“Qu’est-ce autre chose qu’une pièce de théâtre où chacun, sous le masque, fait son personnage […] ? Il n’y a que du travesti, et la comédie de la vie ne se joue pas différemment.”
Érasme, Éloge de la folie (1509)
The ENSEMBLE DIALOGHI was formed in 2014 in Barcelona by a group of musicians motivated by a shared desire to raise questions about some aspects of performance practice: are we being fully effective in our role as performers? Are we successful at connecting with our listeners and conveying to them the entire gamut of emotions contained in the score? Are audiences aware of the basic elements of a particular musical language they are asked to appreciate?
These considerations became the starting point for their study of the ways to approach the interpretation of a work, to rethink the traditional concert format in order to engage audiences, aquainting them with the building blocks which make up the musical language of each era.
The Ensemble Dialoghi, whose name symbolises a desire to communicate, seeks to emphasise the interconnections between instrumental music and other genres and art forms (opera, theater, dance, poetry and painting), but also to evoke the traditions and attitudes of the musical and social milieu of the period: by exploring this distinctive ‘musical code’ and placing it in its historical context, one can glean certain aspects of the score that might otherwise go unnoticed.
The ensemble’s insistence on period instruments stems from the same intent: they prove to be a fundamental tool for a rediscovery of the full expressive potential of the music.
The original line-up of the group (winds and fortepiano) has been expanding, including strings (clarinet, cello and piano) and voice (trio soprano, clarinet and piano).
Its musicians are passionate about sharing their vision with the new generation of players as part of the master classes which regularly accompany their concerts.
Cristina Esclapez, Fortepiano
Josep Domènech, Oboe
Lorenzo Coppola, Clarinet
Bart Aerbeydt, Horn
Javier Zafra, Bassoon
Kristin Von der Goltz, Cello
Cristina ESCLAPEZ (Spain) studied piano with Ramón Muñoz at the Superior Conservatory of Murcia, during which she performed the complete works for keyboard by J. Haydn and the Well-Tempered Clavier by J.S. Bach, and with Patricia Montero at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She subsequently decided to focus on her true passion, which is chamber music. She regularly performs with musicians such as Lorenzo Coppola and Vicens Prats, who have decisively influenced her career. She also shares this vocation with her students, whom she accompanies in Barcelona and around the world, deeply convinced of the importance of this role, which requires the combined talents of teacher, interpreter, confidant, ally and improviser, as well as maximum flexibility.
Josep DOMÈNECH (Spain) teaches historical oboe at the Amsterdam Conservatory (where he succeeded his teacher, Alfredo Bernardini) and at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen. Josep is fascinated by period performance practice in a repertoire ranging from J. S. Bach to Gustav Mahler. He regularly performs with some of the best period orchestras, including the Bach Collegium Japan, Il Giardino Armonico, the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, The English Baroque Soloists, and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and he plays first oboe in the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, led by Philippe Herreweghe. He frequently gives master classes and lectures at festivals and conservatories throughout Europe. He also collaborates with Pau Orriols, maker of period oboes.
Lorenzo COPPOLA (Italy) studied period clarinet with Eric Hoeprich. He performs regularly with the Freiburger Barockorchester, Les Arts Florissants, La Petite Bande, and La Grande Écurie. He shares his love of chamber music with artists such as Andreas Staier, Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov, the Zefiro Ensemble, the Kuijken Quartet, and he enjoys a special rapport with his colleagues from the Ensemble Dialoghi. He has recorded the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Mozart Clarinet Quintet with the Kuijken Quartet, and the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas with Andreas Staier. Very keen on conveying the full expressive range of the score, he loves to decode the musical vocabulary of each era and sharing it with audiences and his students. He teaches period clarinet at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona.
Bart AERBEYDT (Belgium) plays regularly with period-instruments ensembles such Freiburger Barockorchester. He can also be heard with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Collegium Vocale Gand, Concerto Köln. He has performed as soloist in concertos by Mozart, Telemann, Handel, and Graun. After studying modern horn in Gent and Antwerp conservatories with Luc Bergé and Rik Vercruysse, he studied natural horn at Amsterdam Conservatory with Teunis van der Zwart. He can be heard in many recordings, as the Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos with Freiburger Barockorchester, of which Fanfare Magazine wrote the following : “in the new version the horn players are Bart Aerbeydt and Gijs Lauceulle, two of the best reasons to like this set”.
Javier ZAFRA (Spain) has been principal bassoon of the Freiburger Barockorchester for twenty years. He studied in The Hague with Donna Agrell and was part of the European Union Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Ton Koopman. He also performs with several other European and Japanese orchestras. In chamber-music repertoire, he regularly partners with Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov, among others. He has performed the Mozart Bassoon Concerto on many occasions, notably at Wigmore Hall in London and at Lincoln Center in New York, where his performance was lauded by a reviewer from The New York Times. Inquisitive by nature, he tirelessly explores the timbre properties of historical bassoons and loves to share his discoveries with audiences and his longtime performing partners. He teaches Baroque bassoon at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg im Breisgau.
Kristin von DER GOLTZ (Germany/Norway), cellist, studied with Christoph Henkel in Freiburg and with William Pleeth in London, where she became a member of the New Philharmonia London under the then principal conductor Giuseppe Sinopoli.
She was a member of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra from 1991 to 2004. In 2006 she became a member of the Berlin Baroque Soloists, an ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic. She is a regular guest at the Barokkanerne Norwegian Baroque as artistic director. From 2002 to 2009 she taught Baroque Cello at the College of Music in Munich.
In the summer of 2015 she released her latest CD with sonatas by Andrea Caporale and Johann Ernst Galliard. Today Kristin von der Goltz is Professor of Baroque Cello at Frankfurt and also works at the College of Music and Theatre in Munich.
Ensemble Dialoghi 