Vivaldi & Rameau do Battle with Nature
January 19 & 21, 2012
JEANNETTE SORRELL, harpsichord & direction
OLIVIER BRAULT, violin
Also featuring:
René Schiffer and Steuart Pincombe, cello
Johanna Novom and Julie Andrijeski, violin
Apollo’s Musettes
Apollo’s Fire has been recognized around the world for a unique sense of style – returning to the true roots of the Baroque by evoking passion and emotion on stage that is coupled with musical authenticity and the highest performance standards.
Praised for “a highly gestural approach to phrasing…like wind through a forest” (The Boston Globe) and “Clock-like precision, birdlike lightness, and intoxicating alacrity…” (Le Républicain Lorrain in Metz, France), the ensemble is in its element when depicting the winds, passions and storms of Nature.
Rameau and Vivaldi were masters at exploiting the virtuosity of the orchestra, so it is no surprise that this program, “Earth, Wind & Fire,” took critics by storm six years ago. The brilliant and virtuosic thematic material is presented with passion - “Affect” is an equal partner with musical virtuosity.
Jeannette Sorrell shares, “I believe these composers saw a new artistic horizon in naturalistic program music: the possibility to fully transcend the confines of the notes on the page. This repertoire is fertile ground for all of us in challenging ourselves to play sentences, phrases, gestures and emotions—not to play notes.”
The program revolves around the theme of nature’s struggles and cadences on the beauty and tranquility found at the end of each storm. While the program begins with Conrad Kocher’s “For the Beauty of the Earth” and ends with René Duchiffe’s (a pen name for principal cellist René Schiffer) “La Beauté de la terre”, both featuring the vocals of Apollo’s Musettes, the focal selections include everything from the chaos of creation (Jean – Féry Rebel’s Les Élémens), to the tempest of the sea (Antonio Vivaldi’s La Tempesta di Mare), to the flight of the winds (Jean-Phillippe Rameau’s Les Boréades). Selections from Vivaldi include the summer tempest movement from Le Quattro Stagioni and the wild fire dance “La Folia” (Madness).
TICKETS for local performances start at $20. Student, senior, young adult, and group discounts are available in select seating sections. Student tickets are free in Fairlawn made possible by the GAR Foundation. Tickets are available through the Apollo’s Fire box office at (216) 320-0012 or (800) 314-2535, or online at www.apollosfire.org.
PRE-CONCERT TALKS: Join the large and lively crowd who come for this popular series of talks, one hour before each performance. Pre-concert talks are sponsored by the Friends of Apollo’s Fire.
LOCAL CONCERTS:
Thursday, January 19, 7:30 PM
Rocky River Presbyterian Church
21750 Detroit Road
Rocky River, Ohio 44116
Saturday, January 21, 8:00 PM
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
2747 Fairmount Boulevard
Cleveland Heights, OH 44106
These concerts are generously sponsored by FirstMerit Corporation.
About the Performers:
Jeannette Sorrell, harpsichord & direction is internationally recognized as a leading voice among early music conductors. As founding Music Director of Apollo’s Fire, she has been credited by BBC Music Magazine for forging “a vibrant, life-affirming approach to the re-making of early music.” She recently returned from a leading a triumphant international tour with Apollo's Fire, with standing ovations in 11 cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Boston, Madrid, Bordeaux and Lisbon.
As a conductor, Ms. Sorrell was one of the youngest students ever accepted to the Aspen and Tanglewood music festivals. She studied conducting under Roger Norrington and Leonard Bernstein, and harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. She won both the 1st Prize and Audience Choice Award in the 1991 Spivey International Harpsichord Competition, competing against over 70 harpsichordists from Europe, Israel, the US, and the Soviet Union. She holds an honorary doctorate from Case Western Reserve University.
Ms. Sorrell’s guest engagements as conductor and harpsichord soloist include the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston (guest conductor and soloist) as well as conducting engagements with the Opera Theatre St. Louis (St. Louis Symphony) and Arizona Opera.
Jeannette Sorrell has been nationally praised for innovative programming, and is the recipient awards from of the American Musicological Society and the National Endowment for the Arts for her research and development of early American programs.
Olivier Brault, concertmaster, brings his communicative enthusiasm and great scholarship to concerts throughout Canada, Europe and the U.S. He performs as soloist with many Montreal-based ensembles including Ensemble Caprice, Les Boréades and the Quatuor Franz Joseph. An accomplished baroque dancer, he also holds a doctorate from the Université de Montréal, where he specialized in 18th-century French violin repertoire. He can be heard on many award-winning recordings on the Atma and Analekta labels. In November 2011, Mr. Brault received the medal of the Assemblée Nationale du Québec for his cultural contributions to his nation.
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