Chicago Classical Review

Apollo’s Fire is celebrating its 35^th season and kicked off an  international tour Saturday night at Nichols Concerts Hall in Evanston. 

The evening also marked the opening of this season’s Chicago concert series for the Cleveland-based Baroque orchestra, five years since that regular residency was established, and ten years since they first performed in the city.

Saturday’s vibrant, multifaceted performance, under the direction of Jeannette Sorrell and headlined by Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique, delivered the impeccable musicianship and inimitable esprit that Chicago audiences have come to expect.

The evening was billed as “Echoes Across the Atlantic” and sought to establish dialogue between European and Caribbean musical practices, drawing particular attention to the often-invisible human cost of the transatlantic slave trade in European contexts. Apollo’s Fire takes the program to Carnegie Hall later this month before touring it in Brussels, Paris, Düsseldorf, Lisbon, and London.

The performance largely revolved around De Bique, whose elegance, versatility, and stunning vocalism brought off the show. The music across cultures depicted the gamut of human emotions in distinctive ways, though the organized sets felt somewhat contrived: “Stormy Seas,” “Resilience,” “A Woman’s Heart,” and “The Folly of Love.” Fortunately, De Bique’s performances were so commanding any cavils about curation were an afterthought.

The singer’s fluent coloratura was first on display in “L’Alma mia fra le tempeste” from Handel’s Agrippina, which included some cheeky imitation with concertmaster Alan Choo. She brought gale-like force to “Quand l’acquillon fougueux” from Rameau’s Dardanus and fully captured the bewildered pathos of “Ombre pallide” from Alcina. Pepusch’s “O Welcome, Gentle Death” from Venus and Adonis was imbued with sighing mournfulness, supported by Kathie Stewart on traverso, a Baroque flute.

These operatic selections alternated with music of De Bique’s native Caribbean. Joachim Horsley’s treatment of the Haitian funeral song “Le M’Mouri” was a mesmerizing call for celebration in the face of death, and the traditional “Call up meh Rosebud” had an affectingly forthright expression over a bare accompaniment of lute and theorbo.

André Tanker’s seductive “Morena Osha” felt like a beguiling island breeze that was in stark contrast to De Bique’s stirring reading of an excerpt from “A Black of Guadeloupe,” an outraged and resolved funeral oration for a murdered slave written in 1709, the same year as Agrippina.

Instrumental selections punctuated the proceedings. Dances from Agrippina opened the night, offered with courtly nobility, and the Suite from Alcyone by Marin Marais saw torrential violin flurries racing over a wind machine and thunder sheets to depict a vivid tempest. Sorrell’s arrangement of Vivaldi’s “La Folia” as a “group jam session” was the sole lapse in good taste, as the playing and choreographed mugging among the musicians descended into shtick.

De Bique righted the ship to close the night with “Air de La Folie” from Rameau’s Platée, capturing its mania without compromising her unflagging refinement. As an encore, she sang “Gentle Shepherd” by Daniel Purcell (Henry’s brother), creating an air of inward reflection with its limpidly descending lines. The ensemble reprised “Morena Osha” to close with high spirits and some light audience participation.

The program will be repeated 5 p.m. Sunday at the Chicago Cultural Center. apollosfire.org

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