Welcome to our October newsletter

Happy Fall from Sarasa! Our 2019-20 season is off to a great start, and we’re looking forward to our next performances Thanksgiving weekend.

Sarasa Season Opener
Sarasa’s 2019-20 season got off to an early and popular start last month with a wonderful program entitled Music for 3 Cellos. Numerous audience members commented on how fascinating it was to hear three very different interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach’s first three solo suites performed on gut-strung Baroque cellos. With a few of Giacobbe Cervetto’s trios thrown into the mix, cellists Timothy Merton, Jennifer Morsches and Phoebe Carrai provided equal amounts of light-hearted and contemplative playing in which each of their unique personalities was prominently displayed.

How to Produce a Hit…
Rogers & Hammerstein, Benjamin Britten & Peter Pears, Lennon & McCartney, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, Simon & Garfunkel... These are just a few of the many creative partnerships that produced a wealth of artistic excellence during the 20th century.

But seriously…over the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend Sarasa offers a taste of some of the famous historical partnerships/friendships that sprang up in the Baroque era. These collaborations fostered a wealth of sonata repertoire, as well as contributed to the clear development of instrumental technique. The brilliant violinist Giuseppe Tartini’s go-to cellist was the Bologna-born Antonio Vandini (1690-1778), a man of the cloth, who purportedly played the cello with an underhand grip, the typical bow hold of viol players. An invitation in 1723 to venture to Prague for the extravagant coronation celebrations of Charles VI of Bohemia brought this dynamic duo into direct contact with many enterprising and notable musical contemporaries from across Europe. They must have encountered a melting pot of diverse playing techniques and compositional styles. Vandini and Tartini remained three years in Prague, entering the service of Count Kinsky, Grand Chancellor of Bohemia. Vandini achieved critical acclaim throughout his lifelong partnership with Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770), one of the great founding fathers of the violin, noted for his pyrotechnical playing and a gift of pure intonation. Vandini’s playing was lauded for its rhetorical or spoken quality, a parlare.

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Dynamic Duos: Partnerships of the Baroque

Antonio Vivaldi Sonata in C minor, RV 53 for oboe and basso continuo
Antonio Vandini Sonata in A minor for cello and basso continuo
Harpsichord solo (TBD)
Giuseppe Tartini Sonata in G minor, Op. 1 No. 10 'Didone abbandonata’
intermission
Arcangelo Corelli Sonata in D major for violin and basso continuo, Op.5 No. 1
Pietro Gaetano Boni Sonata XII in B minor for cello and basso continuo
J.G. Graun Trio Sonata in F major for oboe, violin, and basso continuo

Alison Bury, violin; Richard Earle, oboe; Jennifer Morsches, piccolo cello & cello; Timothy Merton, cello; Robin Bigwood, harpsichord

November 29, 2019 at 7:30pm Brattleboro Music Center, VT (tickets: www.bmcvt.org)
November 30, 2019 at 8pm Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church, Cambridge
December 01, 2019 at 3:30pm First Parish in Lexington