18th-century musicians playing instruments and singing.

CHARLESTON Society Halls and Great Rooms: A Musical Soirée in Colonial America

With David Breitman, fortepiano and Evan Few, violin

Program

Johann Christian Bach, Favourite Overture No. 4 in C Major

Johann Friedrich Peter, Quintet No.1

Johann Christian Bach, Keyboard Concerto Op. 1 No. 6

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Overture to Le Devin du Village

Johann Christian Bach, Sextet in C Major W. B78

Felice Giardini, Violin Concerto Op. 15 No. 6

Thomas Arne, Overture No. 8 in G minor (The Judgment of Paris)

Muzio Clementi, Clavier Sonata in B-flat, op. 24 No. 2

Johann Christian Bach, Symphony in G minor, Op. 6 No. 6

April 16, 7:30 pm | The Cathedral of St. Philip

April 17, 3:00 pm | First Baptist Church of Decatur

April 18, 3:00 pm | Lassiter Concert Hall

Charleston, South Carolina, was a leading cultural center in the colonies beginning in the mid-18th century. The St. Cecilia Society, founded in 1766, offered private subscriptions to concerts featuring the most popular music from Europe and the Colonies at venues around town.

On the heels of America’s 250th Anniversary, the ABO presents a musical soirée modeled after this concert series. Organized by “acts,” the repertoire spans several genres, from solo keyboard to full orchestra. Fortepianist David Breitman joins us for a program featuring favorite pieces imported from Europe by J.C. Bach, Thomas Arne, and Muzio Clementi, as well as a Quintet by J.F. Peter, a Moravian newly settled in the Colonies; and ABO’s own Evan Few shines in Felice Giardini’s Violin Concerto in E-flat Major.

PURCHASE TICKETS

David Breitman, fortepiano

David Breitman is equally at home with the fortepiano and the modern piano, and enjoys both solo and ensemble playing. His collaboration with the late Sanford Sylvan spanned more than thirty years, with several hundred recitals and four CD’s, ranging from Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, to the premiere recording of The Glass Hammer, a major song cycle by the Cuban-American composer Jorge Martin. He has recorded the Mozart piano-violin sonatas on historical instruments with Jean-François Rivest, Beethoven’s violin sonatas with Elizabeth Wallfisch and cello sonatas and variations with Jaap ter Linden. In a collaboration of a different sort, he was one of seven fortepianists on the ground-breaking recording of the complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle on period instruments for CLAVES from 1997.

David joined the Historical Performance Program at Oberlin Conservatory in 1991, teaching fortepiano and clavichord as well as courses in performance practice. With his book, Piano-Playing Revisited: What Modern Players Can Learn from Period Instruments which appeared to critical acclaim in 2021, he summarizes a lifetime of experience as a performer and teacher.

ATLANTA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA

The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra is composed of top-notch artists adept at ensemble playing, and often emerging as soloists within the group. Much of the repertoire requires such talent from all of its members due to small performance forces (typically not more than sixteen musicians). In lieu of a conductor, the group performs as one organism, each player contributing to the whole that is suggestively steered by lead violinist Julie Andrijeski.

The ABO consists of a small core of musicians who live in the Atlanta area, supplemented by guest performers and featured soloists from throughout the United States and the world. The Orchestra often supplements its strong base with guest artists specializing in historically-informed Baroque performance.

In addition to its intimate yet powerful performing forces, the Orchestra’s venues are cozy compared to typical concert halls. This close proximity helps to break down the barrier between musicians and their audiences, creating a sense of cooperative interaction.

Members perform on instruments made in the Baroque era, about 1600-1750, restored to their original setups, or on authentic replicas. The string instruments, fitted with gut rather than steel strings, are played with bows of an earlier design. This allows tones and articulations that differ from “modern” instruments. Horns and trumpets have no valves. Flutes are made of wood. The harpsichord, lute, and a portable pipe organ stand in for today’s piano and guitar. But, the tuning is different. Most importantly, our musicians have ample room for improvisation and a great deal more individual expression than what is tolerated in a conventional symphony orchestra.