Jan Garbarek and The Hilliard Ensemble: a farewell to “Officium” at St Mary Magdalene Cathedral
In “Officium”, Jan Garbarek and The Hilliard Ensemble connect saxophone improvisation with early vocal music. The preview of their farewell concert at St Mary Magdalene Cathedral in Wrocław introduced a shared project by jazz and classical artists associated with ECM.
The farewell concert of “Officium”, the extraordinary project combining refined jazz with classical music, takes place on 7 June in the beautiful St Mary Magdalene Cathedral on ul. Szewska in Wrocław.
For connoisseurs of exceptional music, this is the final opportunity to see such outstanding artists perform together: they have decided to end their concert collaboration in its present form.
The concert will open WrocLove Fest 2014, held to celebrate Wrocław Day, which for several years has presented first-class artists from around the world.
Jan Garbarek is one of the most extraordinary figures in European jazz and world music. For more than 40 years, this Norwegian artist with Polish roots has brought his music to jazz stages, concert halls and cathedrals, as well as the bestselling album charts. He is the leading star of the prestigious ECM label and one of the creators of its distinctive style.
He is fascinated by folk and ethnic traditions and loves musical journeys through time and space. This enriches his music, while also inspiring encounters with artists from different cultures and styles. Hence his collaboration with The Hilliard Ensemble, which began many years ago. The idea of combining the sound of the soprano saxophone with polyphonic vocal music rooted in the Middle Ages and Renaissance proved exceptionally successful, both commercially and artistically.
Their first album together, “Officium”, released in 1993, received enthusiastic reviews and sold more than a million copies. Britain’s Evening Standard described it as containing “the most beautiful music ever recorded”. The Herald Tribune called it “extraordinarily soothing, lifting the spirit to the heavens”, while the New York Observer wrote of “the removal of every division between jazz and classical music, the sacred and the secular, early and contemporary music”.
The double album “Mnemosyne”, released in 1998, developed the original idea, including contemporary repertoire alongside medieval music.
“Officium novum” is Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble’s third album together. Recorded in late June and early July 2010 at Austria’s St. Gerold monastery under producer Manfred Eicher’s watchful eye, it largely features traditional Armenian music. The idea emerged during the Ensemble’s Caucasus journey, encountering traditional sacred-song arrangements by ethnomusicologist and composer Komitas Vardapet (1869–1935) and traditional secular music of Caucasian bards.
Alongside Armenian music, “Officium Novum” includes Arvo Pärt's a cappella “Most Holy Mother of God”, Byzantine chants, two Jan Garbarek pieces including a new version of “We are the stars”, and the Spanish court song “Tres morillas”.
“Officium Novum” demonstrates just how far the musicians have developed over seventeen years of collaboration. Garbarek's soprano saxophone forms a fifth voice, providing a counterpoint to the four singers. Based on the harmonies and scales used in Armenian music, his playing is full of passion and improvisational invention. The interpretations are wonderfully free, with the singers, like the saxophonist, boldly improvising around existing compositions.
Jan Garbarek – soprano and tenor saxophones
The Hilliard Ensemble:
David James – countertenor
Rogers Covey-Crump – tenor
Steven Harrold – tenor
Gordon Jones – baritone
Event details
JAN GARBAREK & THE HILLARD ENSEMBLE
6 June 2014
St Mary Magdalene Church
Wrocław
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