Reviews

Tempesta di Mare’s imaginative co-directors based their Characters of the Dance program on an inspired theme. They preceded Bach’s First Orchestral Suite with two pieces that contained examples of the baroque dances that Bach elaborated in the suite. The program’s first half illustrated the dances with a ballet score by the French court composer Jean-Féry Rebel and […]

“The concert drew an audience that literally packed the church and that enthusiastically rewarded the eight chamber players of the orchestra with hearty and heart-warming applause. It was unlikely that there was another concert dedicated solely the music of Francois Couperin in all of America, let alone one that drew a full house. The fact […]

Rottsolk’s voice is supple and stylish…the performances are unflaggingly attractive and reveal one beautifully crafted aria after another.” Gramophone, July 2010 “A splendid showcase for these eloquent and committed musicians.” International Record Review, May 2010

“After some 290 years of existence, J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos would be expected to have found some sort of optimum manner of performance. And they seemed to until the last decade, when this music became a repertoire crossroads in the early music world. Each new group built on the strengths of the last, rendering once-classic […]

“Tempesta di Mare performed Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Lamentations of Jeremiah Friday night, March 26, in the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. Tempesta’s directors Gwyn Roberts and Richard Stone divided the six [cantatas] to make two equal halves of an intriguing and enlightening program. The six sets of specific “Lamentations” themselves throb with heart-breaking melancholy and despair while […]

“Independent Presbyterian Church concluded its annual Religious Arts Festival with a fiery performance by Tempesta di Mare. Titled “Venice to Leipzig,” the program featured high Baroque selections by Bach, Telemann, and Vivaldi, and a couple of surprises from Johann Jacob Walther and Francesco Maria Veracini. Tempesta di Mare performed with precision and passion. The undisputed […]

“The first nice thing was the turnout. It was encouraging to see so many folks on hand in Towson University’s large concert hall. (Pro Musica usually holds forth in the center’s more intimate venue.) The second nice thing was having Philadelphia’s excellent Tempesta di Mare participate on this occasion with Pro Music Rara members, which […]

“Not one just to play Bach’s masterpieces, Tempesta in its Brandenburg series contextualizes the music within like-minded works from Bach’s time

—a great practice with any repertoire. Even minor figures show how differently creative minds reflected their time. In fact, Bach’s already considerable stature, as represented by Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, was emphasized in the program’s […]

“Performances were imposing and forthright, eschewing the polite tidiness of many baroque groups. Tempesta maintained a bit of unruliness that was more than an attractive counterweight to the music’s innate formality. The horns came through with the magnetic tension that comes from doing so much with a seemingly primitive set of circular pipes.” Philadelphia Inquirer, October […]

“The ensemble Tempesta di Mare from Philadelphia/USA demonstrated how wonderful such dusted-off scores can sound to a virtually sold-out audience in the Muthaus at Burg Hardegsen. From the onset the crisp-playing musicians whisked away any preconceptions that the eighteenth century can only offer dry-sounding fodder on which only moths would be happy to feed. There […]