Johann Sebastian Bach is recognized all over the world as one of the greatest composers of all times. On August 3, 2023, the award winning music organization Crescendo presents a chamber concert with his music, featuring internationally-renowned flautist Rodrigo Tarraza playing the baroque traverso and harpsichordist and Crescendo’s Founding Artistic Director Christine Gevert. Together they have performed and recorded as the ensemble Les Inégales since 1995 in Europe, the U.S., and Latin America. This concert opens Crescendo's 2023-24 season, which is also its 20th anniversary season.

Bach’s flute sonatas were written at a time when the transverse flute or traverso took the place of the recorder. The featured sonatas for this concert are Sonatas BWV 1032 in A major for Flute and Harpsichord, BWV 1034 in E minor for Flute and Basso Continuo, and Triosonata BWV 1039 in G major in an arrangement by the ensemble. These sonatas are a high point of Bach’s expressive and technical compositional achievement. The warm and expressive tone of the traverso so moved its audiences when it emerged toward the end of the 17th century in Paris, that it quickly became a very popular instrument there and in the rest of Europe. Bach understood the qualities and tonal colors this new instrument offered him very well, and combined it masterfully with an instrument he was very familiar with: the harpsichord. Ms. Gevert will improvise short preludes to the flute sonatas. She remarks: “Improvisation was at the heart of Bach’s music, and the music of his contemporaries. It was expected of keyboard players to be able to improvise – and this could mean that they simply needed to bridge a moment in time for the ensemble partner or soloists to get ready, that they needed to try out the action and tuning of the instrument, or that they wanted to show off their skills and imagination. As a church musician improvisation is a normal part of what I do at the keyboard every week.”

The legendary harpsichordist and scholar Wanda Landowska lived in Lakeville, CT at the end of her stellar career. She had a rare ability to describe with depth and vitality, what sets Bach apart from other musicians of his time. Her understanding of the transcendence of Bach’s music is articulated very clearly in her writings on music, of which excerpts will be read at the concert by Jean McMillen, town historian and a former student of Landowska’s life partner and biographer, Denise Restout. This concert is a tribute to Ms. Landowska’s extraordinary contribution to revive the harpsichord, and the performance and understanding of early music in the whole world.

The concert will take place on Thursday, August 3, 2023 at 5:00 pm at Trinity Church, 484 Lime Rock Rd., Lakeville, CT (parking through Dugway Rd. entrance), followed by a reception with the performers. This hourlong performance is part of a series of free chamber music concerts offered by Crescendo this season. Donations are welcomed.

For this concert support has been provided to Crescendo from CT Humanities (CTH), and the Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of Arts (COA) from the Connecticut State Legislature.