Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra: October 2009 Concert Series

October 2009
The Concerto: An Adversarial Friendship

Elizabeth Wallfisch, violin and leader

MUFFAT: Fasciculus VIII Indissolubilis Amicitia “Inseperable Friendship” in E major, from Florilegium Secundum
TELEMANN: Concerto for Two Violins & Bassoon in D major

BIBER: Serenade in C major Der Nachtwächter, "Nightwatchman’s Call"

TELEMANN: Sonata for Four Violins in C major
MUFFAT: Fasciculus I Nobilis Juventus “Noble Youth” in D minor, from Florilegium Secundum
SCHMELZER: Die Fechtschule, “Fencing School”

BIBER: Battalia á 10

BACH: Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major

Learn more about these recordings

A Baroque concerto is often compared to a musical conversation. If you believe it to be civil or restrained, this program is designed to dispel your misconceptions. Rippling with more than theatrical flair, this music overflows with unchecked passions and boundless energy. The musicians will quarrel, brawl, reconcile and fight some more in an evening of sophisticated contretemps. Opening with Georg Muffat’s graceful ode to friendship, the program rollicks with Georg Philipp Telemann’s grand and youthful joust (Concerto for Two Violins in C major) and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer’s posturing swordplay (Die Fechtschule), ending with Johann Sebastian Bach’s harrowing Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major. PBO is excited to welcome back to the podium Libby Wallfisch, one of the foremost period-violin soloists and a good friend of many in the Orchestra. This fiery virtuoso and passionate program may just stir you into a debate or two before the evening is up.

San Francisco Classical Voice:

"Sandwiched between more familiar and glamorous items (Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas) on Philharmonia Baroque's fall docket is a fascinating smaller-scale program led by guest violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch. The London-based Wallfisch, probably best known around here as the Carmel Bach Festival's longtime concertmaster, is a nervy, highly individualistic dynamo of a violinist with a particular flair for 17th-century music.

"Her PBO program, titled "The Concerto: An Adversarial Friendship," is a tangy three-ingredient musical salad. A trio of celebrated Austrian programmatic pieces (Schmelzer's Fencing School and Biber's Battalia and Nightwatchman's Serenade) sit alongside two of Georg Muffat's elegantly Frenchified Florilegium suites — and, from a later generation, two Telemann concertos. Telemann as a concerto-writer was rather less interested in virtuosity than in unusual instrumental combinations and effects. Wallfisch's choices include a concerto for the odd but promising solo group of two violins and bassoon, as well as one of his tiny, captivating concertos for four unaccompanied violins."

- Fall Concert Preview Editors' Choice

"Wallfisch symbolically blew the smoke away from her violin, so burningly brisk was her playing, so stunning in its brilliance and naked speed."

- Calgary Herald

Concert Dates
Fri, Oct 9, 8:00 pm

Palo Alto

Sat, Oct 10, 8:00 pm

Berkeley

Sun, Oct 11, 7:30 pm

Berkeley

Fri, Oct 16, 8:00 pm

San Francisco

Sat, Oct 17, 8:00 pm
Contra Costa