Local Performances:
Thursday, Feb. 12, 7:30 PM The Temple – Tifereth Israel, BEACHWOOD 26000 Shaker Blvd.
Friday, Feb. 13, 8:00 PM St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, CLEVELAND HTS. 2747 Fairmount Blvd.
Saturday, Feb 14, 8:00 PM* Music Box Supper Club, CLEVELAND 1148 Main Ave.
Sunday, Feb. 15, 4:00 PM ROCKY RIVER Presbyterian Church 21750 Detroit Rd.
Monday, Feb 16, 7:30 PM FAIRLAWN Lutheran Church 3415 West Market St.
*SPECIAL VALENTINE'S DAY PERFORMANCE - Optional dinner at 7:00pm
A free pre-concert lecture will be given one hour prior to each event by percussionist Rex Benincasa (excluding the Feb 14 Special Event).
From prayerful and serene to joyously wild, the popular ground-bass patterns of the early Baroque become the foundation upon which colorful instruments, percussion, and vocalists improvise, creating a rich tapestry of emotions including love and loss. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review described AF’s performance of a similar program as “an intoxicating mixture of feelings and the sheer joy of making music.”
The program includes works by the great Monteverdi, including the famous "Lamento della Ninfa" sung by Nell Snaidas, whose interpretation of this piece was described as “a wrenching account” by the New York Times. Apollo’s Fire favorites Jeffrey Strauss (baritone), Oliver Mercer (tenor), and Karim Sulayman (tenor) interweave vocal lines alongside Snaidas, performing everything from love songs and ballads of Sephardic Spain to Giovanni Sances’s madrigal for 3 singers and instruments to the remarkably jazzy “O Felix Jucunditas” (O happy fertility) by Samuel Capricornus.
Instrumental highlights for the evening include Julie Andrijeski in Antonio Bertali’s Chaconne for 2 violins and continuo along with instrumental dances by Diego Ortiz. And what jazz concert would be complete without some percussion and a great bass line? Rex Benincasa, a favorite from Apollo’s Fire’s popular Sephardic program last February returns to the stage with a variety of exotic percussion instruments.