Apollo’s Fire offers a varied valentine to Vivaldi
It was a surprise to be reminded at Friday night’s Apollo’s Fire performance that the Cleveland-based Baroque orchestra is only in its fourth year performing a regular Chicago series. In that short time, artistic director Jeannette Sorrell has seamlessly woven her vibrant ensemble into the city’s musical fabric, as evinced by the substantial and enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Driehaus Museum’s Murphy Hall for their Valentine’s Day concert “Vivaldi in Love.”
Soprano Jessica Beebe was a standout in the lightish program, singing plaintive arias of Purcell, Monteverdi, and Vivaldi with warm, rounded timbre and sighing sensitivity to the lovelorn texts.
The evening’s title was a reference to the 18th-century soprano Anna Girò, who was Vivaldi’s vocal muse, prima donna, and possibly more. (The Venetian composer, himself a priest, was censured by the Church in 1737 and denied entrance into the city of Ferrara the following year because of his connection with Girò, 30 years his junior.)
Beebe’s performances had a flirtatious air suitable to the intrigue, especially in the evening’s high-stepping Monteverdi encore about wine and roses.
The love theme was further represented by various “couples” in duo concertante works. Daphna Mor and HyunKun Cho were individually impressive but a mismatched pair in Telemann’s Concerto for Recorder and Gamba. Mor (recorder) played gracefully from a score but was overpowered by Cho on viola da gamba, playing from memory in a more overtly virtuosic vein. Mor was featured to much greater effect as the lone soloist in Teleman’s Overture-Suite in A Minor for Recorder and Strings, playing nimbly with faultless technique, and receiving more responsive support from Sorrell and colleagues.
Concertmaster Alan Choo was paired with various colleagues throughout the night. Apollo’s Fire has made a calling card of its demonstrative, personality-plus stage presence, but Choo took this too far throughout Friday’s concert, with constant mugging, spastic gestures, and affected smiles at his colleagues. It is possible for two musicians to exchange a melody without staring longingly into each others’ eyes and then beaming at a smooth tradeoff. These antics were particularly distracting when Choo was part of the accompanying consort with other colleagues to the fore, but he apparently can’t turn it off.
The evening began with Choo and violinist Emi Tanabe featured in two selections arranged by Sorrell: Vivaldi’s Ciaconna in C and Porpora’s “Alto Giove” from Polifemo. The former kicked things off with abundant esprit, and the latter was a poignant aria suitable to the holiday, even with Choo’s theatrics already growing tiresome. He and Tanabe played with passionate eloquence despite the hijinks.
Violinist Chloe Fedor joined Choo for Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Violins in C Minor, a work Sorrell said she felt captured love’s stormier aspects. Striking here was the first movement’s Allegro ma poco e cantabile tempo, unusual in the composer’s hundreds of works in the genre, and setting a more serious tone. Fedor matched Choo’s intensity without his choreography, and the two made a lush rhapsody out of the central Andante molto.
The evening closed with Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins in B Minor, with Choo, Fedor, Tanabe, and Andrew Fouts as the solo quartet. The spirited outer Allegro movements rolled vigorously, framing an evocative middle Larghetto, where the three lower violins parts tiptoed under swirling arpeggios from Choo.
Before the final Monteverdi encore, Apollo’s Fire offered an impromptu “Happy Birthday” to Sorrell, who apparently shares the same date as St. Valentine’s martyrdom in 269 A.D.
Apollo’s Fire returns to Chicago with Bach’s Mass in B Minor April 11 at St. James Cathedral downtown, and April 12 at First Presbyterian Church in Evanston. apollosfire.org
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