Voices of Music Celebrates 100th Sunday Video

After last week’s “hiccup,” the latest installment in the Sunday Mornings at Ten series of YouTube concerts presented by Voices of Music (VoM) was launched this morning at 10 a.m. This was the 27th episode of the series’ third season; but, more significantly, it was the 100th episode since the series was launched. The program consisted of nine archived videos from different performances in the overall VoM series of concerts.

Antonio Vivaldi was featured with three of the violin concertos in The Four Seasons, the first four concertos in his Opus 8 collection entitled Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (the contest between Harmony and Invention). Their “order of appearance” (which was not their order in the Opus 8 publication) was “Winter” (the fourth concerto), “Summer” (the second concerto), and “Spring” (the first concerto). While there was a uniformity of instrumentation for Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach was also represented by three compositions, each with its own unique instrumentation. The first selection was the “Air” movement from the BWV 1068 orchestral suite. This was followed by a complete account of BWV 1048, the third of the “Brandenburg” concertos. The final Bach selection was his BWV 999, consisting of a single prelude movement for lute.

Three other composers were represented by single selections. The first of these was Johann Pachelbel’s canon in D major. Arcangelo Corelli was represented by the fourth concerto (in the key of D major) in his Opus 6 collection. Finally, the program concluded with the only vocal work, “As steals the morn” from George Frideric Handel’s pastoral ode L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, setting the poetry of John Milton.

This was, to say the least, a rich program. In fact, it was roughly twice as long as the usual Sunday Mornings at Ten episodes. Nevertheless, there was never a dull moment; and the video production facilitated keeping track of how the thematic material migrated from one instrument to another.

Performance of BWV 1048 by violinists Carla Moore, Maxine Nemerovski, and Gabrielle Wunsch, violists Katherine Kyme, Maria Caswell, and Lisa Grodin, cellists Tanya Tomkins, Elizabeth Reed, and William Skeen, with continuo by Farley Pearce on violone and Hanneke van Proosdij on double manual harpsichord

Nevertheless, if I had to “play favorites,” I would have to go with BWV 1048. This is a “concerto with a vengeance” with individual solo parts for three violins, three violas, and three cellos. The music itself makes for a rather thick texture; but, because each line is a solo, one can appreciate the interleaving of voices in Bach’s contrapuntal writing.

Here’s looking forward to the next 100 episodes!