New Century Chamber Orchestra in January

Having pretty much accounted for the “seasonal holiday” events, this site can begin to prepare readers for performances next month. Currently, the only performances that have come to my attention will not take place until late in January. Fortunately, they will be worth the wait!

Violinist Simone Porter (from her Opus3 Artists Web page)

The first of these will be the third of the four performances in San Francisco by the New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO) with its Music Director Daniel Hope. American violinist Simone Porter will serve as guest leader of a program entitled Enlighten Me, and the ensemble will be joined by students of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The repertoire will span music history from the twelfth century (with Hildegard von Bingen’s setting of the antiphon “O virtus sapientiae”) to “Cathedral of Light” by the contemporary composer Juhi Bansai. Other composers on the program will be Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Heitor Villa-Lobos. Porter will also be the soloist in the performance of Bach’s BWV 1042 violin concerto in E major.

The San Francisco performance of this program will take place on Saturday, January 24, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The venue will be the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, which is located 50 Oak Street, a short walk from the underground Muni station. Tickets may be purchased through a City Box Office Web page with prices between $35 and $80.

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.

VoM Presents a Secular “Happy Holidays” Video

This morning the Sunday Mornings at Ten series of YouTube concerts presented by Voices of Music (VoM) served up both sacred and secular programs. The former was a performance of the Venetian Christmas Vespers, composed by Alessandro Grandi and running about 75 minutes in length. However, for those that do not celebrate Christmas, VoM also released a Happy Holidays playlist, a program consisting of three concertos and excerpts from Terpsichore, a collection of courtly dances compiled by Michael Praetorius.

Screen shot  of Augusta McKay Lodge playing the cadenza in the first movement of Antonio Vivaldi’s “Grosso mogul” concerto

The concerto composers were, in order of appearance, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (a C major concerto for trumpet and strings), Giuseppe Torelli (a D major concerto for trumpet and strings), and Antonio Vivaldi (his RV208, a finger-busting concerto for violin in D major given the title “Grosso mogul”). Each of these concertos was a major undertaking, but the Vivaldi selection presented the most demanding cadenzas by a long shot. Augusta McKay Lodge threw the full force of her technical skills into performing those cadenzas making for the most jaw-dropping events in the entire program.

Beyond being impressed by virtuosity unto an extreme, I have to confess to a soft spot for the Terpsichore collection. Like many of my generation, I first came to know this music not from “early music” performances but from Ottorino Respighi’s three Ancient Airs and Dances suites. However, once I had come to know all the themes from those suites, I was well prepared to listen to them as one might have heard them performed during the Renaissance.

Similarly, I relished the opportunity to listen to two different masters of the baroque trumpet. The soloist for the Biber concerto was John Thiessen, and Dominic Favia performed the Torelli concerto. Over the course of my concert-listening experiences, I came to know Thiessen through a diversity of eyebrow-raising performances. My first contact with Favia, on the other hand, was in April of 2016, when he performed the Torelli concerto with American Bach Soloists; and the video was probably made when he played the concerto at the Voices of Music Holiday Concert in December of 2018.

Those that prefer to take a secular approach to celebrating the end of the year will probably enjoy the Happy Holidays perspective while looking forward to future VoM programs.

Christmas from the 16th to the 21st Century

Last night Herbst Theatre hosted the third program in the current season of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale entitled Six Centuries of Christmas. The original plan was that the span of time would extend to the immediate present with the world premiere performance of a commissioned work by Roderick Williams, but that composition was apparently not completed in time for performance this month. Instead, the six centuries were spanned by two composers with almost exactly the same names: John Taverner (1490–1545) and John Tavener (1944–2013).

This turned out to be an engaging pairing. Each of the two composers had his own way of creating sacred music in a polyphonic setting, but there was a shared rhetoric of intricacy in the play of multiple vocal lines. It is worth noting that, for all of my interest in early music, which has involved several encounters with Taverner, I realized that, thanks to the Church of the Advent of Christ the King, I have been able to enjoy selections of sacred music by both the those composers.

This was only the first of several pairings in the organization of the performance. Two of those pairings were family-related, serving to conclude both the first and second halves of the program. The first of these began with the all-too-familiar canon and gigue coupling by Johann Pachelbel, followed by a Magnificat setting by his son Charles Theodore Pachelbel (who happens to have been one of the first European composers to move to the American colonies, making a career for himself in Charleston, South Carolina). The second pairing began with a sonata for three violins by Giovanni Gabrieli, followed by another Magnificat setting by his uncle Andrea Gabrieli.

The Gabrieli coupling was, in turn, preceded by a Russian coupling. Like the Gabrieli coupling, it was presented in reverse chronological order, beginning with the “Rejoice, O Virgin” movement from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Opus 37 All-Night Vigil. This was followed by the “Cherubic Hymn” from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 41 Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

The other composers represented on this program were Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Antonio Vivaldi (a solo violin concerto composed for the Christmas occasion), Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. The program was led from a harpsichord keyboard by Music Director Richard Egarr. Valérie Sainte-Agathe prepared the Chorale. The overall result was a celebratory occasion that was as joyous as it was informative.

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.

Voices of Music to Present “Transalpine” Program

Featured violinists (clockwise from upper-left) Cynthia Freivogel, Augusta McKay Lodge, and Elizabeth Blumenstock (from the Arts People event page for the concert being discussed)

This Sunday will see the performance of the second of the three concerts scheduled for the 2022–2023 season by Voices of Music. The full title of the program is Musica Transalpina: Chamber music from Italy and England. This title was inspired by the invention of the violin in Italy, which was attractive enough to cross the Alps and (metaphorically at least) conquer all of Europe (including the other side of the English Channel). As might be expected, the program will feature three violinists, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Cynthia Freivogel, and Augusta McKay Lodge. Selections have not yet been finalized; but the composers to be represented on this program will be (in alphabetical order) Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Arcangelo Corelli, Biagio Marini, Thomas Morley, Nicola Matteis, and Henry Purcell.

The San Francisco performance of this program will begin at 8 p.m. on Sunday, February 19. As always, the venue will be St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. General admission for individual concerts will be $58, and the reduced rate, which applies to seniors and members of SFEMS, EMA, or ARS, will be $53. Full-time students with valid identification will be admitted for $5. A single Arts People event page has been created with hyperlinks for tickets for the remaining two concerts in the season.

SFEMS to Begin Year with “Fantastical” Music

The Ars Lyrica Houston Chamber Players, Matthew Dirst, Mary Springfels and Elizabeth Blumenstock (courtesy of SFEMS)

Next month the San Francisco Early Music Society (SFEMS) will present the third of the seven concerts in its 2018–19 season. As usual, the season involves both local and visiting talent; and, since the performance at the beginning of this month was given by the local a cappella choir Cappella SF, next month’s concert will bring in visitors. They will be the trio that calls itself the Ars Lyrica Houston Chamber Players. Members are Director Matthew Dirst (harpsichord), Elizabeth Blumenstock (violin), and Mary Springfels (gamba).

The program they will present has the title Semper Fantasticus. This refers to the “fantastical style” explored by both Italian and German composers during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The adjective basically refers to seeking out particularly unconventional approaches to invention. Some of the more familiar names of composers who took these approaches are Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Dietrich Buxtehude, and (of course) Johann Sebastian Bach. (Bach will be represented on the program by Dirst playing selections from both books of The Well-Tempered Clavier. The Italian practitioners tend to be less familiar, and they include Antonio Bertali and Francesco Rognoni.

The San Francisco performance of this concert will take place on Sunday, January 13, at 4 p.m.; and the venue will be St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, which is located at 1111 O’Farrell Street, just west of the corner of Franklin Street. Single ticket prices will range between $45 and $12. In addition, there are membership and subscription options for attending three or more concerts with discounts of up to 25%. All information about ticketing options has been summarized on a single Web page. Tickets may also be purchased by calling 510-528-1725.

Virtuoso Concertos from Voices of Music

Last night in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Voices of Music began its 2017–2018 concert series in San Francisco with its annual Holiday Concert. The title of this season’s program was Virtuoso Concertos of Bach, Biber, Handel & Vivaldi. Strictly speaking, the offering by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber was not a concerto; and the title overlooked the inclusion of a recorder concerto in D minor by Domenico Natale Sarro, which was receiving its first round of performances in the Bay Area. In addition, the entire evening was framed by two pieces that were not concertos, an instrumental arrangement of the Sarabande movement from George Frideric Handel’s HWV 437 keyboard suite in D minor at the beginning and Francesco Geminiani’s instrumental transcription of the last of Arcangelo Corelli’s twelve Opus 5 sonatas, a single movement set of variations on the “Folia” theme, to conclude the program.

This made for an evening of highly engaging selections, given a compelling account by a rich ensemble of highly engaged musicians. Elizabeth Blumenstock and Kati Kyme played viola in Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1051 (“Brandenburg”) concerto in B-flat major (the sixth of the set), and played violin for the rest of the selections. The other violinists were Lisa Grodin and Carla Moore, and Maria Caswell was the only other violist. Elisabeth Reed and William Skeen took the gamba parts in BWV 1051, while Skeen played cello for the rest of evening, including joining Tanya Tomkins in Antonio Vivaldi’s RV 409 concerto in E minor for two cellos. Continuo was provided by Farley Pearce on violone and David Tayler (co-director of Voices of Music) on archlute. Hanneke van Proosdij (the other Voices of Music co-director) took the recorder solo in the Sarro concerto and joined Moore for the solo work in Handel’s HWV 314, the third of Handel’s Opus 3 set of six concerti grossi. She played harpsichord for the remainder of the evening, along with Katherine Heater on organ (shifting to harpsichord during Proosdij’s recorder performances).

While the emphasis may have been on concertos, the high point of the program came with the performance of “Battalia,” Biber’s musical depiction of a battle. For those who heard this piece performed last month by the New Century Chamber Orchestra, this was a welcome opportunity to revisit this very adventurous piece of program music, performed this time on period instruments. As was observed in the account of last month’s performance, Biber managed to anticipate the music of Charles Ives at its most outrageous over 200 years before Ives was born. This takes place in the movement entitled “Die liederliche Gesellschaft von allerley Humor,” which I had previously translated as “the songs of a company of knights with many different attitudes.” Each instrument has a solo part depicting one of those knights, and each knight has his own favorite song. The instruments enter one-by-one, each knight singing his own song and trying to drown out the others. Ives could not have written this movement any better than Biber did:

Excerpt from Biber anticipating Ives (from Wikimedia Commons, transcribed into Sibelius by Philip Legge, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license)

The ensemble also decided to give a “semi-staged” presentation of the battle itself. This consisted primarily of Tomkins and Skeen holding their instruments like muskets, aiming at each other and then enduring the kickback of the gun each time a shot was fired. Their aim was clearly pretty bad, since, by the end of the movement, Proosdij was slumped over her keyboard.

The rest of the evening was far less outrageous, but it was unfailingly engaging from beginning to end. It involved just the right mix of the very familiar (such as the Bach selection), the somewhat familiar (such as the Folia theme), and the previously unencountered concerto by Sarro. Once again the Voices of Music season is off to a good start, and there remains much to anticipate in the two concerts that remain to be presented.

NCCO Perks Up Under Beilman’s Leadership

Readers may recall that this site was less than enthusiastic about the first concert in the 2017–2018 season of the New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO), led by Artistic Partner Daniel Hope. The overall impact of the evening was never more than lukewarm, and the general impression was that Hope spent more time talking to the audience than establishing a compelling chemistry with his ensemble. Last night NCCO returned to Herbst Theatre with violinist Benjamin Beilman serving as both Guest Concertmaster and soloist. There was definitely a new sheriff in town; and, to mix metaphors, NCCO wasted no time in getting back its mojo.

Given the secure confidence that Beilman brought to his leadership, it is hard to recall that his local debut, given in the Young Masters Series of San Francisco Performances (SFP), took place only this past February. He prepared a program that extended from the seventeenth century of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber to the very recent past (2007) of contemporary composer Andrew Norman. In his capacity as soloist, he selected Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 1042 concerto in E major, an impressive choice given that the earliest composer on his SFP program was Johannes Brahms. Twentieth-century modernism was represented by Igor Stravinsky’s “Basle” concerto in D; and the program concluded with Gustav Mahler’s arrangement for string orchestra of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 95 (“Serioso”) quartet in F minor.

As a Bach soloist Beilman showed a clear appreciation for the intimate spirit of music-making among friends, which may well have been the intention behind the creation of BWV 1042. He had no trouble displaying his agile command of the solo passages without any suggestion of upstaging his supporting ensemble. He was also never afraid to add embellishments of his own, particularly when presenting recapitulated material. All instruments may have been played with a decidedly contemporary technical approach; but there was still a clear sense that the spirit behind the music was “historically informed.” Within the scope of my own listening experience, it was a delight to observe that Beilman was as comfortable with his Bach as he had been with his Brahms earlier this year. (Brahms, of course, had his own love of Bach’s music and was a faithful subscriber to the Bach Gesellschaft’s publication of that composer’s complete works.)

The Bach concerto closed out the first half of the program, which began with an even earlier selection, Biber’s musical depiction of a battle. Beilman confined his remarks to the audience to the very beginning and then primarily to apologize that harpsichordist JungHae Kim’s name had been omitted from the program book. (R.I.P. editing and proofreading: The year of Bach’s death was given as 1950!) However, he also prepared the audience for many of the imaginative “sound effects” that Biber had written into his score.

On the other hand he left the second movement of this suite as a surprise. Biber gave this movement the title “Die liederliche Gesellschaft von allerley Humor,” which translates roughly as “the songs of a company of knights with many different attitudes.” Each instrument depicts one of those knights and “sings” that knight’s song. The instruments enter one-by-one; but, as each one enters, the others keep playing their own songs. The overall effect was a hysterically funny evocation of a style that we normally associate with Charles Ives, even though Biber concocted this piece over 200 years before Ives’ birth.

Biber’s sense of humor served to establish the proper spirit for listening to Stravinsky’s concerto. This piece comes from what is usually called his neoclassical period, although the spirit of the music owes more to composers like Biber and Bach than it does to the First Viennese School. The spirit is clearly a playful one, bouncing along in steady rhythms as the motifs peregrinate from one set of instruments to another. The comic spirit of the piece, however, comes from Stravinsky’s approach to the perfect cadence. He uses these as punctuation marks to cut off his churning rhythms; and, rhetorically, they come across as the intrusions of an unwelcome guest. The cadences are there only because tradition demands their presence, so Stravinsky turns them into objects of ridicule.

Such prankish high spirits could also be found after the intermission in Norman’s “Gran Turismo.” Norman scored this piece “For Eight Virtuoso Violinists” (presumably his own wording). The piece is, for the most part, a richly textured perpetuum mobile of throbbing energy, suggesting that each individual line is a part of an elegantly designed sports car engine.

Often a new work is best assessed in terms of its impact on the players. In this case Hrabba Atladottir, on the right end of the line of violinists, was never shy about breaking out in smiles while playing this piece; and those smiles were definitely infectious. In the past I have had doubts about Norman overplaying his hand, but in this case his spirit was right on the money. The players seemed to appreciate this; and it was not difficult for the attentive listener to “get the spirit.”

On the other hand spirit was what was most lacking in Mahler’s Beethoven arrangement. Opus 95 covers a wide range of emotional dispositions; but it is probably best known for many of its rapid-fire passages, which must be played fearlessly or not at all. Being in the presence of a string quartet channeling all of their physical and spiritual energies into this music is one of the great delights of listening to the chamber music repertoire. The problem is that adding more instruments to each of those lines tends to dilute the effect, rather than pump it up with steroids. There is no doubting that all of the NCCO players gave their respective parts everything they had, but Mahler seems not to have appreciated that this was one of those cases in which more was definitely not better.

An Extra Sunset Chamber/Ensemble Concert Tonight

Sadly, this is a last-minute announcement; but it is definitely one considering. Prior to the final concert in the Sunset Music | Arts Chamber Ensemble Series for this year, a concert has been added to the schedule. This will be an evening of baroque chamber music arranged by harpsichordist Derek Tam and his colleagues, Natalie Carducci and Cynthia Black on violin and Gretchen Claassen and Bruno Hurtado Gosalvez on gamba. (Readers may recall that Tam, Claassen, and Carducci all played in the instrumental ensemble for the Ars Minerva production of La Circe at the beginning of this month.)

Poster for tonight's concert showing Carducci, Claassen, Gosalvez, and Tam (from the Eventbrite Web page)

The program has been conceived as sort of a “world tour” of baroque practices. Four composers will be presented, each from a different country. The first composer will be the Austrian Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber with a performance of the third part of his 1680 collection of instrumental music Mensa sonora. He will be followed by the three-movement “Autumne” section of the suite The Seasons composed by Christopher Simpson. Simpson lived in England during the time of the Civil War and fought on the Royalist side, meaning that he tended to be “on the move” after the War ended. The program will then return to mainland Europe with a performance of a “Sonata a 4” by the German Johann Gottlieb Graun. The journey will then end in France with a four-part sonata in five moments to which François Couperin gave the title “La Sultane.”

This performance will take place tonight, September 23. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, located at 1750 29th Avenue, about halfway between Moraga Street and Noriega Street. Ticket prices are $20 for general admission with a $15 rate for students and seniors. Because the demand tends to be high, advance purchase is highly advised. Tickets may be purchased online through Eventbrite. Further information may be obtained by calling 415-564-2324.

Agave Baroque Explores the Austrian Baroque at Church of the Advent

Yesterday afternoon the Third Sunday Concerts series at the Church of the Advent of Christ the King presented an adventurous and engaging recital by the Agave Baroque chamber ensemble. This is a quintet of two violinists, Aaron Westman and Anna Washburn, playing with a continuo of William Skeen on gamba, Henry Lebedinsky on organ, and Kevin Cooper playing both theorbo and Baroque guitar. The title of the program took up most of the cover of the program handout: The Fantastical Mr. Biber: The experimental harmonies, virtuosity, and modernism of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber.

Biber was born in Bohemia but spent most of his life in Salzburg in Austria. Introductory remarks observed that Baroque music in Austria was distinctively different from that in Germany. The argument was that Austria enjoyed a broader range of influences, not only from Germany to the north but also Italy to the south, Hungary to the east, and possibly even Spain to the west, which was under Hapsburg rule. Thus, the program also included organ music by Georg Reutter, based in Vienna, as well as the “external” influences of Jakob Kremberg (Polish) and Johannes Schenck (Dutch).

However, the focus of the program was on Biber and his “fantastical” capacity for invention, which he brought to the music he composed for the violin. Biber was interested not only in exploring the embellishment of his thematic material but also in complementing those explorations with new approaches to sonorities and harmonies. Thus, most of the selections of his music involved the scordatura technique of tuning the strings to different pitches. As had been observed in the preview article for this concert, each of the depictions of the fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary in the Rosary Sonatas requires its own unique alternative tuning. (Each sonata also was published with a woodcut illustrating its respective Mystery. This could be seen in the photograph including a score page in that preview article.) Yesterday afternoon Washburn played the second of these sonatas, known as “The Visitation,” depicting the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth when they were pregnant with Jesus and John the Baptist, respectively.

The major part of the program, however, was devoted to Biber’s Harmonia artificioso-arioso, which involves scordatura tunings for multiple instruments. The intermission was preceded by two short movements from the third of the seven partitas in this collection, while the second half of the program was devoted primarily to the first of these partitas. Biber experimented with five-part harmonies involving the continuo bass line under double-stop bowing in two violins; and the effect is frequently uncanny. Fortunately, Westman and Washburn were well prepared for the technical demands of the first partita, serving up a thoroughly engaging account of just how inventive Biber could be in his approached to violin performance.

That inventiveness was also well represented by each of the other players. Lebedinsky moved up to the organ loft to play a toccata by Reutter, while Skeen deftly negotiated the virtuoso demands on the gamba in a coupling of a capriccio and fugue by Schenck. Cooper shifted from theorbo to guitar to play arrangements of folk songs by Kremberg, sharing the vocal line with the other musicians as each song traversed several verses.

The result was an encounter with seldom-performed music from a time when Austria had not yet become a musical focal point, all given an absorbing account that made for an excellent way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

This Month’s Third Sunday Concert will Present Agave Baroque

The featured artists at this month’s installment in the 2016–2017 season of Third Sunday Concerts at the Church of the Advent of Christ the King will be the members of the Agave Baroque chamber ensemble. This is a quintet whose members are, in the left-to-right order of the photograph below, Kevin Cooper playing both Baroque guitar (as in the photograph) and theorbo, violinists Aaron Westman and Anna Washburn, organist Henry Lebedinsky, and William Skeen on gamba:

The full title of the program to be presented will be The Fantastical Mr. Biber: The experimental harmonies, virtuosity, and modernism of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber.

Past studies in both linguistics and literature lead me to begin by unpacking that adjective “fantastical.” The definition in the North American English division of the Oxford Living Dictionaries (to honor the font selection) Web site is “Imaginative or fanciful; remote from reality.” This is illustrated with the phrase “a big, fantastical popcorn movie.” It would be fair to say that, over the course of his career, Biber took on both of those definitions of “fantastical” (and without a popcorn maker at his disposal, to boot). Whether or not Agave Baroque will do the same remains to be seen, but it is probably worth recalling that Biber’s domain was far from limited to intimate chamber groups.

Those who follow early music performances in San Francisco will probably recall that the high point of the summer of 2013 was the performance of Biber’s Missa Salisburgensis as part of the American Bach Soloists Festival. To say that Biber summoned up an imaginative approach to resources would be the height of understatement. The performance required four sopranos, four altos, four tenors, four basses, and two mixed choruses (both SSAATTBB). The instrumental resources consisted of four recorders, two oboes, two cornetti, ten trumpets, three trombones, two sets of timpani (each with four drums), two organs, four violins, eight violas, and continuo.

This was far from an isolated case of Biber’s fantastical approach to resources. His motet “Plaudite tympana” (beat the drums) requires the same resources. He also composed Mass settings with 26 separate parts (Missa Alleluia), 23 separate parts (Missa Bruxellensis), and twenty separate parts (Missa Christi resurgentis), as well as a setting of Vespers Psalms for 32 separate parts.

However, it is in his more intimate music that his “experimental harmonies” address the “remote from reality” side of the definition of “fantastical.” The most familiar example is probably his collection of sixteen pieces known as the Rosary Sonatas. This is a cycle in which the first fifteen sonatas depict, in succession, the fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary (which, themselves, would be regarded as “remote from reality” by the secular-minded), followed by an extended passacaglia. Each of these pieces requires a different tuning of the violin as follows:

Created by by de:User:Frinck and edited by de:User:Qpaly, from Wikimedia Commons (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license)

(It may be necessary to click on this image to see it in its original scale.) Note the annotation for the eleventh sonata. In this case not only the tuning but also the ordering of the strings has been changed. Here is a photograph of that reconfiguration:

created by User:Frinck51, from Wikimedia Commons (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

Note that the photographer placed the violin on top of the score, thereby including the key signature the soloist is obliged to follow.

Fantastical, indeed! Again, this sort of experimentation with scordatura (retuning) techniques was not a one-off. The Rosary Sonatas were probably completed around 1676. About twenty years later Biber published his Harmonia artificioso-ariosa, in which he explored scordatura tunings for multiple instruments. This collection consists of seven partitas for two instruments and continuo, so there is a good chance that both collections will be represented in the program that Agave Baroque will bring to their Third Sunday recital.

Like all Third Sunday events, this concert will start at 4 p.m. on the third Sunday of the month, May 21. The Church of the Advent of Christ the King is located at 261 Fell Street, between Franklin Street and Gough Street. The entry is diagonally across the street from the SFJAZZ Center. For those planning on driving, parking will be available in a lot adjacent to the church. A festive reception will follow the performance in Lathrop Hall; and, presumably, all members of the ensemble will be available to answer questions about Biber’s fantastical inclinations. The concert is free, but there is a suggested donation of $20.