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Preview: Apollo’s Fire: Intimate Bach, Part II — a conversation with flutist Kathie Stewart

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by Daniel Hathaway

STEWART-KathieWhen Apollo’s Fire resumes its “Intimate Bach” series with Part II — four concerts in Akron, Cleveland Heights and Rocky River from March 14-17 — one of the featured artists will be baroque flutist Kathie Stewart, who will solo in J.S. Bach’s Flute Sonata in e minor and join violinist Olivier Brault, cellist René Schiffer and harpsichordist Jeannette Sorrell in two of Georg Philipp Telemann’s Paris Quartets.

We reached Kathie Stewart in Houston where she was changing planes on the way back to Cleveland from Apollo’s Fire’s tour of “Come to the River”, with performances in Pennsylvania, Florida and California. “I’ve been playing on 19th century copies of Irish-style flutes and now I’m putting those away to play Bach and Telemann.” [Read more…]

Preview: Apollo’s Fire: Intimate Vivaldi— a conversation with lutenist Ronn McFarlane

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by Mike Telin

Apollo’sMcFarlane-Ronn Fire has cozy “fireside” events planned for its next two sets of concerts, “Intimate Vivaldi” from January 31-February 3 and “Intimate Bach, Part II” from March 14-17. The Vivaldi set will feature lutenist Ronn McFarlane in the “Red Priest’s” lute concertos and violinists Olivier Brault and Johanna Novom will join McFarlane in chamber music by Vivaldi’s musical forebears and colleagues Giovanni Zamboni, Dario Castello, Biagio Marini and Giovanni Legrenzi, assisted by violist Kristen Linfante, cellist René Schiffer and William Simms on theorbo and guitar.

McFarlane began his career as a blues and rock guitarist, but went on to study classical guitar at the Peabody Conservatory under Paul O’Dette, Roger Harmon and Pat O’Brien. By the late 1970s, McFarlane had switched his musical attention to the lute and helped found the Baltimore Consort.

[Read more…]

Review: Apollo’s Fire: Handel’s Messiah in Rocky River (December 16)

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by Nicholas Jones

Handel’s MessiahApollo'sFireOutside premiered in a music hall, not in a church. The lead singers included at that first Dublin benefit included some of the most important eighteenth-century names in musical theater. And yet we continue to think of the work as if it belonged in a church service.

This year’s performance by Apollo’s Fire shook off that preconception about Messiah. Jeannette Sorrell led a highly dramatic rendering of the piece that made the most of the theatrical basis of the music.]

In the very first recitative, the expressive tenor Karim Sulayman (singing, as did all the soloists, from memory) embodied the contrast between the salvation that Messiah was to bring—”Comfort ye,” he sang, with heart-piercing compassion—and the world’s “iniquity” that is in such need of salvation. [Read more…]

CD Review: Apollo’s Fire—CD’s just in: Sacrum Mysterium & Handel

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 by Daniel Hathaway

Apollo’sAF Sacrum CD Fire has recently released two recordings: Sacrum Mysterium: A Celtic Christmas Vespers, recorded a year ago after its first performances in Cleveland (and revived for four performances this month); and Handel, a collection of ceremonial choral works that Cleveland’s baroque orchestra and singers recorded live in concerts here in October, 2008 and February, 2007. Both of these splendid recordings are a must-have for early music fans.

As much of a liturgist as she is a music director, Jeannette Sorrell enjoys placing musical selections within a ritual structure. In Sacrum Mysterium, the floor plan is a 13th century Vespers preserved in the Sprouston MS in Glasgow attributed to St. Kentigern, the city’s patron — but before, during and after, the program takes detours to explore wonderful Scottish and Gaelic carols, lullabies, folk music and other tunes ranging from medieval chant to 18th century jigs and reels, creating an irresistible mix of Celtic-inspired music. Apollo’s Fire’s excellent collaborators are Sylvain Bergeron and his Montréal-based Ensemble La Nef, who are well-known for putting together their own programs seamlessly uniting period art and folk music (whose borders are remarkably porous).  [Read more…]

Seasonal CDs with local connections: Great Gifts for last-minute shoppers

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by Daniel Hathaway & Mike Telin

AF Sacrum CDThere should be a musical equivalent of the “locavore” movement to tag those who prefer to buy and listen locally. Here are some CDs by Northeast Ohio groups or, in one case, an ensemble that sang a memorable concert earlier this Fall at Oberlin, which are well worth considering for your eleventh-hour shopping lists.

Apollo’s Fire: Sacrum Mysterium: A Celtic Christmas Vespers. As much of a liturgist as she is a music director, Jeannette Sorrell enjoys placing musical selections within a ritual structure. In Sacrum Mysterium, the floor plan is a 13th century Vespers preserved in the Sprouston MS in Glasgow attributed to St. Kentigern, the city’s patron — but before, during and after, the program takes detours to explore wonderful Scottish and Gaelic carols, lullabies, folk music and other tunes ranging from medieval chant to 18th century jigs and reels, creating an irresistible mix of Celtic-inspired music. Apollo’s Fire’s excellent collaborators are Sylvain Bergeron and his Montréal-based Ensemble La Nef, who are well-known for putting together their own programs seamlessly uniting period art and folk music (whose borders are remarkably porous). (Read a full review here). —DH [Read more…]

Concert Report — Apollo’s Fire brings the sweet joy of Praetorius to Trinity Cathedral

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by Daniel Hathaway

Michael Praetorius

Jeannette Sorrell brought the alternately dazzling and charming music of Michael Praetorius to life once again at Trinity Cathedral on Thursday evening, in her compilation program, “Christmas Vespers” — with a little help from Apollo’s Fire’s 20 instrumentalists, 27 adult singers and the 15 young vocalists who make up Apollo’s Musettes. And a near-capacity crowd of happy listeners.

Her sidespeople comprised six string players, including viola da gamba, a wind band of ten (recorders, cornetti, Trumpets, three sackbuts and percussionist) a continuo group of four (count them: three long-necked lutes or theorbos! — in addition to organ and harpsichord (Sorrell herself) and seven soloists who moved in and out of the choir during the complicated choreography that brought the right people to the right place for each variously scored piece.

Mostly drawn from the collection called Polyhymnia caduceatrix, compiled in 1619, two years before the composer’s death at the age of 50, but also using material from his Musica Sionae, Puericinium and the dance collection Terpsichore, the program ranged from the simple (chant and liturgical snippets, stark, early Lutheran chorales sung in unison and M.P.’s greatest hit, Lo, how a rose) to the fascinating polychoral complexity of works in the Venetian ceremonial style (Gloria sei Gott, and In Dulci Jubilo). [Read more…]

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