Tempesta di Mare, the Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, will close its acclaimed 2015-16 season on May 21 at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts with Handel & His Frenemies, an imaginative program that explores the music of one of the Baroque era’s greatest composers and his interactions – sometimes friendly, at other times fraught – with his contemporaries.

Alongside the third of Handel’s grand collection of Concerti Grossi, Op. 6, and a suite from the opera Il pastor fido — one of the German-born composer’s first London productions — are works by popular contemporary English composers Thomas Arne (of Rule, Britannia! fame) and Maurice Greene, Italian-born Giovanni Bononcini whose dozen years spent in London coincided with Handel’s residence there, and compatriot Johann Christoph Pepusch who settled in England and is best known for his contributions to John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. Also German-born but largely forgotten today is Reinhard Keiser, a mentor to Handel in Hamburg who is represented by one of Tempesta’s copious discoveries. This concert is presented as part of the Nancy and Dick Eales series at the Kimmel Center.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines frenemy as “a person with whom one is friendly, despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry,” or “
a person who combines the characteristics of a friend and an enemy.” Each of the composers on Tempesta’s program falls into these categories in one way or another.

Handel arrived in Hamburg in 1703 at the age of 18 to become harpsichordist at the Opera am Gänsemarkt where Reinhard Keiser was impresario. Within a year, Handel had composed Almira for the house, a hugely successful production which possibly provoked jealousy and strained the pair’s relationship, but Kaiser surely also realized the good fortunes that Handel’s music had bestowed upon the company. Concerto in D is one of Kaiser’s few instrumental compositions. Tempesta di Mare dusts off the work, having given its modern premiere in 2008. When Handel left Hamburg, he took with him a suitcase-full of Keiser’s compositions, which he plumbed for material to use in his own music for decades to come.

Handel’s Hamburg achievements helped pave his way to Italy and eventually London where he settled in 1712. His artistic triumphs were so abundant that he soon could not supply all of the music required for the Royal Academy, the new opera company established for him by his backers. To help fill the void, Handel enlisted Giovanni Bononcini whose success was unmatched with operas that were more profitable and longer running even than Handel’s. Bononcini was also an accomplished cellist, and his Cello Concerto in F features Tempesta di Mare’s principal cellist Lisa Terry.

Partisan politics also played their part, with Bononcini favored by the Whigs and Handel by the Tories. Similar disparity led to Handel’s eventual dislike of the younger, highbrow Maurice Greene who preferred the Bononcini camp. Greene, once considered the leading English-born composer of his generation, penned six orchestral overtures; Tempesta di Mare presents the second in G major which prominently features the flute, played here by Tempesta co-founder Gwyn Roberts.

Handel’s German compatriot Johann Pepusch settled in England around 1700. He and Handel were close associates and supporters of one another’s works, though Handel was perhaps a bit put out by the overnight popularity of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera for which Pepusch wrote the overture and made other contributions. The production marked a turning point in the public’s appreciation for English drama over Italian opera.

No such tensions existed between Handel and the Londoner Thomas Arne. 25 years Handel’s junior, Arne staged his friend’s operas and was instrumental in persuading him to acquiesce to popular tastes, leading to some of Handel’s most enduring works, his English oratorios. Arne’s E minor “ouverture” is the first of his eight symphonic suites, fusing French dance elements with pastoral English airs. Arne’s music seems to have been part of the musical fabric of Philadelphia since his lifetime: his comedic opera Alfred received an elaborate production in the city in 1757 by Francis Hopkinson, 30 years prior to the first documented Philadelphia performance of Handel’s Hallelujah chorus from Messiah. More recently, Arne’s orchestral Allegro Moderato was performed at the Kimmel Center by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle in 2006.

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 was released in February 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 performed 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

Single tickets: Premium $49, Preferred $39, General Admission $29, Full-time students and youth (grades 3 – 12) $10 RUSH tickets at the door (if available).
Tickets include $4 Kimmel Center facilities fee.

PROGRAM DETAILS
Handel & His Frenemies: concertos, overtures and symphonies by Handel and his London friends and rivals
Saturday, May 21, 2016 – 8:00 pm
Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Perelman Theater, 300 South Broad Street
Reinhard Keiser (1674 – 1739) Concerto in D
Giovanni Bononcini (1670 – 1747) Cello Concerto in F
     Lisa Terry soloist
Maurice Greene (1696 – 1755) Overture No. 2 in G
George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759) Concerto Gross Op. 6, No. 3 in E minor
Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667 – 1752) Overture from The Beggar’s Opera
Thomas Arne (1710 – 1778) Ouverture (Symphony) No. 1 in E minor
Handel Suite from Il pastor fido