Great Barrington — No composer is more closely associated with nature than Antonio Vivaldi. The Venice-born composer wrote not only music about nature but also poetry. His set of violin concerti “The Four Seasons” was revolutionary for its depictions of murmuring streams, birdsong, buzzing flies, summer breezes, drunken peasants, thunderstorms, barking dogs, hunting parties, slippery ice, and many other natural sights and sounds. These concerti constitute what is surely the most noteworthy example of early program music and arguably the first. But there are additional references to nature in Vivaldi’s music for other instruments, such as flute and mandolin, and three of these works are the focus of Cresendo’s program on October 5 at Trinity Church in Lakeville, Conn., and on October 6 at Saint James Place, in Great Barrington. Two additional Vivaldi works on the program are mainly about the natural virtuosity of the soloists:
- Edson Scheid — Baroque violin
- Rodrigo Tarraza — traverso
- Carlos Boltes — charango
- Scott Hill — charango
Strings and basso continuo will be supplied by players of Crescendo Period Instrument Orchestra with Gonzalo Cortés and Rodrigo Tarraza on quena (Andean flute), directed by Christine Gevert from the harpsichord.
Born in Brazil and based in New York City, Edson Scheid performs on both modern and period instruments with the some of the city’s finest ensembles, including the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Classical Orchestra, Musica Sacra New York, The Clarion Orchestra, and New York Classical Players. He received high praise from Fanfare Magazine for his recording of the Paganini Caprices on baroque violin for the Naxos label: “Far from being mere virtuoso stunts, Scheid’s Caprices abound in the beauty and revolutionary spirit of these works…”
Rodrigo Tarraza teaches clarinet, saxophone, and flute at The School of Music in Rockville, Md. He performs internationally and conducts his own classical quartet and jazz trio in the New York City metro area. He studied with Barthold Kuijken at the Royal Conservatory, The Hague. On this program, he will play the Baroque flute, or traverso.
Carlos Boltes and Scott Hill are also known as Alturas Duo. They appeared this month at the Daniel Arts Center at Simon’s Rock as part of National Hispanic Heritage Month. On this program, classically trained violist Boltes and guitarist Hill will play the charango, an Andean instrument of the lute family.
Here is the program for October 5 and 6:
- Flute Concerto “La notte” (The Night) RV 439
- Flute Concerto “Il gardellino” (The Goldfinch) RV 428
- Violin Concerto ”La Tempesta di Mare” (The Storm at Sea) RV 253
- Violin Concerto in D Major, RV 229
- Concerto for Two Mandolins RV532 (performed with Andean instruments)
Hear players of the Crescendo Period Instrument Orchestra and soloists perform nature-themed works by Antonio Vivaldi at 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 5, at Trinity Church, 484 Lime Rock Rd., Lakeville, CT, or at 4 p.m. on Sunday, October 6, at Saint James Place, 352 Main Street, Great Barrington. Tickets are available here.
