Vivaldi’s Venice

Our 20th season begins with a return to Italian Baroque masterworks amidst the beauty of the autumn prairie at Holy Wisdom Monastery. The Vivaldi’s Venice project celebrates the magnificence of instrumental music in Venice during the 17th and 18th centuries. With the incomparable energy and elan of Antonio Vivaldi’s (1678-1741) concertos serving as a pivot point, this program explores works by composers who lived either just before, during, or after Vivaldi’s lifetime and who either lived in or visited Venice. The first half of the program features sinfonias, concertos, and sonatas by Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751), Baldassare Galuppi (1706-1785), Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690), and Johann A. Hasse (1699-1783). These composers will set the stage for three of Vivaldi’s groundbreaking and dazzling concertos, all prefaced by his somber Sinfonia al Santo Sepolcro. NB—J. S. Bach studied Vivaldi’s concertos quite closely; at the MBM concert, it will be fun to spot moments in Vivaldi concertos that anticipate Bach.

MBM is delighted that internationally renowned Baroque violinist Marc Destrubé will be our featured soloist and will lead the MBM ensemble for this exciting program. Mr. Destrubé is first violinist in the Axelrod String Quartet—quartet-in- residence at the Smithsonian Institution—and is currently the concertmaster of the Oregon Bach Festival and co-concertmaster of the Orchestra of the 18th Century. He was concertmaster of the CBC Radio Orchestra from 1996 to 2002 and has played as concertmaster under Sir Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Helmuth Rilling, Christopher Hogwood, Philippe Herreweghe, Gustav Leonhardt, and Frans Brüggen.