EIF 26: Venice Baroque Orchestra
Queen's Hall 14/8/26
Venice Baroque Orchestra Andrea Macron music director
A sold-out Queen's Hall has opened up standing places in the Gallery, as founder and musical director Andrea Macron takes his place at the harpsichord surrounded by the thirteen string players of the Venice Baroque Orchestra. In the third concert in three years to feature smaller chamber orchestras, after Peter Whelan's Irish Chamber Orchestra in 2024 and the Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra with their distinctive Polish choral music last year, today's focus is on that period in music history when the the concerto developed from being a celebration of whole sections of the orchestra to the spotlight falling on one or a pair of soloists.
We hear four of Vivaldi's 400 concertos which were pivotal in this change, but the first part of the programme features works by two other composers. Seven of the multiple movements of Geminiani's 1729 Concerto Grosso provide a whirlwind demonstration of the powerful effects that these authentic instruments can provide, a smooth legato in the initial slow movement contrasting with the staccato echoes between the leader's violin and the cello. Handel's 1739 Concerto Grosso is marked by strong rhythms in the faster movements while in the Adagio a lovely five-beat melody is passed around the orchestra, their smiling eye-contact aiding the players precision.
Vivaldi's 1720 Concerto for Two Cellos is a show piece for Massimo Raccanelli and Irene Liebau, taking turns in the quickfire Allegro with Marcon's harpsichord and and Alessandro Pivelli's bass acting as continuo, the keyboard also providing an improvised bridge into the lyrical Largo. Airy upper strings compete with surging cellos in the last movement before Raccanelli's virtuosic cadenza.
The second half begins with a six minute Concerto for Violins, an exuberant work for all sections of the orchestra, Vivaldi's ability to cram so much enjoyable music into a short space a continuing reason for his appeal! Leader Gianpiero Zanocco is one of the soloists in the Concerto for Two Violins, but we're not given the name of his talented young partner. They're ultra cautious about tuning before embarking on a seemingly competitive exchange of daring flights and embellishments in the Allegro Molto. Breathtaking. In the Andante, the violins' melody plays against a solo cello and harpsichord. Tutti strings begin the stop-start third movement, before the soloists slow down lingeringly before rapidly speeding towards the end. This wonderful pairing is applauded wildly.
But we ain't seen nothing yet. Cellist Irene Liebau goes off and reappears with her tiny baroque flute for Vivaldi's Flute Concerto in C. Unlike later concerto soloists who always have a few minutes idleness, she plays the flute continuously for the work's entire 11 minutes. The first movement sees fast rippling effects , while the Largo, a plaintive solo with the harpsichord has interesting slurs and note-doubling. The great gaiety of the Allegro molto propels the work forward to its conclusion.
Andrea Macron introduces the inevitable encore, another tiny concerto of brilliant variety, before paying tribute to his friend Nicola Benedetti, who is in the audience, and yes, comes forward, finding a violin which she's hidden earlier, for a “not too fast, please” -but of course prestissimo - solo turn with the orchestra.
