Cantores

Sunday  |  October 15, 2017  |  7:30pm
​St. James by-the-Sea  |  La Jolla
Diabolus in Musica
Raphaël Boulay & Branislav Ravik, tenor
Jérémie Arcache & Romain Bockler, baritone
Emmanuel Vistorky & Philippe Roche, bass
Antoine Guerber, direction

Be present at the re-creation! Immerse yourself in sound! Come and hear otherworldly music composed for the chapel of the Popes, when the Papacy ruled from Avignon, France. Sung by six virtuosic male voices, much of this religious music from the 1400s has never been performed since. At this concert, Diabolus in Musica will breathe life into early manuscripts and create a vocal tapestry that is pure yet sensual, rich and reverent.

“The voices of Diabolus in Musica, which in these works demand the utmost focus at every moment, resonate with an invigorating density, sometimes cultivating throaty and extraordinarily concrete sonorities as if strings or winds were supporting them in the shadows. The effect is gripping...”
–Emmanuelle Giuliani, La Croix

Danza!

Sunday  |  November 5, 2017  |  7:30pm
St. James by-the-Sea  |  La Jolla
Le Poème Harmonique
Isabelle Druet, mezzo soprano 
Fiona-Emilie Poupard, violin,
Lucas Peres, viola da gamba,
Thomas de Pierrefeu, violone,
Pere Olive, percussion,
Vincent Dumestre, theorbo and baroque guitar

A most delicious combination! Spanish-style dance music as adapted in 17th century France. With the romantic mood of Spain highly popular at the time, French composers swallowed their national pride and wrote songs and dance-style music to please their audiences, and it will delight you, too! The enchanting Le Poème Harmonique returns to San Diego with this new program featuring strings, percussion, guitar and theorbo, as well as the lucent mezzo soprano of Isabelle Druet.
"Tonight’s concert was a technical and musical masterpiece – a beautifully balanced and diverse programme performed with grace and ease, which was a pleasure to behold." 
 –Emily Allen, Bachtrack
This concert was listed by the San Diego Union Tribune as one of the top ten to attend this Fall. Read more here

Vivaldi - The Farewell Concerti

Sunday  |  January 7, 2018  |  7:30pm
St. James by-the-Sea  |  La Jolla
Europa Galante
Fabio Biondi, violin and director

A concert that commemorates the end for our featured composer, yet a beautiful beginning to the new year for SDEMS! After years in Venice and great success, Vivaldi goes to Vienna for a new start, hoping for patronage. Tragically, he is cut off both by his intended patron’s death--and then his own. Hear both the master’s final violin and strings concerti as well as rarely heard works by some of his competitors, Galuppi, Reutter, Holzbauer and Reinhardt. They will be performed by the acclaimed Europa Galante under the direction of renowned violinist Fabio Biondi.
 
“dazzling... vibrant, crackling and assured performance”
–The New York Times

A Concert for Anna Magdalena

Friday  |  February 16, 2018  |  7:30pm
St. James by-the-Sea  |  La Jolla
Ricercar Consort
Hanna Bayodi-Hirt, soprano
Frank Theuns, traverso
Emmanuel Laporte, oboe
Enrico Gatti & Tuomo Suni, violin
Sandrine Dupé, viola,
Philippe Pierlot, viola da gamba,
Frank Coppieters, double bass,
Maude Gratton, harpsichord

Please join us and the nine amazing musicians of the Ricercar Consort to celebrate a woman who inspired great music: Anna Magdalena Bach, second wife of Johann Sebastian. This concert presents a varied evening of his music as it might have been performed in their home, for the Bachs gave house concerts to which friends and other family were invited and often participated in. Anna Magdalena was a fine soprano who performed her husband’s work, and this program includes the joyous “Wedding” Cantata which she probably sang, alongside the reconstructed concerto for Oboe d’Amore  BWV1055 and  the Trio Sonata from “The Musical Offering.”  
 
"The seven-instrument Ricercar Consort from Belgium, conducted by Philippe Pierlot (who also plays viola da gamba), performed with delicacy and refinement."
– Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times

1689 - A Revolution for the Sun King

Sunday  |  March 11, 2018  |  7:30pm
St. James by-the-Sea  |  La Jolla
The Pandolfo Quartet
Paolo Pandolfo & Amélie Chemin, viola da gamba,
Thomas Boysen, theorbo
Markus Hünninger, harpsichord

SDEMS is delighted to present Paolo Pandolfo and friends in an evening of magnificent music for the viola da gamba by its most renowned and beloved composer!  In the luminous court of Louis XIV, the Sun King, music was often provided by musicians of humble origins whose talents were nurtured and allowed to shine, especially the great composer Marin Marais. This program features violas da gamba, along with harpsichord, theorbo, and guitar in French music of stunning virtuosity and compelling eloquence.

“…[Pandolfo] creates the most beautiful gamba sound you’ve ever heard — a singing tone that never loses its line even when the line is decorated with an efflorescence of the most fantastic fingerings.
For another, he’s an extremely expressive player. Even the most dazzling virtuosity seems interior.”
–The Boston Phoenix

The Little Orchestra

Sunday  |  April 15, 2018  |  3pm
Performing Arts Theatre  |  Cuyamaca College
The Benvenue Fortepiano Trio
Monica Huggett, violin,
Tanya Tomkins, cello,
Eric Zivian, fortepiano

Sometimes described as “the Little Orchestra,” the piano trio with violin and cello still captivates by offering both lyricism and musical force. Employing the fortepiano—the direct ancestor of today’s piano—and gut strings to restore the original sonic balance between the instruments, the Benvenue Fortepiano Trio offers a program of classical music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Hummel, written in the same decade and by composer-performers who all knew and influenced each other.

"Not only does Benvenue make an exceptional case for the use of the fortepiano in place of the modern piano, but they perform with a level of gusto and brazenness seldom heard in modern instrument ensembles."
– D. Brownell, allmusic.com

Vertigo

Sunday  |  May 6, 2018  |  5:00pm
Performing Arts Theatre  |  Cuyamaca College
Jean Rondeau, harpsichord

Style, virtuosity, youth: all combine in the person of Jean Rondeau, a magnetic new French harpsichordist whom we are privileged to hear. Playing masterfully yet lyrically, Rondeau draws power and emotion from the instrument in a most magical way. With a program featuring music by J.S. Bach, Jean Philippe Rameau and Pancrace Royer, this concert will showcase the splendor of the harpsichord at its zenith.

"Rondeau is a master of his instrument with the sort of communicative gifts normally encountered in musicians twice his age. He internalizes the music he plays so completely that any interpretive ambivalence or miscalculation is unthinkable. The sincerity and modesty of his delivery are the keys to its power.”
–Patrick Rucker, The Washington Post