Stormy Weather
Tempests, Shipwrecks & Nature’s Fury
Followed by a Buffet of Artisanal Cheeses & Mulled Wine
In baroque music, storms and tempests appear not only as literal representations of nature’s fury but also convey the whirlwind of emotions from a broken heart. Opera composers created frightening scenes with an ingenious arsenal of stage machinery capable of producing howling wind, thunder, rain and lightening. During the course of our treacherous musical journey, we meet violin virtuoso Francesco Veracini who barely survived a shipwreck in 1745 in which he lost two of his precious Stainer violins. In music of Handel, Ariosti, Rameau and Vivaldi, virtuoso passage work and musical pyrotechnics are enhanced by a variety of thrilling special effects. Barrel-like wind machines, metal ‘thunder’ sheets and pea-filled rain apparatus add dramatic realism to music which depicts ships sinking in tumultuous seas, windstorms, frightful furies and the wrath of mythological Gods.
The Artists:
Michelle Humphreys, Baroque Sound Effects
Kate Maroney, Mezzo Soprano
Jörg-Michael Schwarz & Leah Gale Nelson, Baroque Violin
Peter Kupfer, Baroque Viola Motomi Igarashi, Violine
Mark Kramer, Baroque ‘Cello Michael Sponseller, Harpsichord
The Program:
George Frideric Handel, Overture, Prelude & ‘Furie Terribili’ from Rinaldo
Antonio Veracini, Trio Sonata in G Major
Francesco Veracini Fuga o Cappriccio con 4 Soggetti
Attilio Ariosti, Cantata ‘Il Naufragio’ (The Shipwreck)
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Les Cyclopes & Antoine Forqueray, ‘Jupiter’
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Opera Storm Scenes
Henry Purcell, ‘Dance of the Winds’ & ‘The Cold Song’
Antonio Vivaldi, ‘Agitata infidu’ from ‘Juditha triumphans’
