February 8, 2016
TEMPESTA DI MARE PLAYS THE NATIONS, RELEASES COMÉDIE & TRAGÉDIE, VOLUME 2
Tempesta di Mare
Tempesta di Mare
Andy Kahl

Continuing its fourteenth season, Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra Tempesta di Mare plays its first concerts of 2016, The Nations: orchestral portraits of the peoples of Europe, a program exploring the distinctive musical colors from numerous countries, many off the well-trodden early music path. As so often with Tempesta di Mare, co-Directors Gwyn Roberts (recorder and flute) and Richard Stone (lute), have unearthed a number of their signature discoveries, most of which audiences will be hearing for the first time. Performances take place in Philadelphia on March 5 and 6, at the American Philosophical Society and Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, preceded by a road trip for a March 3 performance at the Tropical Baroque Music Festival in Miami Beach, Florida.

The Nations is anchored by German-born Georg Philipp Telemann's Folk Suite, the composer’s orchestral representations of the citizens of Portugal, Russia, Switzerland and Turkey. Telemann was well-traveled and easily assimilated the characteristics of different national musical styles into fanciful musical portraits. In his Folk Suite, The Turks are depicted by an array of exotic and rustic refrains including drones and medieval-inspired melodies. The Swiss are portrayed in a comedic state of drunkenness that alternates between sluggishness and giddy dancing. The Muscovites are treated to the tolling of bells, evoking a city where peals regularly rang out from many a church tower. The music representing the Portuguese evokes the Iberian coast with a proud sarabande, a dance originating in the Spanish and Portuguese New World.

There are a number of rarities on the vibrant Nations program. Incidental music for The Tempest was composed by Matthew Locke, the most prominent English composer of his generation, for a new operatic version of Shakespeare’s classic by Thomas Shadwell, first performed in London’s Duke Theatre in 1674. Locke’s score is the first from the British Isles known to include musical directions such as dynamics and special effects. Inventive harmonies and intricate polyphony are common characteristics of the music of Jan Dismas Zelenka, as are distinctive elements of Czech music, including folk and gypsy idioms; his Orchestral Suite in F is no exception. The rarely-heard Overture in D by Francesco Barsanti – who was born in Italy, moved to London and settled in Edinburgh for several years – incorporates fiddling tunes he picked up during his time in Scotland.

The Nations concludes in grand style with Music for Drottningholm Palace by Johan Helmich Roman, known as the “father of Swedish music” as well as “the Swedish Handel.” Music for Drottningholm Palace is the best-known work by Roman who traveled widely, spending time in Austria, England, France, Germany and Italy. It was written for the royal wedding of the Swedish Prince Adolf Fredrik to Princess Lovisa Ulrika (sister of Frederick the Great), a lavish four-day affair which surely taxed the court musicians. For The Nations, Tempesta di Mare has condensed “Drottningholm Music” into a five-movement suite that represents Roman’s international influences and brings the program to a fitting close.

Coinciding with The Nations performances is the release of Tempesta di Mare’s latest recording for Chandos, Comédie & Tragédie, vol. 2. Featuring extended suites from Jean-Marie Leclair’s opera Scylla et Glaucus, Jean-Philippe Rameau’s ballet Les Fêtes de Polymnie, and incidental music from Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s comédie-ballet Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid, or The Hypochondriac), Comédie & Tragédie, vol. 2 is the culmination of Tempesta di Mare’s most ambitious project to date, a two-season-long curatorial focus on French baroque orchestral music for the theater which comprised concerts, recordings, workshops and international broadcasts. Comédie & Tragédie, vol. 1, released in March 2015, was by turns “dignified … lilting and swaggering,” according to Gramophone magazine. It was selected by WGBH (Boston) and WCLV (Cleveland) as CD of the Week.

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), Bach Trio Sonatas (2014), and Comédie & Tragédie, vol. 1 (2015). Comédie & Tragédie, vol. 2 will be released in 2016. 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’s international appearances have included the Prague Spring Music Festival, the Göttingen Handel Festival, the Mendelssohn-Remise Berlin and the International Fasch Festival in Zerbst. Notable North American presenters have included the Frick Collection, the Oregon Bach Festival, Abbey Bach Festival, Whitman College, Cornell Concerts, the Yale Collection, the Flagler Museum, and the Garmany Series, Hartford. This season, the orchestra performs on the Miami Bach Festival.

 

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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

Tickets are available as part of a 3-concert Pass. Single tickets: Preferred seating $34, General admission $24; full-time students and youth (grades 3 – 12) free at the door

PERFORMANCE DETAILS
The Nations: orchestral portraits of the peoples of Europe
Thursday, March 3, 2016 – 8:00 pm
Tropical Baroque Music Festival presented by the Miami Bach Society
Miami Beach Community Church, 1620 Drexel Avenue, 
Miami Beach, FL 33139
Saturday, March 5, 2016 – 8:00 pm
American Philosophical Society, Benjamin Franklin Hall, 427 Chestnut Street
Sunday, March 6, 2016 – 4:00 pm
Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Avenue
Georg Philipp Telemann Suite in B-flat, TWV 55:B5, “Folk Suite”
Matthew Locke Music for The Tempest (selections)
Jan Dismas Zelenka Orchestral Suite in F, ZWV 188
Francesco Barsanti Overture in D, Op. 4, No. 2
Johan Helmich Roman Music for Drottningholm Palace


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