Founded in 2000, The Marais Project recently turned 15, and each year presents Early Music with a number of highly regarded concerts making it Australia’s longest continuously running “viola da gamba” ensemble.
The Marais Project have performed more than 80% of Marin Marais’ works for solo, two and three viola da gambas and other fine works for the viola family. Additionally they have commissioned some twenty works by Australian composers and arranged new music for the ensemble. As well they have pioneered the use of the electric viola da gamba.
Last Saturday evening at North Sydney’s Independent Theatre the group launched their fifth CD release entitled “Smörgåsbord!”. In a concert that lasted a very pleasurable two hours, they performed works from the album which features some some of the finest and most poignant Swedish folk songs ever composed.
The evening was emceed by Marais Project Artistic Director Jennifer Eriksson’s nephew who performed the task in a relaxed, warm fashion.
The Marais Project featured a very strong ensemble on the night. Tommie Andersson played the theorbo and 1820s classical guitar, Jennifer Eriksson, her much treasured viola da gamba, Fiona Ziegler on violin and Melissa Farrow on baroque flute. The musicianship was of a high standard, and their playing never lost its warmth and passion.
Tenor Koen van Stade, in very fine voice, memorably joined the group for some of the works.
My personal favourites from the night … Carl Michael Bellman’s “Fredman’s Epistel No 2”. This was a lovely, reflective piece; a celebration of all the good things in life.
Listening to “Om Sommaren Skona” I was imagining experiencing the most beautiful summer ever touched with a little melancholy.
“Låt till Far” featured music inspired by the natural beauty of Sweden, with its never ending forests and lakes.
Tommie Andersson’s lovely “Swedish Folk Music Suite” included “Gammal Fäbodpsal”, a piece which is often played in church. Many of the pieces that were performed on the night featured very suitable arrangents by Andersson.
His Excellency Mr Pär Ahlberger, Ambassador of Sweden, was introduced at the end of the concert to offically launch the CD. Mr Ahlberger was very emotional in his praise of the performance, saying that it had brought back so many lovely memories of his home country and the pieces ‘captured the Swedish soul’.
In response Tommie Andersson said that the album had been something that the group had wanted to do for a long time. Both Andersson and Eriksson are of Swedish extraction, and have a great love for their home country. He spoke of how the project, a labour of love, had taken some five years to bring together.
Recommended, The Marais Project’s new CD “Smörgåsbord!” can be purchased through the group’s official website, http://www.maraisproject.com.au/
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