La Violetta

Tu, Violetta, in forma più che umana
Foco mettesti dentro in la mia mente
Col tuo piacer ch’io vidi;
Poi con atto di spirito cocente
Creasti speme, che in parte mi sana
Là dove tu mi ridi

You, Violetta, more than humanly
Set this my mind afire
With all the beauty I beheld in you;
Then with a flaming spirit soaring higher,
Hope you created, which now partly heals
The ache if you but smile

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

Interview with Paulina van Laarhoven

What inspired you to start La Violetta?
It was my wish to play more concerts with the treble viol. La Violetta (in Praetorius’ Syntagma musicum from 1619 the term was used to mean treble viol) creates an opportunity to do so. With this group we can play the vast amount of music available from the Renaissance and very early Baroque period in a whole as well as a broken consort. Both can be extended with harp, lute and/or eventually an organ. Ofcourse one or more singers will make everything complete. Furthermore throughout my career my musician friends, and the groups I work for like Huelgas Ensemble, The Harp Consort, and La Sfera Armoniosa have inspired me. Their musicality and knowledge enthused me to start this project.

Who are the players in the broken consort?
An van Laethem plays the Renaissance violin and the fiddle very beautifully, Bart Coen plays the recorder (best there is), and Simen van Mechelen is my most favourite trombonist. Depending on the programm, Mike Fentross will play various plucked instruments like the lute.. Since all of us play a variety of our own instruments we can change voices and colours very easily. Petra Noskaiova (alt) is our singer and obviously according to the repertoire we can invite other singers as well

And the players of the whole consort are?
The whole consort consists of three to six viols Joshua Cheatham, Eva Reiter, Christine Plubeau, Nick Milne and myself.