Review: ensembleNEWSRQ explores French spectral genre of music heraldtribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heraldtribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
On many levels, the music is reminiscent of Vivaldi mixed with Johann Sebastian, but the genteel fabric, most notably in the slow movement, is tossed up by awkward elbow jabs of sound. It is vigorous and edgy, posing plenty of finger challenges for the violins. Happily, there is never a dull moment in this score.
C.P.E Bach offers a more refined style, sensitive and more gracious, fitting with early classical music developed later by Haydn and Mozart. Unfortunately, we don’t hear his music often, and after experiencing this Cello Concerto in A Major (Wq 172), I am dumbfounded as to why.
There’s nothing like an uplifting classical mass with full choral and orchestral forces to uplift the soul after a year of pandemic restrictions and for some social isolation. Key Chorale’s new online program “Coronation: Mozart & Haydn” is a crowning achievement and well worth pulling up more than once.
Josef Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were contemporaries, friends, mentor and mentee. The younger Mozart composed his Coronation Mass, KV 317 in 1779 for an Easter service at Salzburg Cathedral, although the mass got its name from a second performance for the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II.
There is a gracious elegance that shines through this score and is well captured by the chamber singers and orchestra under the vigorous leadership of conductor Joseph Caulkins.
Gayle Williams, Correspondent
The coronavirus pandemic has created many obstacles for performing arts organization, particularly in limiting how live shows can be presented. But it has also provided them with new opportunities.
“One of the silver linings of this pandemic is that we are bringing our music and our outdoor beauty together,” said Elisabeth Spahn about the Sarasota Orchestra’s series of outdoor concerts presented this season as SO on the Road: Parks & Partners.
Five of these concerts are scheduled now through the end of the season at locations as varied as G.T. Bray Park and Nathan Benderson Park in Manatee County and the Ringling Museum courtyard and Bay Preserve at Osprey in Sarasota County.
There are only three – the strong-willed servant, Serpina; the badgered old master, Uberto; and the mute manservant, Vespone.
Ample recitative drives the bickering and narrative between Stefano de Peppo’s Uberto and Anna Mandina’s lofty-minded Serpina. The musical highlights are found in their respective arias and duets.
De Peppo captures the contrast of Uberto’s gruff complaints and submissive resignation to his servant-mistress first in “Sempre in contrasti,” where he talks a good game of standing up to Serpina’s constant arguments. Supremely confident and sure of voice, De Peppo keeps all eyes on himself with clear gestures highlighting his intent. His deeply resonant bass-baritone voice is as captivating and agile as his movement.