Salon/Sanctuary Concerts Presents HEBREWS AND HERETICS/ SCHOLARS AND LUNATICS, 1/26-3/8

By: Dec. 19, 2013
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SALON/SANCTUARY CONCERTS presents Hebrews and Heretics/ Scholars and Lunatics A four-part festival of exiles and outliers who ushered in new eras in their own times

From Ghetto to Palazzo

The Worlds of Salomone Rossi

Sunday, January 26, 2014, 2:30-6:00 p.m.


Perpetual Motion

Galileo and his Revolutions
Friday, February 7, 2014, 8:00 p.m.

JS Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II

Kenneth Weiss, harpsichord
Sunday, March 2, 2014, 6:00 p.m.


Scholar and Lunatic or the Roots of Romanticism

The Four Nations Ensemble with guest speakers Saturday, March 8, 2014, 7:00 p.m.
Salon/Sanctuary Concerts, whose pathbreaking offerings have earned the Critics' Pick star from both The New York Times and Time Out New York, opens its winter/spring season with Hebrews and Heretics/Scholars and Lunatics, a festival of four concerts devoted to exiles and outliers who ushered in new eras in their own times.

Hebrews and Heretics/ Scholars and Lunatics invites the public on a journey from the end of the Renaissance to the dawn of the Romantic age in a suite of four events taking place in some of the most historically evocative venues in Manhattan. An in-depth look at Salomone Rossi, Galileo, JS Bach, and CPE Bach will feature performers both renowned and new to the United States, presented in innovative programming formats that audiences have come to expect from Salon/Sanctuary Concerts, a trailblazer of the New York early music scene.

From Ghetto to Palazzo

The Worlds of Salomone Rossi

Sunday, January 26, 2014, 2:30-6:00 p.m.

Edmond J. Safra Hall
Museum of Jewish Heritage
36 Battery Place
Tickets: $25, $30, $35

This opening event promises to be an inspiring Sunday afternoon of music, film and conversation featuring the legendary life and music of Salomone Rossi and the US debut of the extraordinary Israeli vocal ensemble I Profeti della Quinta. Co-produced withThe Museum of Jewish Heritage and co-presented by Centro Primo Levi, an unprecedented exploration of Rossi's music and time marks the fourth presentation of Salon/Sanctuary's program devoted to the groundbreaking Italian-Jewish composer.

A violinist in Monteverdi's orchestra, Salomone Rossi (c. 1570 - 1630) is credited with having invented the trio sonata. His introduction of polyphonic music to the synagogue, where only monody had been accepted as befitting a people in exile, earned him both scorn and praise from members of his community. His sister, a soprano at the same court that he served, premiered roles and sang madrigals of Monteverdi at Palazzo Te, the pleasure palace of the Gonzaga.

In his dual role as court and synagogue composer, Rossi inhabited two worlds at a curious time of both heightened physical segregation and active social interaction between Jews and Christians. An afternoon of two concerts, a film, and a panel discussion offers a unique opportunity to explore the many forces that shaped his shifting world and beautiful music, and the tension between exile and acceptance that often recedes but never fades from history.

The afternoon will include a screening of the critically acclaimed 2012 Joseph Rochlitz film,Hebreo: In Search of Salomone Rossi, a panel discussion, and a performance by the award-winning Basel-based ensemble, Profeti della Quinta.

"The renditions by the Profeti della Quinta, an Israeli group consisting of two counter tenors, two tenors and a bass, were a pure delight. Intonation was exceptionally pure, and pronunciation was clear and more intelligible than that of many local vocal ensembles. The articulation was well-shaped and the accentuations were placed pointedly, though subtly."
-The Jerusalem Post

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

2:30-3:00 p.m.
Trio sonatas of Salomone Rossi performed by violinists Leah Nelson and Lisa Rautenberg, with Daniel Swenberg, theorbo

3:00-3:30 p.m.
Discussion of Salomone Rossi's life and world in Counter-Reformation Italy with renowned Rossi scholar Francesco Spagnolo, PhD of University of California, Berkeley

3:30-3:45 p.m.
Break for refreshments, featuring Italian kosher delicacies

3:45-4:30 p.m.
Film: In Search of Salomone Rossi

4:30-6:00 p.m.
I Profeti della Quinta perform vocal works of Salomone Rossi


ABOUT THE ARTISTS
I Profeti della Quinta was founded in Kibbutz Cabri, in the Upper Galilee region of Israel by the bass and harpsichord player Elam Rotem. As students of the Cabri High School for the Arts, Rotem and his friends became fascinated with the sound of Medieval and Renaissance music and decided to pursue a path that would lead them to bring that sound back to life for contemporary audiences. They are currently based in Basel, where all members of the group undertook further study at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. www.quintaprofeti.com

I Profeti della Quinta, photo by Susanna Drescher

Perpetual Motion

Galileo and his Revolutions

Friday, February 7, 2014, 8:00 p.m.

The Fabbri Mansion, House of the Redeemer
7 East 95th Street
Tickets $25 - $100

with Galileo's Daughters
Sarah Pillow, soprano
Mary-Anne Ballard, viola da gamba

and guests
Ronn McFarlane, lute
Dava Sobel, author
Marc Wagnon, video artist

A moving and compelling account of a remarkable moment in the history of science, human thought and music, Perpetual Motion ties together the groundbreaking music of Galileo's day, narration by acclaimed best-selling science writer Dava Sobel (author of Galileo's Daughter) and high-definition images of Earth and the cosmos.

Sobel narrates the story of coinciding revolutions in science and music in the 17th century, as breathtaking images of Earth and the heavens complement virtuoso singing and playing. Together they present a link to the past and bring to light the exquisite beauty of our world.

This exciting multimedia event will be presented in the Fabbri Mansion's reconstructed 15th century Library, brought to New York from Italy and reassembled here during World War I.

"Ms. Pillow has a lovely, natural-sounding tone and a versatile gift for interpretation"
- The New York Times

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
An ensemble based in New York City, Galileo's Daughters is inspired by the lives and works of Galileo Galilei, his daughter, Maria Celeste, and the musicians and scientists of their time. Their story is told in a multimedia program narrated by author Dava Sobel. Since their debut concert in September 2001, Galileo's Daughters has performed throughout the United States at universities, music festivals and special gatherings of the scientific community. Shaped by a variety of talents in early music, opera, jazz, drama, and scholarship among the four performers, the programs presented by Galileo's Daughters offer, through music, narration and a stunning video created by Marc Wagnon, an entertaining window onto one of the most exciting periods in the history of science.

JS Bach:
The Well-Tempered Clavier
Book II

Kenneth Weiss, harpsichord

Sunday, March 2, 2014, 6:00 p.m.

The Abigail Adams Smith Auditorium
417 East 61st Street
Tickets $25 - $100

Following last season's performance of Book I, the internationally acclaimed harpsichordistKenneth Weiss returns to Salon/Sanctuary Concerts and the Abigail Adams Smith Auditorium to continue his exploration of The Well-Tempered Clavier with Book II. The elegant mirrored hall of the AbiGail Adams Smith Auditorium offers an ideal salon setting for this intimate concert.

A wine and cheese reception will follow the performance.

"Kenneth Weiss is a brilliant musician, distinguished and inventive, to whom we owe, among others, an excellent recording of the Goldberg Variations. His unbridled yet always controlled virtuosity show him to be a born musician, undeniably gifted with expressive means."- Diapason

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kenneth Weiss was born in New York City where he attended the High School of Performing Arts. After studying with Lisa Goode Crawford at the Oberlin Conservatory he continued with Gustav Leonhardt at the Sweelinck Consertorium in Amsterdam.

From 1990-1993 he was Musical Assistant to William Christie at Les Arts Florissants for numerous opera productions and recordings. He later conducted Les Arts Florissants in 'Doux Mensonges' by the chreographer Jiri Kylian at the Paris Opera, and was co-director with William Christie of the first three editions of Les Arts Florissants' 'Jardin de Voix' program.

Mr. Weiss focuses on recitals, chamber music, teaching and conducting. His most recent recitals include Nuremburg, Montpellier, Barcelona, Dijon, Geneva, Antwerp, the Cite de la musique (Paris), Madrid, La Roque d'Anthéron, Santander, Lisbon, San Sebastian, Innsbruck, Santiago de Compostela, La Chaise Dieu, La Chaud de Fonds, Bruges and New York. He performs in recital with the violinists Fabio Biondi, Daniel Hope, Monica Huggett and Lina Tur Bonet.

In collaboration with the choreographer Trisha Brown, Mr. Weiss was musical director of 'M.O.', a ballet on Bach's Musical Offering, first performed at La Monnaie in Brussels. He was also musical director of the Aix-en-Provence European Music Academy's staged productions of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and a Monteverdi madrigal program. Both productions were revived at the Lille, Monte-Carlo and Bordeaux operas. He has conducted staged performances of Mozart's Mariage of Figaro at the Cité de la musique in Paris and Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea in Bilbao and Oviedo. He has also conducted The English Concert, Concerto Copenhagen, Orquesta de Salamanca, Divino Sospiro, Orchestre de Rouen, the Ensemble Orchestral de Basse-Normandie, Orchestre National des Pays de Loire and the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie.

Earlier this year Kenneth Weiss performed Bach's Goldberg Variations at the Paris Salle Cortot aspart of the Orchestre de Chambre Paris season, the Well-Tempered Clavier in San Francisco and New York, and in the Festivals of Cordes sur Ciel, Villevieille and Sinfonia en Périgord, a programme of extracts from his two virginal recordings 'A Cleare Day' and 'Heaven & Earth' in the Boston Early Music Festival, Saint-Riquier Festival, Laus Polyphoniae festival in Antwerp and in the Paris Baroque Festival. He also performed as a soloist in Bach's Brandenburg Concertos with the Stavanger Orchestra directed by Fabio Biondi and accompanied the soprano Carolyn Sampson in a Carnegie Hall recital in New York. Among his 2014 project are a Well-Tempered Clavier recital at the Cité de la musique in Paris, recitals in the Centre de Musique Baroque Rameau project, a Scarlatti recital in Madrid, a Netherlands tour following a Brussels virginal recital, and several recitals with Fabio Biondi in the America and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Kenneth Weiss, photo by Arthur Forjonel

Scholar and Lunatic
or the Roots of Romanticism

The Four Nations Ensemble with guest speakers

Saturday, March 8, 2014 6:00 p.m.

The Abigail Adams Smith Auditorium
417 East 61st Street
Tickets $25 - $100

Andrew Appel, harpsichord and clavichord
Tatiana Chulochnikova, violin
Antonio Campillo, traverso
Loretta O'Sullivan, cello
James H. Johnson, musicologist

The Four Nations Ensemble with the participation of several renowned quest panelists marks the 300th Birthday of CPE Bach with a panel discussion and performance of masterpieces by one of the 18th century's most adventuresome, demanding, respected yet presently under-appreciated composers.

Four Nations asks "If Dennis Diderot felt compelled to stop in Hamburg on his way back from St. Petersburg to visit the composer, how did we, in the 20th century, lose CPE Bach as the link between the Baroque and the Romantic musical mind?" This event will trace Carl Philippe's style from the careful study he gave to his father's work, to the role he played satisfying the stultifying old fashioned Rococo tastes of Frederick the Great, to his final period of composition in Hamburg that defines the fluidity and unpredictability of a romantic approach to music.

Andrew Appel (harpsichord and clavichord), Tatiana Chulochnikova (violin),Antonio Campillo (traverso), Loretta O'Sullivan (cello), James H. Johnson(musicologist and author of Listening in Paris) and others come together to celebrate the genius without whom, as Mozart tells us in his letters, we could not have the music we so love today.

A wine and cheese reception will follow the performance.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Founded in 1986, the Four Nations Ensemble brings together soloists who are leading exponents of period instrument and vocal performance to present music from the Renaissance through the Viennese Classical masterpieces of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. For three decades, Four Nations has developed a leading presence on the early music scene in New York and across the country. With a core ensemble of harpsichord or fortepiano, violin(s), flute, and cello, the Ensemble explores and performs masterpieces of the 17th and 18th centuries, from trio sonata to piano trio and quartet. Four Nations has performed at major houses and on prestigious series throughout the United States including The Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center. The Ensemble has participated in festivals including The Boston Early Music Festival, New York's Mostly Mozart, Amherst Festival, New Haven's International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Maverick Concerts in New York, Virginia Waterfront International Arts Festival, Chautauqua, The Indiana Early Music Festival, The Redwoods Festival in Santa Rosa, California, and Brasilseguridade in Rio de Janeiro. http://www.fournations.org

Salon/Sanctuary Concerts

Founded in 2009 by Artistic Director Jessica Gould as an alternative to the conventional concert hall, SALON/SANCTUARY CONCERTS offers the special chance to hear pre-Romantic music in intimate venues that complement the historical context of the repertoire. In just four years, the series has expanded from a six to eleven concert season, and evolved into a critically praised presenter of site-specific concerts and innovative interdisciplinary projects. Pleased to present special events that cast a light on historical issues through the prism of music, the series takes pride in many special performances featuring luminaries from the worlds of opera, theater, film, and dance. Having garnered critical praise for its innovative programming, Salon/Sanctuary continues to attract a diverse audience for its path-breaking offerings.
Recent events include its critically praised fourth season opening event, which featured Metropolitan Opera countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, NYCB Principal Dancer Jared Angle, and Met harpsichordist and assistant conductor Bradley Brookshire; the December 2013 performance of More Between Heaven and Earth, a site-specific interdisciplinary performance based on the letters of Thomas Jefferson and Maria Cosway, starring actor Campbell Scott and TONY-Award nominated actress Melissa Errico, directed by Erica Gould; the November 2013 performance of legendary lutenist Hopkinson Smith in a rare New York recital at the exquisite Renaissance Library of the Fabbri Mansion; and the October 2013 appearance of acclaimed violinist Monica Huggett, in a performance of Bach violin concertos with members of New York Baroque Incorporated.


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