SKaffeehaus

SK artistic director Jonathan Sells talks all things Keiser Markus-Passion with Bach expert Professor Daniel R. Melamed. Thanks for listening to the SKaffeehaus.  To support Solomon's Knot and all of our work, please visit https://www.solomonsknot.co.uk/support/ Twitter/Insta/Facebook/YouTube @solomonsknot © Solomon's Knot Productions Ltd

Jonny chats with Jeffreys (c.1610-1685) expert Prof Jonathan Wainwright, director, actor, and writer Federay Holmes, and SK keyboard player and Jeffreys fan William Whitehead about this most fascinating of forgotten composers, and the upcoming SK project to bring him to the stage. Produced by Thomas Herford for Solomon's Knot Productions Limited Thanks for listening to the SKaffeehaus.  To su...

Jonny & Tom chat with SK keyboard player & musicologist Chad Kelly about his new reconstruction of JS Bach's Köthener Trauermusik , which he is creating for SK's upcoming concert tour and CD recording. Produced for the first time by SK tenor, Thomas Herford. Thanks for listening to the SKaffeehaus.  To support Solomon's Knot and all of our work, please visit https://www.solo...

Spread over 3 different time zones 17 hours apart, Jonny chats to SK ‘horn star’ Anneke Scott and Professor Bertil van Boer of Western Washington University in a deep dive into the origins of the horn in art music performance, specifically in the context of the music of our beloved Johann Sebastian Bach. Anneke's recommended links: https://lettystott.com https://www.hornandtrumpet.com/author/...

SK artistic director Jonathan Sells speaks to Professor Bettina Varwig, stage director John La Bouchardière and keyboard player Chad Kelly about Bach's St Matthew Passion.  What is it, and how will Solomon’s Knot’s approach it? Thanks for listening to the SKaffeehaus.  To support Solomon's Knot and all of our work, please visit https://www.solomonsknot.co.uk/support/ Twitter/Insta/Facebo...

SK alto Kate Symonds-Joy (codename KSJ) interviews director Tom Guthrie, SK sopranos Zoë Brookshaw and Clare Lloyd-Griffiths, and the Preacher of Lincoln's Inn chapel, the Ven Sheila Wilson, on a search for answers to her burning questions: - as a performer who feels most satisfied and honest when they fully immerse themselves in the text and music at hand, how do I commit to sacred music in...

Solomon's Knot Artistic Director Jonathan Sells gives his personal take on why JS Bach's St Matthew Passion continues to attract audiences every year, for whom it is 'for', and how we should best approach listening to or experiencing it. Far removed from the era and context of the first performances of the Matthew Passion, our ritualised annual concert performances of the piece...

Composer, outstanding organist, choir trainer, lawyer, and formidable linguist, Johann Kuhnau was Thomaskantor in Leipzig for over 20 years, writing over 1,000 vocal works for church performance there.  The few dozen that remain show a variety and ability to unlock the gamut of emotions from desperate sadness through to unbridled joy.  This belies Kuhnau's conservative and anti-operatic stanc...

Jonny, SK alto and musicology PhD Nathan Mercieca, Prof Stephen Rose and Dr Bettina Varwig get deep inside the Bach motets , including the context provided by the four Johann Christoph Bach pieces SK has selected for the upcoming tour and on-location CD recording (summer 2022), and the insights into the musical fabric and structure that can be gained by memorisation. Thanks for listening to the SK...

This is our first podcast episode in German, discussing context and scholarship around the DONNERODE Telemann programme that we are performing with Les Passions de l'Ame in Magdeburg and La Chaux-de-Fonds in March 2022, and that will also be recorded in Magdeburg for the cpo label. Jonny's guests were the Telemann scholar in Magdeburg, Ralph-Jürgen Reipsch, and early modern historian Dr...

We try to keep navel-gazing to a minimum in the SKaffeehaus, so we wanted to get it out the way early.  This episode also gives newcomers to SK a good idea of what we do, and how we roll.   Featuring artistic director Jonathan Sells, bass player Jan Zahourek, and two leading members of our 'hardcore Welsh* fanclub', Simon and Eleri Williams, we get to the bottom of what makes SK SK: an e...

Not the Christmas Oratorio was Solomon's Knot's new project for September and October 2021.  It consists of the three secular cantatas (or juicy mini operas) which Bach later recycled into his well-known festive work.   SK artistic director Jonny Sells and bass player Jan Zahourek are joined by special guest and expert on all things Bach and 18th-century, Professor Stephen Rose. Thanks f...