Tag: Robin Pharo

Lighten Mine Eies, Ensemble Près De Votre Oreille, Wigmore Hall, 17 February 2026

I fought the (William) Lawes and…Parliamentarians, tragically, existentially, won.

This was a delicious lunchtime concert at The Wig. Here is a link to the Wigmore Hall resource on this concert.

All music by William Lawes, this is what we heard:

  • Choice Psalmes: – Music, the master of thy art is dead
  • Harp Consort No. 9 in D:– Pavin on a theme by Cormacke
  • Choice Psalmes: – My God, my rock, regard my cry
    • My God, my rock, regard my cry (arranged by Loris Barrucand)
    • Judah in exile wanders
  • Harp Consort No. 5 In D: – Alman – Saraband
  • Harp Consort No. 4 in D: – Coranto
  • Choice Psalmes: – Whieles I this standing lake swathed up with ewe
    • Love, I obey, shoot home thy dart
    • O sing unto the Lord a new song
  • Harp Consort No. 11 in D: – Fantazy
  • Choice Psalmes: – Ne irascaris, Domine
  • Harp Consort No. 10 in G: – Paven on a theme by Coprario
  • Choice Psalmes: – How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord
    • Come sing the great Jehova’s praise
    • In resurrectione tua
  • Harp Consort No. 8 in G
  • Choice Psalmes: – O my Clarissa

This concert is basically their latest album Lighten Mine Eies, available I’m sure at all good CD outlets and streaming, e.g. YouTube Music – click here.

Below is a little video clip of them performing one of the instrumental pieces:

While below is a little video clip of them performing one of the choral pieces:

We were supposed to hear Maïlys de Villoutreys sing the soprano parts, but she was unfortunately unwell. Enter a late replacement in the form of Marion Tassou, who did a wonderful job given the near-absence of preparation and rehearsal time.

Ensemble Près are a very together-looking unit, handling the late soprano switch like the commensurate professionals they clearly are.

We really enjoyed this concert and have enjoyed listening to their recordings of 16th and 17th century English music since. An unusual choice of repertoire for a young French ensemble. I hope it works for them.

Robin Pharo, their leader and gambist, did mention that they have started work on some French repertoire as well. Quelle surprise!

Lunchtime Baroque At Wigmore Hall, Nevermind, 13 June 2022

Janie and I had a very tasty lunch of baroque music at Wigmore Hall, thanks to a young group of talented French musicians known as Nevermind, presumably because they think the name of their ensemble is not important.

More importantly, they introduced us to the compositions of Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729), who wowed The Sun King as a child prodigy and went on to become an eminent composer as well as performer. Along with many other female composers of earlier eras, she’s needed some rediscovering in recent years and by gosh she is worth rediscovering.

Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre by François de Troy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Imagine Corelli in a fantastically light-hearted mood, and he might just have composed a bit like Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, except that she was steeped in the traditions of the French baroque (e.g. Lully) and influenced by the Italian style, rather than upbeat Corelli, who would have presumably been steeped and influenced the other way around.

If you are reading this within a month or so of the concert, you can listen to the whole concert on BBC Sounds, by clicking here. I tried that the other evening and enjoyed the concert all over again.

Or if you want to watch and listen to the concert, you can view it on the Wigmore Hall Site “watch and listen” section by clicking here. I’m not sure whether or not you need to be a member or just subscribed to the e-list or what, but I think you do need a log in of some sort to see this section of the Wigmore Hall site.

In our tradition of running in to people we know, Janie and I ran into Claire Durtnall, whom we have known for decades…

Dinner With “The Back Knack Team”, 20 November 1992

…and who had picked up a last-minute ticket for that concert on the off-chance.

Claire celebrated the chance encounter with a triple-selfie or two – if we are lucky she’ll send one of them in and I’ll add it to this piece…

…update – Claire did indeed send pictures:

Claire, me & Janie taken selfie-style
Claire & me taken regular style by Janie

But this account really should focus on the simply delightful music we heard. Mostly trio sonatas, we were carried to a happy place for an hour in that way only beautiful music can achieve.