Archetti & Nagy, Bach & Handel Open SFEMS Season
SFEMS begins our 40th-anniversary season the weekend of October 23–25 with a celebration of joyous, powerful, serene, and ebullient music—Bach and Handel concerti performed by Archetti Baroque Strings with guest artist Debra Nagy, baroque oboe. We’ve titled this season “Masters of Early Music,” and presenting works by two of those masters as interpreted by such distinguished representatives of the early music revival is fitting testament to what we in the Bay Area have built over a generation. This is a special month for the Society, as October 15 marks 40 years since our founding. And a core part of SFEMS’ mission has been show audiences the best of what historical performance can be, presenting the finest artists and ensembles from our region’s own very rich and deep pool of talent as well as distinguished guests from around the US and abroad.
Archetti itself is a testament to the strength and depth of the Bay Area’s early music community. The group was founded in 2010 by violinist Carla Moore and gambist John Dornenburg for the purpose of performing the chamber concerto repertory of the baroque era. Recruiting some of the region’s foremost performers and performer/scholars, they created a true baroque chamber orchestra, working without a conductor, and playing together with unity, authority, and great sensitivity to their music. This concert, juxtaposing the lyricism of Handel’s concerti grossi with the power and verve of Bach’s solo concerti—for harpsichord, for 2 violins, and for oboe and violin—will give the ensemble ample opportunity to shine.
Joining Archetti will be renowned baroque oboist Debra Nagy, widely acknowledged to be one of the world’s great exponents of this essential, expressive, and most challenging of baroque wind instruments. Her debut CD was named “One of the Top Ten Early Music Discoveries of 2009” by NPR’s Harmonia. Those of us who were blown away by her performance on our series a few years ago will completely agree with the Rocky Mountain News’s praise of her “dazzling technique and soulful expressiveness.”
Archetti’s program is rich in joyful, celebratory music. Bach’s concerti are some of his happiest and most extroverted works. Besides the famous Double Violin Concerto in D Minor (BWV 1043) Archetti’s program will include a solo harpsichord concerto (BWV 1054, also in D), featuring the great Davitt Moroney as soloist, and the concerto for oboe and violin (BWV 1060R), reconstructed from a presumed lost concerto.
Handel’s concerti grossi on the program come from two collections: Opus 6 (1739), the composer’s lovingly crafted homage to Arcangelo Corelli; and Opus 3 (1734), a pastiche of older music, from anthems and choruses to organ fugues, assembled and arranged by the publisher Walsh to capitalize on Handel’s enormous popularity.
Also on the program will be a rarely heard concerto for oboe and violin by Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello (ca. 1690–1758), an Italian composer who served as court Kapellmeister in Stuttgart, Germany.
SFEMS presents Archetti and Debra Nagy on Friday, October 23, 8:00 p.m., at First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto (please note our new Palo Alto venue!); Saturday, October 24, 7:30 p.m., at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley; and Sunday, October 25, 4:00 p.m. at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco. Order tickets online or call the SFEMS box office at 510-528-1725.
