Voices of Music: Eighteenth-Century Amsterdam

Unless I am mistaken, my busy schedule has not allowed me to set aside time for a Sunday Mornings at Ten video compiled by Voices of Music since August of last year. The title of today’s offering, Episode 18 in the current (fifth) season of the series, was Amsterdam music printing in the 18th century. More specifically, the selections were from publications by Estienne Roger, a French Huguenot who escaped to Amsterdam to avoid the implications of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

Trumpeter Dominic Favia playing Torelli’s concerto with the Voices of Music ensemble (screenshot from the video of his performance)

As might be guessed, most (if not all) of those publications involved Italian sources. Today’s program presented published works by three of the best known Italian composers: Antonio Vivaldi, Arcangelo Corelli, and Giuseppe Torelli. The selections from the first two of those composers involved only the VoM strings (with harpsichord continuo provided by Hanneke van Proosdij). However, the Torelli selection was a concerto in D major for trumpet and strings, entry 188 in the catalog compiled by Estienne Roger. The soloist was Dominic Favia, who delivered all the intricacies of his part with engaging confidence.

Each of the videos was recorded during a different performance. The “program,” as it was presented this morning, was a compilation of those sources. The “unity” involved Roger’s publications, which included the Vivaldi and Corelli selections and may also have included the Torelli concerto.