The Alehouse Sessions

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Like the “Spanish Set” with which the group encored, during which Eike walked through the crowd with his violin, it was a reminder that listening is an active process. Leap forward to those days in December 2022, and we find ourselves sitting around a table, drinking beer, gossiping and playing music at London’s 17th Century George Inn. The energy flying from his bow was an inspiration, and spoke to the credence of his seamless integration of geographies.

These “Alehouse Sessions,” in both recorded and live form, are exemplary in their ability to melt the cages of censorship into tenderer weapons of humanity. YouTube sets this cookie to measure bandwidth, determining whether the user gets the new or old player interface. Part two is The Alehouse Sessions, where the action moves to the ‘tavern’ (a role played this evening by the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer). I know it feels very unlikely that we, the Barokksolistene, a Scandi group of baroque specialists, have made a programme for British TV singing sea shanties and folk ballads alongside Purcell.

Regarded as Norway’s national instrument, the Hardanger fiddle is the product of a long evolution beginning in medieval times. Inspired by the music-making of Commonwealth England, when theatres were closed and music forced underground into taverns, brothels and alehouses, their Alehouse Sessions create their own mongrel genre, combining 17th-century classical music with dances, sea shanties and folk songs from around the world.

A new flowering of theatre music takes place, where masques and dumbshows rub alongside Shakespeare and commedia dell’arte in beautiful union. They also brought great humor to their presentation, interrupting their opening number, for instance, to play out a drunken brawl in slow motion. Part one, Purcell’s Playhouse, imagines the backroom of a bar where a makeshift theatre has sprung up to mark the end of Cromwell’s reign – and his puritanical ban on playhouses. Google Analytics sets this cookie to calculate visitor, session and campaign data and track site usage for the site's analytics report.A smattering of Purcell, dances from Playford’s Dancing Master, shanties, reels and ballads succumb to a nine-piece ensemble drawing on Baroque, jazz and folk styles for a no holds barred hooley of riotous improvisatory give and take…The result is more gastropub than spit-and-sawdust hostelry, but ‘cheers’ all the same! The Alehouse Sessions', curated and devised by Bjarte Eike, is an evolving insight into the music of the English 17th Century tavern. You can also use the external lift near the Artists' Entrance on Southbank Centre Square to reach Mandela Walk, Level 2. But perhaps most exciting are the relationships the disc establishes between Purcell’s music and the nicely spoken melodies from Playford’s English Dancing Master and their bastard musical relations in other genres.

There’s a wonderfully egalitarian quality to music-making that weaves its way from court to dockyard to tavern without pause. Dreamed up and curated by Norwegian violinist Bjarte Eike, “The Alehouse Sessions” takes audiences along on a 17th century evening of entertainment, not only with a live classical performance, but also through theatrical storytelling, folk, strings, improvisation, and dance. For step-free access from the Queen Elizabeth Hall Slip Road off Belvedere Road to the Queen Elizabeth Hall auditorium seating (excluding rows A to C) and wheelchair spaces in the Rear Stalls, plus Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer and the Purcell Room, please use the Queen Elizabeth Hall main entrance. Supporting and nurturing young talent is at the heart of the London Handel Festival’s mission and this performance brings together some of the finest young baroque musicians from leading UK conservatoires to form a brand new ensemble. Directed by award-winning director Dominic Best, the film captures the sound world of rebellious London as musicians and performers sought refuge in teh backrooms of taverns and alehouses.Speaking on the project, Bjarte Eike said: “The signature of this project is the interaction on stage between the players and the audience. Members get the first chance to book our entire programme of events, including go-down-in-history gigs, concerts with world-class orchestras, and talks from cultural icons and political giants. Although Charles II would lift the ban, by then tavern music had grown into something of a genre, in which the vagaries of quotidian life rubbed elbows with mythologies in the making. Always one of our most popular sections, Masterclass has been an invaluable aid to aspiring soloists, chamber musicians and string teachers since the 1990s.