Arts & Events

Voices of Music, a chamber ensemble headed by Hanneke van Proosdij and David Tayler,offered a fine program of Baroque concertos at venues in Palo Alto, Berkeley, and San Francisco on December 17-19. I attended the Berkeley concert on December 18 at First Congregational Church. Opening the program was the Don Quixote Suite by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767). 

This endearing suite is a “concerto” in all but name, being an ensemble without designated soloists. Inspired by Cervantes’ comic novel, Telemann’s Don Quixote Suite begins with an overture that starts out with stately rhythms that suggest the chivalric bent of Don Quixote’s imagination. Quickly, however, the music becomes mercurial, suggesting all the twists and turns of Don Quixote’s adventures and misadventures. Lively segments portray episodes such as the battle with windmills, the knight’s amorous sighs for his Dulcinea, the squire Sancho Panza being wrapped in a blanket and tossed in the air, the galloping of the hero’s horse Rocinante and of Sancho Panza’s donkey, and, finally, Don Quixote’s dreams. Throughout this suite, the string ensemble was accompanied by Hanneke van Proosdij on harpsichord and Katherine Heater on baroque organ. Noteworthy were elements of interplay between violins and cellos. 

Telemann’s Don Quixote Suite is an affectionate tribute to the much-loved tale of the follies of Cervantes’ hero and his squire. 

Next on the program was the Violin Concerto in A Major by Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770). Though Tartini’s parents wanted him to become a priest, as a law student in Padua Giuseppe Tartini perfected his fencing skills and at age 18 incurred the wrath of Cardinal Cornaro, archbishop of Padua, by marrying the Cardinal’s 20 year-old protégée, Elisabetta Primavore. The enraged Cardinal charged Tartini with abduction, causing him to flee Padua and take refuge anonymously in a Franciscan monastery in Assisi., where Tartini devoted himself to mastering the violin. In 1715, Cardinal Cornaro forgave Tartini and invited him to return to Padua where he was reunited with his wife. They remained married for 59 years but had no children. 

Legend has it that when Tartini heard Florentine violinist Francesco Maria Veracini play, he became unsatisfied with his own self-taught technique. So he sequestered himself in Ancona to work out an entirely new bowing and fingering technique modeled on that of Veracini. By age 28, Giuseppe Tartini was a noted violinist who soon took up the post of Concertmaster at St. Anthony’s Basilica in Padua, a position he held for 44 years. He founded a school for violinists at Padua and became known as a great teacher of violin playing. However, in 1740 Tartini suffered an arm injury that obliged him to explore a different bowing technique. He wrote several treatises on violin playing and on acoustic theory. 

Tartini’s Violin Concerto in A Major, D 91, one of several he wrote in that key, begins with an Allegro movement in which the ensemble offers three striking chords in quarter notes. Then the violin soloist, here Elizabeth Blumenstock, embellishes the opening motif with many virtuosic elements, including florid ornaments, perky trills, arpeggios modulating through a challenging series of harmonies, and scales in double-stopped thirds. This concerto’s second movement is a lovely, lyrical Adagio, beautifully rendered here by Elizabeth Blumenstock. A very lively Presto in triple meter closes this concerto with more virtuosic display from the soloist. 

After intermission, Voices of Music opened the concert’s second half with the Concerto in G Major or “Christmas” Concerto of Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713). First performed on Christmas Eve of 1690 in Rome, this charming concerto offers musical tableaux of the Nativity. It opens with a brief introduction marked Vivace, then offers a meditative movement marked Grave sostenuto. With the first of two Allegros, the trio of soloists takes over, here featuring Elizabeth Blumenstock and Kati Kyme on baroque violins and Willima Skeen on cello. A running motif suggests the shepherds hurrying to view the babe in the manger. Then a sweet Adagio offers a gently rocking motif that suggests a cradle being rocked. An Allegro briefly interrupts the gentle rocking, which soon, however, resumes with a calming effect. In the final Pastorale, the ensemble imitates the drones of shepherds’ bagpipes to accompany the gentle lullaby played by the trio of soloists. 

Next on the program was the Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). In this concerto the violin soloist was Rachell Ellen Wong, a rising young performer on both baroque violin and the modern violin. Here she performs on baroque violin. Bach is credited with developing a more unified concerto form in which soloist and ripieno ensemble work together harmoniously rather than in competition with each other. In the A minoir Concerto, the ensemble opens with striking chords that will repeat throughout this Allegro movement, with the soloist taking up these chords and ornamenting them in lively fashion. The Andante in the key of C Major features a recurring ostinato from the cellos and delightful roulades from the solo violinist. The final movement, a lively Allegro assai, features difficult passage work from the solo violinist, here masterfully performed by Rachel Ellen Wong. 

Closing out this concert was La Follia by Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762). Having studied with Arcangelo Corelli, Francesco Geminiani here takes up a Corelli set of variations written for a single violin and basso continuo and adds a second violin and a cello. This trio of instruments was here played by Elizabeth Blumenstock and Kati Kyme on violins and Willian Skeen on cello. For this piece by Geminiani, David Tayler switched from archlute to baroque guitar, thus providing a refreshingly new sound. Especially noteworthy was Elizabeth Blumenstock’s virtuosic 

perfomance on violin. This delightful and constantly surprising set of variations brought this lovely concert to a glorious close. Throughout the concert Hanneke van Proosdij conducted from the harpsichord.