Newsletter
February–March 2011

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Table of contents

• Next: Characters of the Dance — March 26 & 27
• Program: works performed
• Tickets: single tickets for Characters of the Dance
• When and Where: Venues, Times


• Feature: The King’s Dance: How French Dance Music Conquered the World — new
• FYI: Character of the Dances  — new


• What’s New: Tempestadimare.org Gets A New Look — new
• Road Trip: Fasch’s Hometown: Tempesta travels to Germany — new
• Reviews: Roman Nights a Hit: Local press praises Tempesta’s January concerts — new
• Ate: Stella Sera Dinner: An evening of music, mangia, and merry-making — new

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Characters of the Dance
Bach’s First Orchestral Suite and the dances that inspired it
works by Bach, Rebel and Fasch

• Saturday, March 26 at 8:15, Old Saint Joseph’s Church
• Sunday, March 27 at 4:00, Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill
  

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Tempesta di Mare’s ninth season continues on March 26 & 27 with the orchestral program Characters of the Dance, featuring Bach’s balletic First Orchestral Suite and the French dances that inspired it. Performances take place on March 26 at 8:15 at Old Saint Joseph’s Church in Society Hill and March 27 at 4:00 at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. Tickets are $35 preferred, $25 general, $20 senior, $10 college, children grades 3-12 free. Tickets are available at tempestadimare.org, by phone at 215-755-8776, or by email info@tempestadimare.org.

Bach’s First Orchestral Suite falls within a long tradition of imaginary ballets for orchestra from the high baroque that take their inspiration from French dance music made popular a century earlier. The program’s namesake, Jean-Féry Rebel’s actual ballet, Les Charactères de la Danse, makes for an eighteenth-century analog to Saint-Saëns’s The Carnival of the Animals. in Rebel’s case the vignettes comprise a virtual catalogue of the most popular dance forms. The whimsey of Les Charactères will come as no surprise to listeners familiar with his more-famous, avant-garde ballet, Les Éléments, which Tempesta performed in 2007.

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PROGRAM

Characters of the Dance
Bach’s First Orchestral Suite and the dances that inspired it
works by Bach, Rebel and Fasch

March 26 & 27

Tempesta di Mare | Baroque Orchestra

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Rounding out the program are a rousing symphony for strings in G minor by Bach-contemporary Johann Friedrich Fasch and the modern world premiere of an athletic orchestral suite in A minor—a work which shares a common dance inspiration with the Bach—also by Fasch. The two Fasch works form part of the repertoire that Tempesta will take on its first orchestral tour to Germany later in April, and will provide content for a continuing, live-in-concert recording project for Chandos Records.

Chandos has contracted Tempesta di Mare to produce a new CD annually for worldwide commercial release on its Chaconne label. In a marketplace otherwise dominated by European groups, Tempesta di Mare is the only US baroque orchestra on the prestigious British label’s roster. The recording project has been made possible in part with a grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Music Project.

Finally, the program will include an overture by Fasch, discovered in the archives of Dresden, that suggests that Fasch enjoyed the movie Rocky. No joke.

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