More Virtuoso Concertos from Voices of Music

Henry Purcell (portrait from the studio of John Closterman, probably around the end of the seventeenth century, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Some readers may recall that Voices of Music (VoM) concluded its 2023–2024 concert season with a program whose full title was Virtuoso Concertos: Music of Vivaldi, Bach & Telemann. Last night in the Taube Atrium Theatre, VoM continued that theme with the same title and a new subtitle: Music of Purcell, Telemann, Vivaldi & Uccellini. Ironically, some of these selections subsequently found their way into new settings in the twentieth century; and, for that matter the opening “Bergamasca” by Marco Uccellini was arranged by Director David Tayler for four violins. (This was decidedly more intimate than the full-orchestra arrangement composed by Ottorino Respighi for the second of this three Ancient Airs and Dances suites.) The other source that found its way to the twentieth century was Henry Purcell’s “Rondeau” movement from his incidental music for Aphra Behn’s play Abdelazer, which became the theme for Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.

Most listeners probably felt themselves on more familiar ground with the selections by Georg Philipp Telemann and Antonio Vivaldi, even if the specific selections were “first encounters.” The former was represented by the TWV 51:G9 viola concerto in G major with soloist Manami Mizumoto. This followed the “common practice” four-movement structure: Large, Allegro, Andante, Presto. The viola is all too often dismissed as a “secondary” instrument, but Mizumoto’s delivery was consistently engaging. The full ensemble then concluded the program with the La Bizarre, the TWV 55:G2 orchestral suite in five movements.

The Vivaldi selections were, of course, concertos. Violinist Isabelle Seula Lee concluded the first half of the program with the RV 211 concerto in D major. During the second half of the program, Director Hanneke van Proosdij was the recorder soloist for the RV 433 concerto given the programmatic title “”La Tempesta di Mare.” Yes, Vivaldi composed more concertos than most listeners would care to enumerate; so both of these offerings were probably “first contact” experiences for much of the audience. Nevertheless, they were both given freshly energetic accounts, dismissing any concerns that too much Vivaldi was “more of the same!”