Sunday, December 15, 2019
3:00 PM
The winter concert starts with a favorite by the master himself, J.S. Bach. The Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor is a virtuosic tour-de-force and for that we needed a special keyboard player. I’m delighted we obtained the services of Michael Sponseller whom some of you might recognize from Handel and Haydn Society or Boston Early Music.
After Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy, we head south from Germany to Venice and the music of Vivaldi. Nurit Pacht is back to lead the full ensemble in “Summer” from the Four Seasons (
Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8)
. By December it might be chilly so I hope this provides a warming whiff of nostalgia.
As we did last year, the winter concert will mix together smaller works with larger pieces. We have a violin sonata by Handel (
Sonata Op.1, No. 5)
, a cello sonata by Geminiani (
Sonata in A Minor, Opus 5, Number 6)
, and a harpsichord sonata by Scarlatti (
Sonata in B Minor)
.
The final work we are performing is Corelli’s Christmas Concerto (
Concerto No.8 in G minor 'Fatto per la notte di Natale’).
Part of what makes this a Christmas work is that it ends with a very beautiful
pastorale
, a reference to the shepherds of Bethlehem tending their flocks on that fateful night a star appeared in the sky.