Celebrating the entire spectrum of Baroque music

Salut! Baroque… Its first program for the year celebrated the entire spectrum of Baroque music.
Photo: Dalice Trost

Music / Music to Celebrate, Salut! Baroque. At Wesley Uniting Church, Forrest, January 31. Reviewed by LEN POWER

It’s hard to believe that this year Salut! Baroque celebrates 30 years of presenting Baroque music.

Its first program for the year celebrated the entire spectrum of Baroque music – from its near-beginning to its near-conclusion – presenting various composers who were either an influence for what was to come or influenced by what had already taken place.

A feature of a Salut! Baroque concert is the presentation of obscure or never-heard-before composers from the era. This concert offered works by Giovanni Antonio Guido and Jan Rokyta as well as works by several other composers.

The concert commenced with Tarquinio Merula’s canzona, The Nightingale, from 1615. Anna Stegmann, Sally Melhuish, Alana Blackburn and Alicia Crossley, playing recorders, gave this work a delightfully atmospheric performance.

On Baroque instruments, John Ma (violin), Julia Russoniello (violin), Isaiah Bondfield (violin), Brad Tham (viola), Tim Blomfield (bass violin) and Monika Kornel (harpsichord) then played Pietro Antonio Locatelli’s 1741 Concerto in E Flat Op. 7 No. 6, subtitled Arianna’s Tears. The sombre and contrasting bright and melodic sections were given a sensitive performance of great depth.

The next item, Giovanni Guido’s Playful Harmonies on the Four Seasons – Summer Op. 3 from 1717 was performed by the string players. They were joined by Anna Stegmann on recorder for the final section, Dance of the Faun. The performance of this melodic and colourful work by the no longer well-known composer, Guido, proved to be one of the highlights of the concert.

Moving to an unexpected 1969, Balkanology, by Jan Rokyta for four recorders, this haunting, mysterious and complex work with Romanian and Turkish influences was given a superb performance by the four women on their recorders. The thunderous audience applause at the conclusion was well-deserved, making this another highlight of the concert.

There were also works by Johann Christian Schickhardt, Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer. Each of these was given a fine performance by these musicians.

The concert concluded with a work written towards the end of the baroque period in 1750, Georg Philipp Telemann’s Concerto in A minor TWV 43. 

The combination of strings and recorder produced a rich sound that was at times dreamlike. It was memorably played and the perfect end to a concert that was educational as well as charming.

First published at Canberra City News, February 1, 2025