“The Saturday performance at Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill was recorded live—the latest in Tempesta di Mare’s relationship with the Chandos label—and was worth preserving. The group, expanded to 25 or so musicians, was more than well-rehearsed; it had internalized the music. The performance revealed [Telemann’s Ino] narrative with admirable specificity and maintained a crackling energy even in moments that signified release in the dramatic tension—thus the final joyful aria, “Tönt in meinem Lobgesang,” which brought the audience to its feet. Other works on the program were discoveries made by Tempesta directors Richard Stone and Gwyn Roberts. Even as someone who has rarely warmed to Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758), I was taken with his Concerto for Orchestra in D, whose sumptuous scoring challenged every section of Tempesta di Mare, with concertmaster Emlyn Ngai acting as a musical beacon. Even more engaging was Overture Grosso in G by Johann Gottlieb Janitsch (1708-63) for an unevenly divided double orchestra, each side taking turns leading the other, but changing the other’s ideas to suit their respective sizes.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 2011.
“Tempesta di Mare ended its ninth season with three pieces that illustrate the combination of scholarship and musicianship that maintains the liveliness and unpredictability of today’s early music scene. The evening’s main event, Telemann’s Ino cantata, was so passionate that at times I thought Laura Heimes must be singing in Italian, not German. Heimes gave the piece an all-out treatment, immersing herself in the characters as if playing a full-dress opera instead of a cantata. The program’s first item, a Concerto for Orchestra by Johann Friedrich Fasch, repeated a piece that Tempesta has played before as part of its continuing revival of Fasch’s work. Horn passages, jaunty violin interludes and interplays between the strings and the flute create a stream of music that rushes toward an end all too soon. Tempesta di Mare’s audiences heard [Johann Gottlieb Janitch’s Ouverture Grosso for double orchestra’s] first performances since the Baroque era. For his Ouverture Grosso, Janitsch divided his orchestra into two units and produced a real-life stereo effect, with the violins in each section answering each other across the hall. Tempesta’s musicians produced the quality performances their audiences have come to expect. Concertmaster Emlyn Ngai handled several solo passages for violin with his usual flair. But the scene-stealers on this outing were the horn players, Todd Williams and Aleks Ozolins. The valveless natural horn is one of the most difficult instruments a musician can take up, but its presence adds a distinctively Baroque sound that makes it worth the trouble. The evening ended with the feel-good conclusion to Telemann’s above-mentioned Ino. Neptune arrives in a rush of musical pageantry, complete with horns, and turns the title character into an immortal. And the whole orchestra, with the horns once again prominent, creates a vision of the paradise in which Ino will spend eternity.” Broad Street Review, May 2011.