by Daniel Hathaway

Apollo’s Fire runs on a steady supply of 17th- and 18th-century music, but when artistic director Jeannette Sorrell is really out to fan the flames, her accelerant of choice is inevitably the music of Antonio Vivaldi.

On Sunday afternoon, February 1, at Rocky River Presbyterian, in a program curated by associate artistic director and concertmaster Alan Choo, Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra featured members of the ensemble and guests in “Winter Sparks,” three of the 500-some concertos Vivaldi wrote for the orchestra of young abandoned women over the three decades he served as music director of the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice.

For a warmup, Choo led the ensemble in Vivaldi’s Sinfoni in g, RV 157, which began with a cheerful allegro featuring the percussive articulation that a band of Baroque violinists can achieve. By way of contrast, the following Largo received lovely, lyrical treatment from Choo, his second violinist Emi Tanabe, and violist Nicole Divall. The concluding Allegro was punctuated by bursts of sonic thunder. [Read more…]