Voices of Music Showcases Three Violinists

Since the announcement this past Wednesday of Musica Transalpina, the second Voices of Music (VoM) concert in its 2022–2023 season, there was a minor change in the program’s subtitle. What had been Chamber music from Italy and England had become Seventeenth century music for three violins. Mind you, the violinists, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Cynthia Freivogel, and Augusta McKay Lodge, all of whom can be counted as “VoM veterans,” were cited in Wednesday’s article; but last night they were also acknowledged by the new subtitle. In addition, the number of composers included on the program had significantly expanded.

For most of us in the audience, the program was a generous journey of discovery, even where familiar names such as John Dowland (not mentioned in Wednesday’s article) were concerned. Indeed, in the context of my own listening experiences, familiarity only began to emerge towards the end of the evening with selections from Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber’s “Rosary” sonatas and the all-too familiar canon and gigue movements by Johann Pachelbel. Mind you, it is worth noting that, with only three violinists, the attentive listener was in a better position to appreciate the “echo” effects that made the canon sound like a canon. For that matter, in addition to contributing to a trio, each violinist had solo opportunities along with the different combinations of duo pairings.

Taken as a whole, most of the program selections may have been unfamiliar; but the skilled virtuoso turns delivered by all three of the violinists made the entire evening a thoroughly engaging offering.