Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra Tempesta di Mare continues its 2016-17 season with Winter: A Cozy Noel, a program that carries on the ensemble’s season-long exploration of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and places the “Red Priest’s” masterpiece in the context of his contemporaries. Tempesta’s chamber ensemble will perform “Winter” from The Four Seasons, featuring concertmaster Emlyn Ngai, alongside analogous seasonal compositions by Englishman Christopher Simpson and fellow-Italian Giovanni Antonio Guido. There are further festive offerings by French composer Michel Corrette and Vivaldi’s contemporary Arcangelo Corelli. In addition, Tempesta di Mare will reprise a recent discovery of a work by German composer Johann Gottlieb Janitsch. The concerts take place on December 9 and 10 at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill and Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia, and will travel to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D. C. on December 11.

In this, its 15th anniversary season, Tempesta di Mare is presenting The Four Seasons for the first time but, true to Tempesta form, with a twist: one concerto on each of four concerts. “Our series are all about presenting beloved favorites alongside new discoveries,” comments Tempesta co-founder Gwyn Roberts, who continues, “What better centerpiece could there be for this anniversary year? Vivaldi’s concerti are full of drama, color, sound effects and virtuosity, and Emlyn is playing up a storm — sometimes literally!” Tempesta’s season-opening concert, which featured “Autumn,” was given an “ebullient reading with a rustic buzz” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

The Four Seasons by Vivaldi may be the best-known work with that name, but it was not the only one composed during the Baroque era. Fellow-Italian Giovanni Antonio Guido composed a Four Seasons similarly inspired by poetic texts. Having spent most of his working life in Paris in service to the Duc d’Orleans, Guido’s work is infused with elements of the French dance-suite as well as the Italian concerto style. Written in 1716-17, it is thought to have been an inspiration to Vivaldi. By contrast is an earlier English take on “Winter” from the Four Seasons by Christopher Simpson, a 17th century virtuoso viol player and pedagogue.

In the spirit of the season, Winter: A Cozy Noel includes the “Noël Symphonie” by French composer Michel Corrette, a work whose themes are based on seasonal tunes of German, French and even American origin, and the Christmas Concerto by Vivaldi’s contemporary, Arcangelo Corelli. Enormously popular ever since its first publication in 1714, Tempesta performs an 18th-century arrangement that substitutes recorders for the violins called for in Corelli’s original.

In recent years Tempesta di Mare has championed the works of 18th-century Silesian-born, German composer Johann Gottlieb Janitsch. His music features throughout the 2016-17 season, and this program includes his Sonata “con stilo di recitativo” in E-flat Major for flute, violin, viola and continuo which Tempesta premiered in 2007. Many of Janitsch’s works were thought lost but found in good condition in an archive in Kiev – spoils of World War II that the Soviets claimed and preserved. In 2001, they were returned to the Berlin Sing-Akademie from where they were taken. They had previously been part of the famed collection of Sara Itzig Levy who, together with her musical sisters, provides the inspiration for Tempesta’s next performances on January 21 and 22, 2017. Tempesta di Mare’s immersion in the music of Janitsch will result in the ensemble’s next recording for the Chandos label, taking place in the spring of 2017.

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. In spring 2016, the orchestra performed on the Miami Bach Festival. In spring 2017, the Tempesta di Mare chamber players will return to the Frick Collection in New York.

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

Single tickets $39 preferred seating, $25 general admission, full-time students and youth (grades 3 – 12) free at the door

PROGRAM DETAILS
Winter: A Cozy Noel
Friday, December 9, 2016 – 8:00 pm
Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Avenue
Saturday, December 10, 2016 – 8:00 pm
Arch Street Meeting House, 320 Arch Street
Sunday, December 11, 2016 – 4:00 pm
National Gallery of Art, 6th and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington D.C.
Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713) Concerto grosso “per la notte di natale,” Op. 6, no. 8
Christopher Simpson (1602/1606–1669) Winter
Giovanni Antonio Guido (1675–1729) Concerto in B-flat, Op. 3, no. 3, “Winter”
Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) Violin Concerto in F minor, “Winter,” Op. 8, no. 4
Johann Gottlieb Janitsch (1708–1763) Sonata in E-flat, “con Stilo di Recitativo”
Michel Corrette (1707–1795) “Noël” Symphonie IV in D minor