Martin Gester & Aline Zylberajch

Program

GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL (1685-1759) Concerto for Organ in F Major “The Cuckoo and the Nightingale” HWV 295
I.   Larghetto
II.  Allegro
III. Larghetto
IV. Allegro

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN (1681–1767) Concerto in B minor TWV 42 h:1 from 6 Concerts et 6 Suites pour pour flûte traversière, clavecin concertant ou violon et basse continue
I.  Adagio
II. Vivace
III. Grazioso
IV. Presto  

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) Concerto in D Major K 107 No. 1  
I.   Allegro
II.  Andante
III. Tempo di minuetto

About the artists

Martin Gester

Martin Gester is a French conductor, organist and harpsichordist. His earliest musical experience was in choral singing. He went on to learn the harpsichord and the organ, and completed courses of study in both literature and music at Strasbourg University and at the Conservatory of the same city. 

He now divides his time between musicological research, performance on harpsichord and organ, conducting vocal and instrumental ensembles, and teaching. His special interest is the repertory of the 17th and 18th centuries.

In 1990, Martin Gester founded Le Parlement de Musique in order to put his research into practice, and this flexible vocal and instrumental ensemble soon achieved an international reputation. In addition to his heavy schedule of recreating early music with Le Parlement de Musique, he continues to appear as a solo instrumentalist, and with increasing frequency as a guest conductor, notably with the New York Collegium (performances of French music in New York and Boston), the Nederlandse Bach Vereniging, Collegium Vocale Gent, La Chapelle Royale (Paris), Musica Aeterna Bratislava, and the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie. He is also a regular guest with the Polish Baroque orchestra Arte dei Suonatori (Wroclaw), with whom he has performed concertos & oratorios from Muffat to W.A. Mozart, and made radio and CD recordings (for the BIS label: George Frideric Handel: 12 Concerti grossi Op. 6). Martin Gester has appeared as soloist and conductor throughout Europe, as well as on the American and Asian continents. As a soloist or with Le Parlement de Musique, he has made some thirty-five recordings, mainly for the labels Opus 111, Accord, Assai and Tempéraments-Radio France. These are often re-creations of little-known repertory or innovative readings of well-known works, and most of them have won awards in the musical press.

Martin Gester teaches the Baroque repertory to singers and instrumentalists at the Strasbourg Conservatory, and is regularly invited to give masterclasses in France and abroad (Studio Baroque de Versailles, Jeunes Voix du Rhin, Stanford University, Academia Mexicana de Musica Antigua etc.). In 2001, Martin Gester was appointed Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French Minister of Culture.

Aline Zylberajch

A graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, Paris, and of the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, Aline Zylberajch started her career as a harpsichordist. 
She contributed to the early productions of ensembles such as La Chapelle Royale, Les Musiciens du Louvre and Le Parlement de Musique, with which she performed numerous operas and oratorios.
Later, her interest in the music of the late 18th century  led her naturally to an intensive involvement in the performance practice of the early piano, discovering at the same time the amazing variety of keyboard instruments that flourished all over Europe. This period, which also saw the increasing popularity of duos, trios and quartets with obbligato keyboard opened up a whole new field of research into chamber music, and new happy musical encounters. One of her other addictions is playing vocal music, from early Baroque songs to Lieder evenings, and listening to the many ways this flows through to keyboard repertoire.
Sharing through teaching has always been an important part of Aline’s musical life. Formerly harpsichord teacher at the Academie Supérieure de Musique in Strasbourg, she has been invited for recitals and interpretation Masters classes in France, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Poland, Germany, Mexico, Australia & Japan.  Since 2011 she has been teaching pedagogy of the harpsichord at the Pedagogy Department of Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, Paris.
She is a founding member of  “Clavecin en France” society.
Her recordings have received much praise in Diapason, Classica, Gramophone, Early Music Review, Répertoire and le Monde de la Musique.