Tempesta di Mare will present three concerts in the first half of 2015, which continue the Philadelphia baroque orchestra’s distinctive project, Comédie & Tragédie, a two-season curatorial focus on French Baroque orchestral music for the theater. The thematic programs survey inventive ballets and operas, whimsical cantatas, zesty zarzuelas and the French musical influence on composers from other European countries. In keeping with Tempesta di Mare tradition, there will be a number of modern premieres.

On March 7, Tempesta di Mare returns to the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts with Purcell, Charpentier and ¡zarzuela!, an international program of theatrical music by Frenchman Marc-Antoine Charpentier (the comedy Le Malade imaginaire), Englishman Henry Purcell (the farce The Double Dealer), and that introduces the Spanish court composer Juan Francisco de Navas. The popular, Philadelphia-based mezzo-soprano Maren Montalbano joins the orchestra for a selection of songs from Navas’ zarzuela Destinos vencen finezas, which receive their modern premiere with this performance. The incidental music will be interspersed with concert works, mirroring the 17th-century fashion of performing entre’acts during a staged work, including concerti grossi by Englishman William Babell, Neapolitan composer Alessandro Scarlatti, and his Roman counterpart who dominated the genre, Arcangelo Corelli.

On April 25 and 26, at the Arch Street Meeting House and Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, Tempesta di Mare turns to French chamber cantatas of the early 18th century in either Café et Catastrophe. Praised by The Washington Post for her “gorgeous sound and stylistic acuity,” soprano Rosa Lamoreaux joins the ensemble for Nicolas Bernier’s chamber cantata La café, which extols the virtues of the beverage that was rapidly gaining popularity at the time, Thomas-Louis Bourgeois’ dramatic tragedy Phèdre et Hipolitte, and a selection of airs de cour (courtly songs) by François Couperin. Woven throughout the vocal works are instrumental dances by Jacques Morel and Jean-Féry Rebel.

On June 6 and 7, Tempesta di Mare concludes its 2014-15 season – and its celebration of French baroque music for the theater – in grand style with Comédie et Tragédie, featuring extended suites of music from two mid-18th century stage works: Jean-Marie Leclair’s only full-length opera Scylla et Glaucus, and one of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s many ballets, Les Fêtes de Polymnie. Tempesta di Mare first unveiled the Rameau in 2011, prompting the Philadelphia Inquirer to include the performance in its classical highlights of the year – “a major discovery, with bursts of color and harmonic adventures everywhere.” The performances take place at the Curtis Institute’s Gould Recital Hall and will be repeated on June 12 at the Connecticut Early Music Festival in New London.

Comédie & Tragédie expands upon Tempesta di Mare’s distinguished record of programming high-quality, lesser-known works and composers alongside more familiar music. This broad exploration of French Baroque orchestral music for the theater spans over two centuries and the reign of three monarchs, and has brought to light much repertoire that is rarely performed in the United States. According to Tempesta's co-director Gwyn Roberts, “It has been a joy and a revelation for our ensemble to spend these two seasons speaking one of the world's great musical languages together and sharing such rich, exuberant and nuanced compositions with our audience!” When Tempesta di Mare concluded its 2013-14 season with a program of Marin Marais and Rebel, the orchestra “played with such energy and color that the wit, emotion, and drolleries that continue to define French art were brought to pulsing life,” professed the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Tempesta di Mare’s immersion into French baroque orchestral music for the theater has extended to the style of string instruments the orchestra uses, specifically the use of bows that are shorter than typical baroque bows, befitting the French musical style. Tempesta di Mare’s concertmaster Emlyn Ngai explains: “There is much to be said about using the right tool for the job in anything that we do. Using the appropriate instrumental equipment allows us to reach a higher level of refinement at the same time as teaching us about how to play a particular style of music. I find that playing 17th-century music, especially in the French style, with a short bow allows us to create an incisive buoyancy that is so necessary for the dance aspect of that repertoire. The short bow can easily create more decay in the tone, which can lend a transparency to musical textures as well as a range of inflection that borders on speech.”

Preceding Tempesta di Mare’s orchestral concerts are two related events in February. On the 7th and 8th, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill and Powel House in Old City, the second of 2014-15’s Artist Recital Series takes place, with principal cellist Lisa Terry accompanied by Tempesta co-director Richard Stone on theorbo, devoting a program to viola da gamba music by Marin Marais, the composer popularized by the movie Tous les Matins du Monde.

On February 24, the first of two project-related recordings will be released on Chandos Records. Comédie & Tragédie, Vol. 1, features suites by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Marais and Rebel. Volume two, which will include the Leclair and Rameau suites performed in June and the Charpentier performed in March, will be recorded immediately following the June concerts and is scheduled for release in 2016.

Major support for Comédie & Tragédie has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, with additional support from the William Penn Foundation, The Presser Foundation, and Nancy and Dick Eales. Media coverage is provided through generous support from Cancer Treatment Centers for America.

TEMPESTA DI MARE PHILADELPHIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA & CHAMBER PLAYERS
Fanfare magazine has hailed Tempesta di Mare for its "abundant energy, immaculate ensemble, impeccable intonation, and an undeniable sense of purpose." Led by directors Gwyn Roberts and Richard Stone with concertmaster Emlyn Ngai, Tempesta performs baroque music on baroque instruments with a repertoire that ranges from staged opera to chamber music. The group performs all orchestral repertoire without a conductor, as was the practice when this music was new. Tempesta's Philadelphia Concert Series, noted by the Philadelphia Inquirer for its "off-the-grid chic factor," emphasizes creating a sense of discovery for artists and audiences alike. Launched in 2002, the series has included 31 modern world premieres of lost or forgotten baroque masterpieces, leading the Inquirer to describe Tempesta as "an old-music group that acts like a new-music group, by pushing the cutting edge back rather than forward." Its supporters include the Pew Charitable Trusts, the William Penn Foundation, the Presser Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In a marketplace dominated by European ensembles, Tempesta is the only American baroque music group to record for the prestigious British-based Chandos label. Releases include Weiss: Lute Concerti (2004), Handel: Flaming Rose (2007), Scarlatti: Cantatas and Chamber Music (2010), Fasch: Orchestral Music, vol.1 (2008), vol.2 (2011) and vol.3 (2012), Mancini: Solos for a Flute (2014), and Bach Trio Sonatas (2014). Live performances have been broadcast nationally on SymphonyCast, Performance Today, Sunday Baroque and Harmonia. Tempesta di Mare's concert recordings are distributed worldwide via the European Broadcasting Union, the world's foremost alliance of public service media organizations, with members in 56 countries in Europe and beyond.

Tempesta di Mare has toured from Oregon to Prague. Notable recent appearances have included the International Handel Festival in Göttingen, Germany; the group's New York debut at the Frick Collection; the orchestra's first European tour to the International Fasch Festival in Zerbst and a sold-out appearance on the Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series in Hartford, Connecticut. 

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For further information, image or interview requests please contact Melanne Mueller, MusicCo International, 917 907 2785, melanne@musiccointernational.com

For further details about Tempesta di Mare, please visit http://tempestadimare.org

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Orchestral Concerts

Purcell, Charpentier and ¡zarzuela!

Saturday, March 7, 2015, 8:00 pm

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Purcell Music for The Double Dealer (Congreve)

Babell Concerto in D, Op. 3, No. 5
Corelli Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 10
Scarlatti Sinfonia di concerto grosso No. 5 in D-minor Charpentier Music for Le Malade imaginaire (The Hypochondriac) (Molière)

Juan Francisco de Navas Music for Destinos vencen finezas (Fate Trumps Your Vows) (Llamosas)
*
with Maren Montalbano mezzo-soprano


* modern premiere performance

Single tickets $28, $38; students $10; also available as part of a Spring Pass

Café et Catastrophe:
chamber cantatas by Bourgeois & Bernier
with Rosa Lamoreaux soprano 

Saturday, April 25, 2015, 8:00 pm 

Arch Street Meeting House, 320 Arch Street

Sunday, April 26, 2015, 4:00 pm 

The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Avenue

Bernier Le Café

Morel Chaconne en trio
Couperin 2 Airs sérieux
Rebel La Terpsicore
Bourgeois Phèdre et Hyppolite


Single tickets $24, $34; students free at the door; also available as part of a Spring Pass 

Comédie et Tragédie: 

orchestral suites by Rameau & Leclair
Saturday, June 6, 2015, 8:00 pm
Sunday, June 7, 2015, 7:00 pm
Gould Recital Hall, Curtis Institute of Music
Rameau Les Fêtes de Polymnie

Leclair Scylla et Glaucus

Single tickets $28, $38; students $10; also available as part of a Spring Pass 

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Artist Recital

Lisa Terry, principal cello: Viola da Gamba Music of Marin Marais

Saturday, February 7, 2015, 5:00 pm 

St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill, 22 East Chestnut Hill Avenue

Sunday, February 8, 2015, 4:00 pm 

Powel House, 244 South 3rd Street

Lisa Terry viola da gamba

Richard Stone theorbo

Single tickets $20, students $10; Tempesta di Mare subscribers $18

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RECORDING INFORMATION
Comédie & Tragédie, Vol. 1
Jean-Baptiste Lully Suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, LWV 43
Jean-Féry Rebel Les Elements
Marin Marais Suite from Alcyone
Chandos Records CHAN 0805
Recorded June 9-11, 2014, Gould Recital Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA
Producer: Rachel Smith
Engineer: Loren Stata
Released: February 24, 2015