Robert Mealy & Julie Andrijeski, violin; Greg Ingles, trombone; David Morris, viola da gamba & cello; Dominic Teresi, dulcian; Avi Stein, harpsichord & organ; Charles Weaver, theorbo & baroque guitar
THE EARLY MODERNS:
17TH-CENTURY ITALY AND GERMANY
SFEMS presents the West Coast debut of Quicksilver, one of the most important and dynamic early music groups to burst on the American concert scene during the past decade. Co-directed by master violinists Robert Mealy and Julie Andrijeski, Quicksilver brings together a diverse ensemble rich in instrumental color, virtuosity and power. The New York Times compares their performance and audience response to a rock concert.
For their SFEMS program, Quicksilver will channel the revolutionary music sweeping Europe at the dawn of the baroque. Invented by virtuoso instrumental composers first in Italy and then in Germany, this “new music” reveled in expressing vivid emotions and dramatic contrasts, breaking free from the smooth tapestry of Renaissance polyphony. Perhaps its most special and revolutionary gift was the sonata, a pure instrumental form, a piece simply meant to be “sounded,” with no agenda but the imagination of the composer—and no standard formal shape except the passionate give-and-take of friends in conversation. Experimental, unexpected, and deeply moving, this “new music” of Castello, Fontana, Merula, and Weckmann is closest we come to wordless rhetoric.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 8:00PM
First Lutheran Church
600 Homer Street at Webster, Palo Alto
SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 7:30PM
St. John’s Presbyterian Church
2727 College Ave at Garber, Berkeley
SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 4:00PM
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
1111 O’Farrell Street at Gough, San Francisco