Category Archives: Baroque Music

Ensemble Chaconne: European Masters in 18th Century England

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There were so many concerts going on this afternoon that it was hard to pick one. I ended up going to hear Ensemble Chaconne, a HIP baroque trio, at the the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Midtown who played a program that focused on the concert music that could be heard in Restoration period London. The trio consisted of a flautist, a bass gambist, and a lutist who doubled on English guitar. Each of the three at some point introduced the works being performed and, at times, spoke about the history of their instruments, adding a bit of welcome context to the music.
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ABO: A Festive Night at the London Theatres

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I think that I’ve mentioned before that I generally have had the time or the money to go to an Atlanta Baroque Orchestra concert but rarely both at the same time. This evening was one of those rare occasions where I could afford the time and money for one of their concerts and I’m very glad I went to First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta to hear them play. I’m particularly appreciative of any music ensemble or dance company that performs non-Christmas-related works during December. As someone who has never celebrated that holiday, this can be a very dull time of year for me.
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Core: A World Too Wide

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I was terribly disappointed last night at CORE Performance Company’s ‘a world too wide’ at the Rialto Center for the Arts. The piece was danced to live accompaniment by a baroque orchestra from Houston called Mercury. The concertmaster was so bad that I was actually embarrassed for the orchestra. I felt even worse seeing the second violin cringing at the concertmaster’s mistakes over and over again. I have no idea if the mike was causing some of the problems, but a lot of that was just poor performance and possible poor instrument maintenance — some of that creaking sound was probably due to rosin buildup on the strings of the violin. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the concertmaster; the violinist most down stage left had no idea how to handle his bow and one or two people needed to learn the music a little better so that they could peek up at the conductor more often and stay with the ensemble. And could anyone even hear the theorbo? Why would you have only one theorbo in that large of a violin string orchestra? For that matter, why would you have a theorbo in that large of a space? It’s a very quiet instrument. We have two perfectly good baroque orchestras in Atlanta but Schroeder wanted to bring these guys in all the way from Houston?
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