False Consonance: Four Musicians, No Keyboard

Founded in Bremen, northern Germany, in 2020, just as the pandemic brought European musical life to a standstill, False Consonance has made an unusual configuration its hallmark: four musicians, but no keyboard instrument to support the continuo. A constraint that has become a field for experimentation.

False Consonance, a young ensemble founded in Bremen in 2020, brings together flute, violin, viola da gamba or cello, and lute. Without a keyboard instrument, the quartet cultivates a kind of “pocket music”, reducing large-scale works to the intimacy of a minimal chamber ensemble. © False Consonance

Founded in 2020, against the backdrop of the Covid pandemic, the German quartet False Consonance was named “Rheinsberger Hofkapelle” (Rheinsberg court orchestra) for the 2024/25 season, after the musical ensemble maintained by the future King Frederick II of Prussia (then Crown Prince) at his Rheinsberg Palace between 1736 and 1740. Composed of young virtuosos, this historic Hofkapelle (court orchestra) left its mark on music history. In memory of this ensemble, a residency for Baroque ensembles is associated each year with the cultural site of Rheinsberg, around a hundred kilometres from Berlin. Supported by the German Music Council, the State of Bremen, and the German Orchestra Foundation, False Consonance is now forging its own path between Baroque repertoire, historically themed programmes, and projects devised for heritage sites. At the Telemann Festival in Magdeburg, we meet two members of the quartet: lutenist and theorbist Johannes Festerling, and viol player and cellist Thomas Fields.

False Consonance was founded in 2020, at a time when the world suddenly seemed to come to a standstill. Was founding a new ensemble in the midst of a pandemic a form of optimism?

Johannes Festerling: Above all, it was the desire to play chamber music! We were fortunate that three of us lived under the same roof, and that I lived just next door. So we were able to comply with the two-household rule in force at the time. That is how we started playing together—and without a keyboard instrument!

That same year, Johannes, you became a cultural ambassador for the Hanseatic city of Bremen. How does one become one, and what did the role involve?

J. F.: Potsdam was celebrating the 30th anniversary of German reunification at the time. Because of the pandemic, the celebrations took the form of a large exhibition rather than a major public event. Bremen’s pavilion showcased different art forms. I applied, was selected, and played Bach there. Bremen actually occupied a somewhat special place, as we were offering genuine live performances.

Thomas, your career has taken you from New York to Bremen and Würzburg, but also to Beijing. What did you go to China in search of?

Thomas Fields: After completing my bachelor’s degree in Rochester, New York State, I spent a year on an exchange programme in Beijing, with support from the Chinese government. At the Central Conservatory, I studied musicology—this was before I specialised in early music. It was a fascinating year: I discovered Chinese music, but also the music of musicians from many different backgrounds who, for all sorts of reasons, happened to find themselves in Beijing at the time.

Your repertoire ranges from Handel and Telemann to French composers and Georg Muffat. But you have also developed two programmes centred on Berlin. In “Les Reines Philosophes,” you focus in particular on Sophia Dorothea of Prussia. Why?

J. F.: It was with this “Les Reines Philosophes” programme that we applied to Rheinsberg. The Academy required the chosen repertoire to be connected to the “Berlin School.” As we always seek to build varied programmes, our research led us to the women who surrounded Frederick II. We wanted to shed more light on their importance: his sisters, his mother, his grandmother, but also Elisabeth Christine. For Sophia Charlotte, his grandmother, for example, we chose a sonata by Arcangelo Corelli: he had dedicated his Opus 5 to her. We like to use these kinds of historical connections as the starting point for building our programmes.