Mark was artistic director of the Wigmore Hall’s William Lawes 400th anniversary concert series in 2002, and will also appear in a two-part BBC TV series on Lawes. During the Bach 2000 festivities he appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall and Symphony Hall in Birmingham and other work outside the world of early music has included contributions to the soundtracks of recent movies such as The Governess, Titus and The Knight’s Tale. With Concordia Mark regularly performs and commissions new music for viols, and plans include new pieces from John Tavener and Gavin Bryars.

In 2000-1 Mark was a guest Lecturer at Southampton University, and he has also taught at Nottingham University, at the Dartington International Summer School, and on courses in Israel and Poland. Besides lecturing Mark writes reviews and feature articles for magazines such as BBC Music Magazine, Clssical Music, Music Teacher and Early Music. He devotes a part of his time to researching and editing 16th- and 17th-century music, and his edition of the complete Songs of Matthew Locke was published in 1996 by Stainer and Bell.

‘Mark Levy draws an alluring sound from his 17th-century instrument’

The Gramophone

‘Mark Levy doesn’t put a finger wrong: his subtle variety of expressiveness and tone are a joy to listen to’

Gramophone Early Music

‘The highlight of the disc is the air tendre from L'Impatience... in which Mark Levy's fine viola da gamba weaves delicately around the unhurried singing’

Sunday Times

Solo programmes

Mark’s solo programmes range from the comfortingly familiar – Bach gamba sonatas with Gary Cooper harpsichord - to the delightfully strange – the unkown music of Johann Schenck, which inspired Bach’s cello suites, or Rachel Stott’s new commissions on Caribbean themes – also often featuring the unforgettable music of Marin Marais, chief viol player to Louis XIV.

 

The Spanish Madness

with Elizabeth Kenny guitar and Gary Cooper harpsichord

Marais’ brilliant set of variations on the Folia theme forms the centrepiece of this exploration of the Spanish baroque and its influence abroad. Thanks in particular to the Spanish guitarists themselves, such as Sanz and Murcia, the innocent seeming little Folia chord sequence spread like a craze throughout Europe in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, its sixteen bars embodying the sensual dance rhythms and Moorish exoticism which are so uniquely Spanish. As well as several of Marais’ other latin-inspired pieces, we also include harpsichord sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, an Italian who lived and worked in Madrid, and the best known Italian Folia variations, by the violinist Arcangelo Corelli, here in an original 18^th-century transcription for viol.

 

Tous les Matins du Monde

with Elizabeth Kenny theorbo

The mysterious Monsieur de Sainte Colombe was hardly a household name before the wonderful movie Tous les matins du monde shot his music to the top of the classical charts. While we still do not know his real name, several new volumes of beautiful music by Sainte Colombe and his followers (including his talented son, who spent several years working in Scotland) have come to light as a result of the recent surge of interest. This programme presents some of the most exquisite pieces from this repertoire including touching memorials for the great man by his son and his star pupil, Marin Marais.

 

Mr Gainsborough’s Viol

with Gary Cooper fortepiano

Besides painting, Thomas Gainsborough’s greatest love was music, his instrument was the viola da gamba, and his closest musical friend (and drinking-partner) the composer and gamba virtuoso Carl Friedrich Abel. The two exchanged music and paintings: Abel wrote a fugue for Gainsborough and even presented him with a viol, while Gainsborough painted the musician’s portrait at least twice, and Abel’s walls were said to be completely covered in Gainsborough drawings. This programme, which includes short readings from Gainsborough’s letters and other contemporary accounts, traces the both the friendship between the two men and the graceful, heartfelt music of Abel and other emigré virtuosos of Gainsborough’s circle, which marks the transition from the baroque to the classical style.

“I’m sick of Portraits and wish very much to take my viol-da-gamba and walk off to some sweet village, where I can paint landskips and enjoy the fag-end of life in quietness and ease.” Thomas Gainsborough, 4 June 1768

 

The Echo of the Danube

with Gary Cooper harpsichord

From the wild Aria Burlesca of Johann Schenck’s Viennese fantasy the Echo of the Danube to August Kühnel’s delicious variations on a traditional chorale tune, the little-known delights of German gamba music offer a totally new repertoire to even the most dedicated lovers of the baroque, as well as a fascinating insight into Johann Sebastian Bach’s creative relationship with the music of his own time and place.

 

And so to bed…

A programme inspired by Samuel Pepys, whose favourite late-night activity (well actually his second favourite) was to while away the hours of darkness strumming on his viol. Evocative sounds from the Elizabethan party-pieces of Tobias Hume to the haunting airs and divisions of Simpson and Purcell.

"And so home, troubled in my conscience at my being at a play. But at home I found Mercer playing on her Vyall, which is a pretty instrument; and so I to the Vyall and singing till late, and so to bed." Samuel Pepys, 28 September 1664

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