Matthias Maute and Ensemble Caprice

Performed Friday, July 16th 2021

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Since it was founded by flautist Matthias Maute three decades ago, Ensemble Caprice has made its mark as one of the most sought-after ensembles on the classical music scene. Caprice has gained a solid reputation for its innovative programming and vibrant, compelling performances.

The musicians of Ensemble Caprice have travelled to the four corners of the globe, giving performances in dozens of countries on four continents. The Ensemble’s tours have taken its members to Asia, China, Taiwan, Africa, Morocco, Tunisia and South Africa as well as several European Countries and the Americas. It has been the featured guest ensemble in many prestigious festivals, including the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music in London, festivals in Bruges (Belgium) and Utrecht (the Netherlands), the Felicia Blumental International Music Festival in Tel Aviv, and, in Germany, the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, the Early Music Days in Regensburg, the Händel-Festspiele in Halle, and the Stockstadt Festival. In the USA, the group has performed at New York City’s Miller Theater and Frick Collection, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. In Canada, the Ensemble has been heard in Ottawa at the Music and Beyond Festival and the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival; it has performed at Early Music Vancouver, Early Music Voices in Calgary, the Edmonton Chamber Music Society, the Elora Festival and the International Festival Domaine Forget. This impressive roadmap bears witness to the fact that Caprice is recognized as being one of today’s leading baroque ensembles. In 2009, the New York Times devoted a full article to the Ensemble, praising it as a progressive force on the contemporary musical scene. Besides its international tours, the group performs a regular Montreal concert series in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Bourgie Hall.

Ensemble Caprice also has a flourishing recording career, with some twenty recordings on the Analecta, ATMA Classique and Antes labels, sold in nearly 50 countries. These recordings have received numerous critical distinctions, including the Canadian Recording Industry’s Prix Juno for Gloria! Vivaldi and his Angels, and four Prix Opus awards from the Music Council of Quebec including a “Performer of the Year” award and a “Concert of the Year” award for the Ensemble’s performances of Antonio Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans, Bach’s B Minor Mass (performed as part of the Montreal Bach Festival), and Le Faste de la France, given in collaboration with the Studio de Musique ancienne de Montréal. Caprice’s unique artistic approach has also been recognized by the Montreal Arts Council, which honored it with the “Public’s Choice” award, and it was among the music finalists for the Grand Prix de Montréal. The ensemble has also received other important nominations from Germany’s Prix Echo Klassik, the Prix Opus committee, and the Association québécoise de l’Industrie du Disque. The prestigious magazine Gramophone included the Ensemble’s recording Telemann and the Baroque Gypsies on its list of recommended CD’s.

Matthias Maute has achieved an international reputation as conductor, recorder and flute player and as a composer. Mr. Maute is esteemed for his artistic direction of Ensemble Caprice, for whom he produces ingenious and fascinating programs. With this ensemble he regularly appears at major festivals world wide. In Canada he has performed at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Festival international du Domaine Forget and Elora Festival among others.

In the realm of choir and orchestra direction Matthias Maute has focussed more and more on large scale projects. His versions of Bach’s B Minor Mass, Arvo Pärts and J.S.Bach’s Magnificat and J. D. Zelenka’s Miserere were broadcast nationwide by CBC Radio 2 and Radio Canada/Espace Musique. He has recorded G. F. Haendel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks on CD, and under his direction Ensemble Caprice was awarded the prestigious 2009 JUNO Award for Best Classical Album of the Year (Vocal or Choral Performance) for its CD Gloria! Vivaldi’s Angels on the Analekta label. In September 2012 Ensemble Caprice directed by Matthias Maute will release a double CD on Analekta featuring Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos juxtaposed with Preludes from Shostakovich’s Op. 87.

His solo career has soared since winning First Prize in the soloist category at the renowned Early Music Competition in Bruges, Belgium in 1990. He made his debut at Lincoln Center in New York in December 2008. In 2003 and 2005, he was the featured recorder soloist at the Boston Early Music Festival. Matthias Maute’s compositions hold an important place in the world of contemporary recorder music and are published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Amadeus, Moeck and Carus. Mr. Maute has made some twenty recordings on the Analekta, Vanguard Classics, Bella Musica, Dorian, Bridge and Atma Classique labels. He teaches at Université de Montréal and McGill University in Montreal.