…period instruments concert on Hill the best ever
“Tempesta di Mare, Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, opened its 10th anniversary season with a concert Sunday afternoon in the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. The program of music composed by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Friedrich Fasch, William Boyce, Antonio Vivaldi and Jean-Philippe Rameau drew an enthusiastic crowd that showered the period-instrument musicians with round after round of applause. The program was particularly well constructed. It revealed both the breadth and depth of the baroque style of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Vivaldi was Italian, Rameau was French, Boyce was English, and Bach and Fasch were German. Each brought both his own personal as well as national style to the music he composed, yet all five composers shared a common musical language of counterpoint drawn from the Renaissance. Most impressive of all was the series of renditions given all these marvelous scores by the largest ensemble ever assembled by Tempesta di Mare’s co-founders and co-directors Gwyn Roberts and Richard Stone. During the decade since its creation, Tempesta has developed into the finest period instruments ensemble in Greater Philadelphia, and Sunday afternoon’s concert was the best I’ve ever heard the group present. What worked most to elevate this particular concert was the level of ensemble. The strings—all strung with temperamental gut—were flawlessly blended and balanced. The woodwind choir of pairs of flutes, oboes and bassoons—all actually made of wood—were immaculately tuned and elegantly matched. The playing of brass choir of trumpets and horns was powerfully projected and securely ranged. And the timpani playing of Michelle Humphreys added just the right amount of thunder. Happy birthday, Tempesta di Mare! And here’s hoping there will be many more to come.” Chestnut Hill LOCAL, October 2011.
“Happy 10th, Tempesta: lots of players, delight at baroque chamber group’s grand celebration — Tempesta di Mare threw itself a grand 10th birthday party last weekend, with a record-high assemblage of musicians—usually 25 were onstage, wind, brass, and all. That’ll galvanize audiences, in a move as tactically intelligent as it was celebratory: musicians take charge of their own promotion (who else will these days?). And with it came one of the group’s most successful musical reclamations. Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Les Fetes de Polymnie, whose neglect is clearly a cosmic mistake, was written for a special occasion—a major minus, since occasion works become immediately dated. But Tempesta’s suite of dances avoided the opera’s perhaps creaky allegorical plot and revealed a score so inventive, colorful, and overstuffed as to be delightfully subversive. Most baroque-era composers expressed their individuality in the music’s inner workings. Rameau did so in ways that made the outer formalities burst at the seams, especially in this piece. Melodies sometimes sound like his predecessor, Jean-Baptiste Lully, played backward. Bass lines had minds of their own and were often irritable. Numerous phrases had an extra two- or three-note appendix—a slap at the dictatorial symmetry that was often a part of this musical world. As a Ramist over many decades, I had barely heard the title of this piece, much less the music. This may be the single most marvelous discovery of Tempesta’s decade—thanks to cofounders Gwyn Roberts and Richard Stone. William Boyce’s Symphony in A (Op. 2 No. 2) was ingratiating, as was Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins, which had a strong musical kinship to The Four Seasons but with all sorts of quadruple effects that come with having so many soloists.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 2011.
“Celebrate good (Baroque) times — Tempesta di Mare, Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, celebrated its tenth anniversary with a program that opened with a fanfare for the Ark of the Covenant and ended with a ballet suite toasting France’s only victorious battle during the 18th Century. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Fanfare for the Ark opened the fête with three Baroque natural trumpets in full voice, boosted by Michelle Humphrey’s resonant work on the tympani. Horns, reed and strings then joined the trumpets and timpani for an overture by Johann Friedrich Fasch that maintained the pace and volume. The opening of the Fasch provided a salutary reminder that 27 Baroque instruments can deliver a totally satisfying blast when they play in a hall comparable to the halls actually used in the Baroque era. The individual instruments may be quieter than modern instruments, but a full-size Baroque orchestra fits the scale of a venue like the Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church. The Fasch revival has been one of Tempesta’s major projects, and this overture contained the special touches—such as unusual blends of string, oboes and bassoons—that characterize Fasch’s work. Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins, the first half finale, contains some of Vivaldi’s liveliest music, and the four soloists for this performance—Emlyn Ngai, Karina Fox, Fran Berge and Rebecca Harris—performed feats of coordination Baroque style—that is, without a conductor—which must be the musical equivalent of doing high-wire acrobatics without a net. Rameau’s suite from [Les Fêtes de Polymnie] ended Tempesta’s party with a banquet of courtly pleasure music. Its charms included more outbursts from the trumpets and tympani; unexpected effects like passages for the oboe that ended with little slides on Ngai’s violin; and a driving, darkly thrumming processional for the whole orchestra that suggested the Turkish rhythms later popularized by Beethoven and other composers. Would that we could all celebrate our birthdays in such style.” Broad Street Review, October 2011.