STORMY WEATHER: TEMPESTS, SHIPWRECKS & NATURE’S FURY IN BAROQUE MUSIC

Stormy Weather

Tempests, Shipwrecks & Nature’s Fury 

Followed by a Buffet of Artisanal Cheeses & Mulled Wine

Saturday, November 9, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.

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’