by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Interesting reads and announcements: a New York Times review of Jeannette Sorrell (pictured) leading Apollo’s Singers and the New York Philharmonic, the Knight Foundation’s Art + Tech Expansion Fund for Akron-based artists, and CWRU’s Think[box] innovation center
•Almanac: Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Peter Warlock, Franz Bruggen, and Emmerich Kálmán
INTERESTING READS & ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Following up on their Messiah collaboration in 2021, Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo’s Singers reunited with the New York Philharmonic last week at David Geffen Hall, this time for Handel’s Israel in Egypt.
In a review for The New York Times, Oussama Zahr praises the performances of Sorrell, the chorus, and the four soloists — soprano Amanda Forsythe, countertenor Cody Bowers, tenor Jacob Perry, and baritone Edward Vogel — while also pointing out the difficult and unexpected context of the performance, coming amid the Israeli-Hamas war:
Written almost entirely for choral forces, with few showpieces for the soloists, [the oratorio] narrates the Jewish exodus that Moses led from Egypt. To modern ears, the text painting of the 10 plagues is so lightweight that it verges on silliness: The orchestra leaps to depict frogs, buzzes for flies and thumps for hailstones.
Still, the melancholy-saturated lamentation that opens the piece, and the triumphant choruses that close it, adds substance. And on Wednesday, the conductor and Baroque specialist Jeannette Sorrell led a sonorous performance, drawing captivating singing from the choristers of Apollo’s Fire and intermittently inspiring the Philharmonic’s players to embrace fleeter, Handelian style on their modern instruments.
Read the review here.
When it comes to Handel’s oratorios, another repeat isn’t always a welcome thing. But Apollo’s Fire knows how to make an evening exciting, and the group’s reprise performances of the composer’s 
There’s something so engaging about watching Handel’s Messiah performed live — especially in the capable hands of Apollo’s Fire and Apollo’s Singers. The movement of the instrumentalists, the stage presence of the singers, and the enthusiastic response from the audience all elevate the experience of listening to this familiar music. On the evening of December 8 at Federated Church in Chagrin Falls, guest conductor Nic McGegan led the ensemble in a breathtaking performance of one of Handel’s cornerstone works.
December evokes fantasies of snug fires, family festivities, and winter wonderlands. Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra Apollo’s Fire provides a fitting soundtrack to these daydreams, in their new album 
