At 3:00pm on Sunday, November 9th at Kinderhook Reformed Church, the Broad Street Orchestra and Broad Street Chorale, along with five guest soloists, present “Baroque Splendor and Elegance – Italy Excites the 18th Century!” Included will be the memorable Gloria of Vivaldi, Handel’s ever-popular Water Music Suite II and his Harp Concerto, and works of Alessandro Scarlatti and Francesco Geminiani. In all over fifty experienced musicians will be performing, with CITV Artistic Director David Smith conducting.
The program opens with the echoing trumpet and horn flourishes of the most famous of Handel’s three Water Music Suites. Although written 300 years ago, this music has never lost its feeling of celebration. In contrast, Geminiani’s richly-textured Concerto Grosso No. 8 for strings follows, with large and small groupings of players offsetting one another. For this the composer magically elaborates an earlier work written by Arcangelo Corelli, widely regarded as the first great violin virtuoso.
Then a very different Concerto Grosso for flute and strings by the brilliant Neapolitan Alessandro Scarlatti looks forward to a Rococo-like elegance more commonly associated with music written fifty years later. With this Scarlatti creates an early example of a true concerto. The soloist will be Elizabeth Chinery, principal flutist of the Broad Street Orchestra and Schenectady-Saratoga Symphony Orchestra.
The first half of CITV’s program concludes with one of Handel’s most charming works, and only concerto for harp and orchestra. This virtuoso showpiece was written to be performed within one of Handel’s most popular oratorios, “Alexander’s Feast, or the Power of Music”, which CITV performed in 2015. As soloist, CITV welcomes once again the widely recognized harpist Kathryn Sloat, originally from upstate New York and now based in both New York City and Salt Lake City.
The afternoon concludes with Vivaldi’s exciting Gloria for chorus, orchestra and three soloists. Written in the early 18th c., this colorful and not surprisingly popular work was fortunately rediscovered in the 20th, and has remained immensely popular for its rhythmic excitement, sparkling orchestration and constantly changing textures. Excerpts have even found their way into the soundtracks of at least three well-known movies: “Shine,” “The Hunter” and “Runaway Train.” Soloists for Vivaldi’s Gloria are sopranos Maria Giovanetti and Jaclyn Hopping, and mezzo-soprano Abbegael Greene, all recent graduates of Bard’s distinguished Vocal Arts Program.
CITV Artistic Director David Smith comments, “Having in recent years offered so many works of the Classic, Romantic and Modern periods, we are delighted – and our ears refreshed – to offer a program devoted to the Baroque. And by doing so, also to pay tribute to Italy’s overwhelming influence upon the musical life of the entire 18th century.”
Kinderhook Reformed Church, 21 Broad Street (US Route 9), Kinderhook NY 12106.
Lift available. Disability accessible. Suggested contribution $ 25, with students and children free.
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