Founded in 1980, the Ricercar label celebrates forty-five years of existence with quiet discretion. An opportunity to take stock with founder Jérôme Lejeune about the complicated economics of the CD, and its indispensable role as both a tool of memory and a musicological act.
In Strasbourg, the Saint-Guillaume Choir has been resonating with the music of Bach for 140 years. Founded when Alsace was under German rule, it helped to rekindle Bach’s presence in France after 1918. Championed by Ernest, Fritz and Charles Munch, and courted by Honegger and Poulenc, it continues its journey today under the baton of 32-year-old conductor Étienne Ferrer.
At the helm of Cappella Mediterranea, Argentine conductor Leonardo García-Alarcón brings friends and partners into a sweeping saga that links libraries and stages, South America and Baroque Europe, record and video. And he insists: early music doesn’t exist. The moment it is performed, it becomes alive!
In 1974, the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal (SMAM) was founded by three organists with one goal in mind: to restore early music and its performance practice to its rightful place in the contemporary world. Fifty years later, this endeavour has been a resounding success.
Early music has been structured into networks both in Europe, with REMA-EEMN, and in North America, with Early Music America (EMA). On the occasion of EEMN’s 25th anniversary, director David R. McCormick addresses a message to his European counterparts.
