Another Round of Sunday Discoveries from VoM

I can only blame my busy schedule for the fact that I do not follow the Sunday Mornings at Ten videos released by Voices of Music (VoM) on a regular basis. My last encounter was a little less than two months ago at the end of this past May. While that program focused on eighteenth-century Amsterdam, today’s offering consisted of six relatively different works each by a different composer.

The program was framed by two of the most familiar composers of the Baroque period: Georg Philipp Telemann and Antonio Vivaldi. The performance began with the two-minuet (ABA form) movement from Telemann’s TWV 51:F1 recorder concerto in F major. The recorder also contributed to the Vivaldi concerto, joined by two solo violins, two oboes, mandolin, and harpsichord. Both of these were spirited performances, and the Vivaldi instrumentation made for a delightful journey of discovery.

As might be guessed, the program also included a take on a set of variations based on the “Folia” theme. To the best of my knowledge, this was my first contact with Andrea Falconieri. The performance was a little less than four minutes in duration, which made the full title a bit overly generous in expectations: “Folias echa para mi Senora Dona Tarolilla de Carallenos.” Hopefully, the dedicatee of this composition was pleased enough to make sure that the composer was well rewarded!

Another “first contact” was with Maddalena Sirmen. In the scope of music history, it is worth nothing that one of her violin concertos (perhaps the one performed on this video) made a deep positive impression on Leopold Mozart. Violinist Shelby Yamin definitely made this a memorable listening experience for me!

Screen shot of Amanda Forsythe’s performance of a song by John Dowland with Cristiano Contadin (one of the accompanists) in the background (from the YouTube video of this specific selection)

Finally, soprano Amanda Forsythe gave a ravishing account of John Dowland’s “Go crystal tears.” Accompaniment was provided by four Elizabethan viols performed by Elisabeth Reed, Farley Pearce, Cristiano Contadin, and WIlliam Skeen, joined by David Tayler on lute. This was followed by the first of the fifteen short sonatas by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, usually known collectively as the Rosary Sonatas. This is a cycle of sixteen pieces. The first fifteen are reflections on the New Testament, concluding with a secular passacaglia.

The entire journey lasted a little more than half an hour; but, as consistently seems to be the case with these VoM video offerings, there was never a dull moment.