“The best baroque music you have never heard before”
Tempesta di Mare has made it its mission to perform forgotten or underperformed masterworks alongside the well-established music of the baroque era.
Why we do it
Imagine you come across a 300-year-old box of a puzzle. Of course you are curious! But the box has no image of what the puzzle looked like. And it was open on one side, so you can’t be sure that you have all the pieces!
If we knew only Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons we would have certainly heard some beautiful and spectacular music. But even these works were forgotten and remained unheard before they were ‘rediscovered’ during the 19th-century. And because this music is so beautiful and moving, we got curious about all the other music that is out there that we do not—yet—know about!
Over the many years we have found some true gems! Take Fasch, for example. By bringing his music back to life we discovered many new pieces to this puzzle we are helping put together again!
How we find it
Did you recently hear about the Bach aria that was rediscovered, turning up between pages of a book? It’s the stuff every musicologist dreams about! We work with experts who work in libraries across Europe and who tip us off to what might be out there! It’s thrilling!
How a piece of musical notation becomes a modern premiere performance
Finding that piece of old paper with handwritten musical notes is just the beginning. More often than not, things are not nicely labeled! It takes a set of unique musical detective skills—knowledge of the style, what else is out there and even analysis of the paper and ink—to say with certainty that some black dots on paper are a work by Telemann, Fasch, or another.
Check it out
CHECK IT OUT: Dr. Steven Zohn speaking to Fred Child (Performance Today) about his discovery of a set of new scores by Telemann, which Tempesta premiered in 2017.
Once we know we have some real stuff, there comes the next challenge: we might only find some parts to a piece of music, for instance the part for the violin and cello, but not for the flute! Tempesta’s co-founder Richard Stone has made it his specialty to reconstruct missing parts to music, making a first-time performance since the baroque era, or modern-premiere, possible.
What happens after the premiere
For each piece of music Tempesta creates a modern performance edition in house. We make these available for others to use at a nominal charge! Are you interested in performing one of these works with your orchestra or ensemble? Contact us at info@tempestadimare.org.