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The Center for Old Music is most pleased to announce the return of a very special chamber group for our upcoming Baroque concert March 27. Deborah Isenstadt, Hunter Hensley, Donna Boyd, Zachary Brock and Craig Trompeter made their collective debut a year ago and were received with great enthusiasm by the largest audience ever to attend a small Center ensemble performance. Requests for a return engagement began immediately and will come to fruition with an exciting program titled "Phant'sy & Grace" in the acoustically blessed sanctuary of St. Michael's Episcopal Church. Works by Buxtehude, Bach, Telemann and others are on the program.

The concert's unique name derives from a 17^th-century aesthetic approach favored by Dietrich Buxtehude, among others, and referred to as the stylus phantasticus or stile fantastico. It denotes a virtuoso instrumental style which demands spontaneity, freedom and imaginative improvisation by the players. Characteristics include a delight in surprising effects, unusual harmonic progressions and melodic irregularities, loosening of rhythm and meter, and complex passages with hidden ornamentation (sometimes written out and sometimes extemporized in the moment). In a composition as a whole a sequence of sections appears as spontaneously presented and may display a kaleidoscope of emotions. As described by the German Baroque theorist Johann Mattheson, the intent is always "to please, to overtake and to astonish." Buxtehude's Triosonata Op. 1, no. 4 for violin, viola da gamba and continuo (harpsichord) will be performed by Mr. Brock, Mr. Trompeter and Ms. Boyd respectively.

Violinist Brock (who favors improvisation any way he can get it) is also returning us the pleasure of an encore sonata by his preferred 17^th-century Bohemian, the flamboyant violin player Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, a prime exponent of the fantastic style.

Whenever the recorder talent Deborah Isenstadt comes to town, the music of Georg Phillip Telemann gets championed. Brock, Boyd and Trompeter will join her on a graceful Telemann Triosonata (in d minor). This quartet will also perform a seasonal air by 18^th-century Scotsman James Oswald, an accomplished dance master who worked as a string player and often wrote without specifying instrumental assignments. Ms. Isenstadt will also perform selected movements from a J. S. Bach Partita (BWV 1013); her room-stilling unaccompanied recorder solos come in the rare treat department.

More Bach is on the program: a major sonata (BWV 1028) featuring the virtuosic viola da gambist Craig Trompeter.

Ah, Stradella! The charismatic and contemplative tenor Hunter Hensley will perform "Il Xerse," a stirring cantata by the 17^th-century Italian whose own life story has been legendized into near-mythological proportions. It is a matter of fact that he was assassinated at knifepoint; he may even have been a spy. (How could Master Hitchcock have missed such a golden screenplay opportunity?) Dr. Hensley has spent a good part of his academic life studying Alessandro Stradella's works, and believes that this one (about the Emperor of Persia) has modern day geopolitical parallels. Talk to him after the show. His accompaniment for this major work includes harpsichord and gamba continuo with recorder and violin parts added (partly composed, partly extemporized) by Boyd, Isenstadt and Brock according to the style of the times.

Sounds phantastic to me!

- Reed Ruchman

Phant'sy & Grace
8pm Saturday March 27
St. Michael's Episcopal Church
2025 Bellefonte Drive
Tickets at the door:
$10 regular, $8 seniors & $5 students

the program includes:

Telemann: Triosonata in d minor for recorder, violin & continuo

Biber: Sonata V from Acht Violinsonaten (1681)

J. S. Bach: Partita BWV 1013 for recorder solo

J. S. Bach: Sonata BWV 1028 for viola da gamba and harpsichord

Buxtehude: Triosonata in B-flat for violin,
viola da gamba & continuo (Op. I no.4)

Stradella: Cantata Il Xerse for tenor and continuo

It turns out that the Center for Old Music all-Baroque concert on Saturday night March 27 is the "centerpiece" of what has shaped itself into a de facto early music festival in Lexington, Kentucky. The above headline is the best way to describe the long weekend of Thursday March 25 through Monday March 29. Here's what else is happening:

U.K. Opera Theatre is mounting the crowning work by the great 17^th-century Italian composer who brought the dramma per musica to the fore. "Intrigue, lust, treachery and betrayal" promises the publicity for this updated staging (1940s ˆ la film noir), but this earliest of operas already had all that! "Poppea" is being performed with the New Trinity Baroque ensemble (out of Atlanta) playing on period instruments; it will be sung in Italian, with English supertitles. Shows are on March 25, 27 & 29 at 8pm in the Recital Hall of the Singletary Center.

This world-renowned ensemble of ten voices will be appearing in the Singletary Center Concert Hall on Friday March 26 (8pm) as part of the "Corner on Classics" series. Directed by Peter Phillips, the singers will perform an all-Renaissance, all-sacred program (their highly honed specialty) of two Masses (including Palestrina's "Papae Marcelli") and four motets (including two of our own favorites by Josquin: "Ave Maria" and "Tu solus"). Revered for unimpeachable tonal quality and purity of sound, the Scholars are coming into the States following tours in Great Britain and Italy. Tickets for both "Poppea" and the Scholars are available at the Singletary Box Office. Prices for both range from $12 to $25; call 257-4929 for information.

The ensemble that's here in town to do the opera will also present a Sunday afternoon performance of its own (March 28 at 3pm). This program features chamber works by Venetian and other Italian composers including Legrenzi, Castello, Caldara and Vivaldi. Violin, lute and viola d'amore are the solo instruments in the spotlight. The concert is being given in the Chapel of First Presbyterian Church, 174 North Mill Street. Tickets range from $12 to $18 and may be purchased by contacting Marlon Hurst at the church (252-1919).

SPECIAL NOTE: Since three performances of "Poppea" are being given, you don't have to choose between events! Should you wish to do the whole whirlwind weekend, here's how: Attend the opera on opening or closing night (Thursday or Monday). Then you're free and clear to hear the Tallis Scholars Friday, our own "Phant'sy & Grace" Saturday, and New Trinity Baroque Sunday!

Some weekend! Did somebody say "Man?"

that Dr. Judith Lesnaw, Lexington's leading play-the-recorder advocate, is also a principal founder of the U.K. Arboretum? She was recently honored as a charter member of the "Bur Oak Society," and was given a special plaque made of wood from a huge bur oak tree that was felled by the 2003 ice storm.

Don't see the connections to old music? Beautiful woods, in all their forms. Or consider the age of that tree. The best estimate puts it at 400 years. It took root when our favorite composers did. Maybe it's the play on words (bur oak, baroque, get it?).

Or simply look at the logo that has appeared atop this newsletter since its inception.

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