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APOLLO’S FIRE
Named for the classical god of music and the
Sun, Apollo’s Fire was founded in
by
award-winning harpsichordist and conductor
Jeannette Sorrell, who envisioned an ensem-
ble dedicated to the Baroque ideal that music
should evoke the various
A ekts
, or passions, in
the listener. e ensemble is a collection of cre-
ative artists who share Sorrell’s passion for dra-
ma and rhetoric. Apollo’s Fire made its London
debut in
with a sold-out concert at Wig-
more Hall, broadcast on the BBC.
e ensem-
ble subsequently embarked on European tours
in
,
, and
, including performances
at the BBC Proms (broadcast live throughout
Europe), Aldeburgh Festival, Tuscan Land-
scapes Festival, Madrid’s Teatro Real, Bordeaux’s
Grand
éâtre, and further venues in Lisbon,
Metz, and Bregenz, as well as on the Birming-
ham International Series. Recent engagements
in North America have included Carnegie Hall,
Tanglewood, Aspen Music Festival, Boston
Early Music Festival, the Library of Congress,
and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well
as major venues in Toronto, Los Angeles, and
San Francisco.
e ensemble has also toured
the United States with Monteverdi’s
L’Orfeo
in
and his Vespers in
and
, as well
as Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos in
. Based
in Cleveland, Apollo’s Fire regularly sells out its
subscription series, which has drawn national
attention or its programming. e ensemble has
released CDs and currently records for the
Avie label. Eight of these albums have become
top sellers on
Billboard
’s classical chart, includ-
ing recordings of Monteverdi’s Vespers, Bach’s
Brandenburg and Harpsichord Concertos, and
Handel arias with soprano Amanda Forsyth, as
well as four crossover albums devised by Sorrell:
Come to the River—An Early American Gath-
ering
,
Sacrum Mysterium—A Celtic Christmas
Vespers
,
Sugarloaf Mountain—An Appalachian
Gathering
,
Sephardic Journey—Wanderings of
the Spanish Jews
, and
Songs of Orpheus
. Apollo’s
Fire made its Ravinia debut last summer.
VIOLINS
(section players listed alphabetically)
Olivier Brault
concertmaster
Johanna Novom
asst. concertmaster
Adriane Post
principal
Susanna Perry Gilmore
principal
Alan Choo
Andrew Fouts
Emi Tanabe
VIOLA
Kyle Miller
principal
Evan Few
CELLO
René Schi er
principal
Ezra Seltzer
CONTRABASS
Sue Yelanjian
TRAVERSO
Kathie Stewart
THEORBO/*UI7AR
William Simms
HARPSICHORD
Jeannette Sorrell
any meeting between Bach and Vivaldi, but
Bach’s admiration for Vivaldi must have been
very great. He arranged at least seven of Vival-
di’s violin concertos into keyboard pieces. ese
arrangements bear the name of J.S. Bach on the
manuscripts, with no mention of Vivaldi, and
thus they carry
numbers in the catalogue
of Bach’s works. e unsuspecting listener there-
fore would not realize they are Vivaldi’s compo-
sitions if not informed.
Vivaldi was considerably more famous than
Bach during the rst half of his career; as music
master at the prestigious Pietà in Venice (a spe-
cial school for orphaned girls and illegitimate
daughters of the nobility, with an extraordinary
emphasis on music), Vivaldi attained great hon-
or throughout Europe. Tourists from as far as
England ocked to Venice to attend the concerts
of the “red-headed priest” and his girls.
Vivaldi’s op. , published in
, is titled
L’estro
armonico
(
Cycle of Harmony
). ese are concer-
tos for various combinations of instruments—
mostly two or four violins, with or without cello
solo. Each of these pieces is a true gem, full of
inventiveness and masterful use of the ritor-
nello form.
e
Concerto for Four Violins in
B minor,
, is a brilliant example of this
energy and drive. Four violinists square o and
prepare for a duel. e rst cellist also has solo
aspirations and enters the fray.
is ery con-
certo achieves climactic moments when all the
solo voices join together. (Many miles to the
north, J.S. Bach admired this piece so much
that he transcribed it as a concerto for four
harpsichords.)
In his Co eehouse concerts, Bach showed a
warm sense of collegiality and respect for his
more successful colleagues Telemann and Viv-
aldi. If he felt any envy of their success, we have
no sign of it. His generous spirit and the sense of
communal gathering at these informal concerts
make Zimmermann’s Co eehouse an inspiring
model for music making today.
–Program notes
©
Jeannette Sorrell
Anonymous portrait, allegedly of Antonio Vivaldi
(c. 1723)
RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JUNE 2 – JULY 8, 2018
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