Last year the American Bach Soloists (ABS) Connoisseur Series, the new name for its annual Subscription Series, was cut short after its first concert on January 26. Today I learned that the 2021 Connoisseur Series will be presented in an “Online Edition.” As in the past it will consist of three concerts, but each of those concerts will be filmed in advance for subsequent video streaming. Tickets will be available for each of those concerts, and subscriptions will be sold for the entire package of three. Each concert will be available for viewing over a period of ten days; and, for a special V.I.P. Subscription rate, the viewing period will be extended to one month. Each of the programs will be filmed by the same crew that created the film of an ABS performance of George Frideric Handel’s HWV 56 Messiah oratorio. Opening dates and programming for these concerts will be as follows:
March 26, The Premiere Century of the Baroque: This will be be a survey of music composed between 1600 and 1700 in Italy, Germany, France, and England. Many of the composers will be unfamiliar to many listeners. However, Henry Purcell will be one of the representatives of England, and Jean-Baptiste Lully will be the sole representative of France. In addition, one of the German composers will be Johann Pachelbel with his still well-known canon and gigue in D major. The performances will be presented by an ensemble of three violinists (Elizabeth Blumenstock, Cynthia Black, and YuEun Gemma Kim), William Skeen alternating between gamba and cello, Steven Lehning alternating between gamba and violone, and Corey Jamason on harpsichord. The venue for the concert is the Mondavi Center on the campus of the University of California at Davis.
April 30, Favorite Violin Concertos: This program will feature three different violinists: Tatiana Chulochnikova, Tomà Iliev, and Rachell Ellen Wong. They will join forces to conclude the program with Antonio Vivaldi’s RV 551 F major concerto for three violins. The program will begin Vivaldi’s RV 277 violin concerto in E minor. Between these “bookends” there will be performance of the two violin concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 1042 in E major and BWV 1041 in A minor. There will also be a violin version of the alto aria from Bach’s BWV 156 cantata Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe (I am standing with one foot in the grave). The rest of the ensemble will consist of Yvonne Smith on viola, Gretchen Claassen on cello, and Gabriel Benton on harpsichord. The venue will be the Gold Ballroom of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
May 28, Late Baroque German Masters: The composers for this program will be much more familiar than those performed in March. There will be two more Bach selections, the BWV 1064R concerto for three violins in D major and another violin version of an aria, this time from the BWV 249 Easter Oratorio. The Bach selections will be preceded by works by Georg Philipp Telemann (a concerto for three violins in F major), Dieterich Buxtehude (a sonata and gigue in B-flat major), and Handel (a concerto grosso in G minor). The violinists will be Black, Iliev, Gail Hernández Rosa, David Wilson, and June Ziliak. The violist will be Ramón Negrón Pérez, Kenneth Slowik will alternate between gamba and cello, and Lehning will play violone. Jamason will again be the harpsichordist. The venue will be the Great Hall of the Castello de Armorosa in Calistoga.
ABS has created a single Web page for all ticket purchases. The price of a ticket for a single concert is $35. Tickets for the full Connoisseur Series are $90. Finally, the aforementioned V.I.P. rate is $150.
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