nucleus was one of the first consorts of violas da gamba in the world, the basic cast also today at Accademia del Piacere.

“This unique songbook in the world now takes the form of a new CD thanks to the care and historical rigor of the Sevillian musician Fahmi Alqhai”. El Pais, Spain, July 23, 2022

“Fahmi Alqhai has known how to play and combine very well, with sobriety and rigor, the excellent instrumentalists and singers (…) with moments of great brilliance and others that are very delicate”. Diario de Sevilla, July 8, 2021

“Fahmi Alqhai has played with freedom to fit the music to this ideal ensemble.” ABC, July 9, 2021

Big success of Accademia del Piacere in the Elbphilharmonie

For Accademia del Piacere it has been an honor to participate in the programme of the inaugural season of the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie—a new musical center of such a high importance. Even a greater pleasure was to feel the warmth and the recognition of its public,  that of one of the true European capitals of music for centuries, which filled the room—sold out tickets months before the concert—and acclaimed long time our performance.

Here some photos of the event.

3 S    5 S

6 S    7 S

Cervantes

Accademia del Piacere decided to pay homage to the figure of Miguel de Cervantes four centuries after his death (1616-2016); the result was this CD-book including the music of his time and texts by the poet Manuel García, the musician Juan Ramón Lara and the scholar Valentín Sánchez. Rubén Gálvez was in charge of the beautiful design of this careful edition.

Portada buena Cervantes captura

With the support of the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte of Spain.

Color_Fdo_amarillo

March, a month full of music for Accademia del Piacere

We begin an intense month of March for our ensemble. Today, March 3rd, in the the Auditori of Barcelona, we will perform together with Compañia Antonio Ruz  À l’Espagnole, una fantasía escénica, the innovative show that combines the music of the court of the Sun King with the contemporary dance. Tomorrow, March 4th, we will move physically to Madrid, but musically to the Rome of the Seicento to play Ecco l’alba luminosa at the Festival Arte Sacro, with Mariví Blasco as soloist, in a concert that will arrive at San Lorenzo de El Escorial one day after.

Friday, March 10th, the music of the court of Luis XIV will be back to the viols of Fahmi and Rami Alqhai in a chamber version, together with the harpsichord of Javier Núñez, to participate in the festival Pórtico do Paraíso—Gates of Paradise. Back to Seville we will play on Saturday 18th March in FEMÀS 2017 the music of Sebastián Durón and his contemporaries: Muera Cupido, featuring Nuria Rial, soprano. On Monday 20th, we will finally travel to Oviedo to perfrom this same program for the CNDM.

And the fifth week of the month … we will rest 😉

Fahmi Alqhai lanza su nuevo disco: The Bach Album

The Bach Album: Fahmi Alqhai graba a la viola da gamba la Chacona de Bach

Maquetaci—n 1

El próximo día 10 de noviembre será lanzada al mercado la nueva grabación en solitario de Fahmi Alqhai para la casa Glossa, The Bach Album. En este nuevo CD Alqhai explora el apasionante mundo de la música a solo de Johann Sebastian Bach versionando a la viola da gamba obras originalmente escritas para violonchelo (Cuarta suite), flauta travesera (Partita) y violín (Segunda sonata). El disco se cierra con la mítica y monumental Chacona en re menor.

Maquetaci—n 1

El CD estará disponible en nuestra web a partir del próximo jueves 10.

Première of “Muera Cupido” in the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid

Fahmi Alqhai & Accademia del Piacere recover new Sebastián Durón’s music

Accademia del Piacere, Fahmi Alqhai’s ensemble, recovers unknown music of Sebastian Duron, in a tribute concert at the National Auditorium of Madrid, with soprano Nuria Rial as soloist—the most international Spanish soprano dedicated to historical music. Wednesday November 2, at the Auditorio Nacional of Madrid, they will perform a selection of arias of Sebastian Duron, the third centenary of whose death is commemorated in 2016. Duron, perhaps the most important Spanish composer of the times of Bach, worked in the cathedral of Seville before conducting the Royal Chapel of Madrid. There he composed a number of zarzuelas and operas, mostly unedited music but now recovered thanks to an intense reconstruction work carried out by Alqhai with musicologists Alvaro Torrente and Jose Maria Dominguez.

Muera Cupido, commissioned by the Ministry of Culture of Spain, will be played at the University of Salamanca a day later, and then will be performed in the Canary Islands Music Festival, among other important scenarios.

This one will not be the only news of Fahmi Alqhai this November: his latest solo recording for Glossa, The Bach Album, will be released next November 10th, before going back to the National Auditorium with Rocio Marquez on December 2 with its award-winning Dialogues of old and new tunes.
nuria-rial

A new video in our Facebook: Falconieri’s Ciaccona a tre

We recently uploaded a new video to our Facebook: the Ciaccona a tre by the Neapolitan composer Andrea Falconieri, which we recorded at the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid last year. We had more than ten thousand visitors in a few days, and it has been shared 345 times. Watch it here:

https://www.facebook.com/alqhaialqhai/videos/590409101141211/

At that concert we performed Cantar de Amor, whose CD was recorded few days later in Seville with the tenor Juan Sancho, including  music by the Juan Hidalgo—the true inventor of the Spanish opera—and instrumental works by contemporary Spanish musicians such as Sanz and Guerau.

You can purchase the CD on this page, and follow us on Facebook. Thank you!

Two GEMA awards for Accademia del Piacere… and much more!

The Association of Spanish Early Music Ensembles (GEMA) granted on June 24th its annual awards, at the Auditorio Nacional of Spain (Madrid). Its winners were decided among historical music professionals for their performance in the past year,  2015. Accademia Piacere received two such awards: Best Baroque Group; and the Innovation Award in the field of historical music, to our show À l’Espagnole, an encounter with contemporary dance together with company Antonio Ruz. These grants come after three nominations to the Max de las Artes Escénicas recently given to À l’Espagnole: Best Dance Show, to the Best Choreography (Antonio Ruz), and Best Dancer (to the full cast).

Premios-Gema-2015-Innovacion PEQLogo Max XIX Candidata

Antonio Ruz won also the PAD Award 2015 (Asociación de Profesionales y Compañías por el Desarrollo de la Danza en Andalucía), to the Best Choreography, also for  À l’Espagnole. We attach a picture including our two statuettes of GEMA. THANK YOU!

GEMA

Accademia del Piacere’s new blog

Accademia del Piacere is now opening its new website in English version. We want to take it to have a more direct channel of communication with our friends and followers, to share our news and interact with you. That’s why we open this new blog, where we will inform you about our projects and thoughts. Visit us!