Name: The Playhouse Sessions
Price: 17.25 USD
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a performance that may not be authentic in a strict historical sense but feels absolutely authentic to the spirit of the period and of players – as then, and as now. — Gramophone Magazine, November 2022 More…

Release Date: 23rd Sep 2022
Catalogue No: RCD1096
Label: Rubicon
Length: 66 minutes

Presto Editor's Choice

September 2022
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November 2022

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Purcell: Jenny Loves, and She Confessed Too (Arr. for String Ensemble by Bjarte Eike)

Work length5:13

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

Purcell: The Washerwoman Set (Arr. for String Ensemble by Bjarte Eike & Barokksolistene)

Work length5:55

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Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

Purcell: Oft She Visits This Lone Mountain (Arr. for String Ensemble by Bjarte Eike & Barokksolistene)

Work length2:58

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Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

Eike: Over Hill, Over Dale

Work length3:00

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Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

Purcell: Adagio and Glittering Queen

Work length6:26

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Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

trad.: The Three Ravens

Work length3:28

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Arr. for String Ensemble by Bjarte Eike
Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

Purcell: The Fairy Shuffle (Arr. for String Ensemble by Bjarte Eike & Barokksolistene)

Work length3:45

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Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

Eike: You Spotted Snakes; Hush No More

Work length5:41

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Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

Purcell: Music for a while, Z583

Work length3:57

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Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

Eike: The Newcastle Set

Work length6:53

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Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

Thomas Guthrie: The Jolly Pilgrim (Arr. for String Ensemble by Bjarte Eike)

Work length5:11

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Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

Niel Gow: Niel Gow's Lament for the Red, Red Rose (Arr. for String Ensemble by Bjarte Eike & Barokksolistene)

Work length5:49

$1.05

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Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

William Shakespeare: The Willow Song (Arr. for String Ensemble by Bjarte Eike, Per Buhre, Johannes Lundberg & Helge Andreas Norbakken)

Work length4:14

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Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

Purcell: Now the night is chac'd away (from The Fairy Queen, Z629)

Work length1:54

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Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

Dowland: Can She Excuse Puck's Wrong

Work length2:26

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

Arr. for String Ensemble by Bjarte Eike & Barokksolistene
Barokksolistene, Bjarte Eike

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Interview, Bjarte Eike on The Playhouse Sessions

26th September 2022

Violinist and music director Bjarte Eike talks about his new album and follow-up to the highly successful Alehouse Sessions, drawing further inspiration from the lively nightlife of Restoration England.

“There are some things you just can’t fake. The chemistry of a group is one of those - the sparks of musical energy that fly when certain artists collide. Bjarte Eike’s Barokksolistene is an alchemical miracle of an ensemble... pure musical gold” - Gramophone

Since the release of the chart topping ‘Alehouse Sessions’ in 2017, and a worldwide tour, Bjarte and the boys and girls have been busy on this new album which moves the alehouse project on from dour Puritanism of Cromwell’s Commonwealth, to the hedonistic Restoration of Charles II, and the Glorious Revolution that saw William III and Mary II replace the unpopular James II.

The alehouse musical culture developed into playhouses, and music halls, selling tickets and subscriptions. Operas, masques, dance, jesting (the first stand-up comedians maybe?), all this prepared the way for the first public concert hall to be established. Nights in these places though would still be bawdy - stage fights, cross dressing, elements of pantomime, songs sung to popular tunes of the day, satire - always a good draw, and a good number of rustic clowns, bawdy wenches and fools thrown in for good measure.

Think of these back rooms as a very English mix of Shakespeare, commedia dell arte, juggling with music by Purcell, folk tunes, and sea shanties. After the misery of the Commonwealth and Cromwell’s dictatorship, the public were in the mood to party. Playhouse is your invitation.

Reviews

November 2022

a performance that may not be authentic in a strict historical sense but feels absolutely authentic to the spirit of the period and of players – as then, and as now.

September 2022

I adored the first instalment of baroque songs and dances with a spit-and-sawdust twist from these freewheeling Norwegian musicians, and its successor - focusing on the Restoration theatre rather than the tavern, though the atmosphere of boozy disinhibition remains - is no less intoxicating. Highlights include a rumbustious set of sea-shanties, some rollicking reels, and an aria from Dido and Aeneas as you've never heard it before - I'd love them to give the whole opera the same treatment…

22nd September 2022

The Playhouse Sessions, on Rubicon, again sees the violinist Bjarte Eike and his Barokksolistene ensemble recreating the anarchic atmosphere of after-hours musical sessions in Restoration pub backrooms...Berit Norbakken sings an understated version of Music for a While with bassist Johannes Lundberg that wouldn’t be out of place in a jazz club.

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The Playhouse Sessions

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Interview, Bjarte Eike on The Playhouse Sessions

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