Apollo’s Fire

Storms, Tempests, and Revolutionary Music 

For 300 years, the portrayal of storms and tempests has inspired composers to some of their most imaginative orchestral writing. From the famous hailstorm in Vivaldi’s Summer Concerto, to the tempest scenes of French baroque operas, where “wind machines” added to the fray… composers loved to prove that music has the power to convey intense drama and evoke the powers of Mother Nature.  

Our program brings together three masters of dramatic baroque music:  Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, and Marin Marais.  In their three different languages, all of them broke new ground as they put the orchestra in the service of storytelling.   

I. A Revolutionary Experiment 

One day when Vivaldi (the Redhead Priest) was saying Mass, a musical theme came into his mind. He at once left the altar where he was officiating and repaired to the sacristy to write out his theme, then he came back to finish the Mass. He was reported to the Inquisition, which luckily looked on him as a musician, that is, AS A MADMAN, and merely forbade him to say Mass from that time forward. 

—P. L. de Boisgelou, 1800 

In 1725 Antonio Vivaldi published a collection of twelve concertos titled Il Cimento dell’Armonia e dell’Inventione – The Contest Between Harmony and Invention. With this curious title, he unleashed a revolutionary question: should music simply be about harmony, or could it serve to illustrate inventive ideas, events, moods, natural scenes, and so forth? Vivaldi set out to prove that it could do both. The first four concertos of the collection, titled Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons), are virtuoso demonstrations of music in the service of storytelling – in this case, the story of Nature and her various moods. 

The role of the performer as an animated and improvisatory storyteller was fundamental to baroque performance, and especially to Vivaldi’s music. Though Vivaldi had written music in imitation of Nature before, he took the art to new heights this time, supplying sonnets to clarify the meaning of the music. Scholars generally believe that the sonnets were composed by Vivaldi himself, as they do not seem to be the work of a trained poet. In the first publication (1725 in Amsterdam), the lines of the sonnets are labeled A, B, C, D, E, etc. These letters are also placed at the corresponding points in the score, so that the performer can understand which lines of poetry correspond to which passages in the music. However, Vivaldi also provided many more specific indications directly in the score, telling the performer exactly what each phrase is depicting. This level of detail is often lost in today’s performances. 

Vivaldi was also the great developer of ritornello form – the form that became the model for concerto-writing by all European composers of the century, including J.S. Bach. The Italian word “ritornello” means something that returns. The same word is used to mean the refrain in popular music – and indeed, Vivaldi’s ritornellos convey the bold and driving sense of rhythm and melody that is commonly associated with pop music. Like many pop music composers today, he was writing for teenagers as well as adults. So he imbued his concertos with the same sense of driving rhythm and earthy harmonies that we all respond to in rock music. I think of him as the rock-n’-roll composer of the 18^th century.  

Here follows a description of Vivaldi’s story, as told through specific indications in the score. 

La Primavera (Spring) 

In the first movement, a joyful chirping theme tells us that spring has come. A trio of birds (solo violins) sings in canon, and then flies away. The little brook that was frozen all winter now babbles merrily. A brief spring shower with thunder and lightning does not disturb the joyful mood. In the second movement, we meet the shepherd boy (solo violin), who naps peacefully on a hillside while watched by his famous “barking dog” (the insistent violas). The third movement is a delightful peasant dance using a drone in the bass to 

suggest the musettes or bagpipes associated with outdoor festivities.  

L’Estate (Summer) 

The first movement is a brilliant evocation of hot summer days in Italy. The opening two-note sighing figure evokes the peasants wilting in the heat. A lively cuckoo springs into action, followed by a lonely goldfinch and a turtledove. A chilly North Wind hints of an approaching storm. Our shepherd boy fears the storm, and we sense his anxiety in some tearful music. In the slow movement, the shepherd boy tries to take another siesta, but this time is tormented by buzzing flies and wasps. His frayed nerves are not helped by the intermittent rumbling thunder, growing louder as the storm approaches. 

The third movement is a stunning depiction of a thunderstorm. Anyone who has been in Italy during a summer storm will appreciate how the torrent of cascading violin scales evokes the deluge that comes when the clouds burst. The wind and rain batter the crops furiously. 

L’Autunno (Autumn)

The first movement concerns the cheerful gatherings of peasants celebrating the harvest – including a fair amount of drinking. We meet an intoxicated farmer who staggers merrily. The farmers get progressively more tipsy until they fall asleep towards the end of the first movement. In the second movement, the dreams of the slumbering farmers ebb and flow. Vivaldi indicates that the harpsichord should play continuous arpeggios. In our performance, the solo violin plays occasional cascades suggesting the movement of dreams. 

In the third movement we are invited to join a hunting party, complete with galloping rhythms and horn-calls. Animal lovers, be warned: this movement includes gun-shots and the squeals of a desperate animal. The poor creature finally gives up his spirit in a lightly floating violin arpeggio, immediately followed by the return of the jolly hunting theme. 

L’Inverno (Winter)  

Vivaldi partly dispenses with ritornello form in order to relate the details of winter life: we begin stiff with cold (reminiscent of Purcell’s Cold Genius), then the howling wind arises together with the famous chattering teeth (violins playing staccato repeated notes, very high and fast). In the second movement we experience a more typical Venetian winter: drizzling rain on the rooftop, brought to life by pizzicato violins.  

The third movement begins with slipping and sliding on the ice, and suddenly the orchestra interrupts with jagged intervals, signaling that the ice has broken right in front of us. A quick series of descending arpeggios in the violin conveys attempts to get up from the ice and walk, with plenty of stumbling. A brief respite comes from the gentle spring breeze in the upper strings, soon interrupted with the return of the fierce North Wind. Vivaldi notes in the sonnet that while winter brings challenges, it ultimately brings joys as well. 

II. Tempests of the Heart 

While baroque composers focused on Nature as the inspiration for orchestral storytelling, they turned to passions of the heart when writing stormy music for singers. 

Vivaldi’s “Siam Navi” (We are ships at sea) from L’Olimpiade reigns today as a showcase for powerhouse sopranos. It was written for the castrato Marianino Nicolini and based on a popular text by Pietro Metastasio, the great opera librettist of the 18^th century. The text likens love – humankind’s greatest folly – to abandoned ships at sea, subject to furious winds and icy waves. Vivaldi paints a stormy landscape with the violins furiously ascending and descending the scale simultaneously, along with sudden unison passages in the whole orchestra. 

George Frideric Handel dominated the London opera stage for three decades in the 18^th century. Along with his contemporaries Rameau and Vivaldi, he was responsible for bringing the genre of baroque opera to its culmination. Handel’s great 1724 opera, Giulio Cesare, featured the renowned Francesca Cuzzoni in the pivotal role of Cleopatra.  The story involves Cleopatra’s seduction of Cesare to gain the throne of Egypt.  To her own surprise, she falls passionately in love with him.  Handel beautifully conveys her passions and fears – as a political leader and a woman in a violent milieu. In Act III, Cleopatra fears that Cesare is dead.  Believing she has lost both her lover and her powerful position, she sings the tour-de-force aria “Da Tempeste” (“The Ship shattered by storm”), using the metaphor of a ship tossed at sea to convey her conflicting emotions. 

We conclude our musical painting of storms and tempests with selections from Alcione by Marin Marais (1656-1728). Marais studied composition with Lully and often conducted his teacher’s operas, while also achieving a reputation as a virtuoso viol player. Alcione premiered in 1706 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris, and is well known today particularly for its inventive orchestral writing. The graceful Chaconne harks back to the Lully’s influence, and ends the entire opera on an optimistic note. The Act IV tempest scene is widely regarded as one of the earliest portrayals of a storm in opera, and takes place as Alcione dreams of the evil fate awaiting her beloved Ceyx. The “Marche des Matelots” (“Sailor’s March”) from Act III draws its tune from an ancient French carol, known today most widely as “Masters in This Hall.” We present the entire sailor sequence from the opera, consisting of three different dances interspersed with songs sung by two different sailors. 

Named for the ancient god of music and the sun, Apollo’s Fire is a Grammy-winning ensemble. Founded by award-winning harpsichordist and conductor Jeannette Sorrell, the period band is dedicated to the baroque ideal that music should evoke the various Affekts or passions in the listeners. The Apollo’s Fire musicians are creative artists who share Sorrell’s passion for drama and rhetoric.  

Apollo’s Fire has performed six European tours, with sold-out concerts at the BBC Proms in London, Madrid’s Royal Theatre, Bordeaux’s Grand Théàtre de l’Opéra, St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Heidelberg Spring Festival, the National Concert Hall of Ireland, and venues in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, and Portugal. Chosen by the Daily Telegraph as one of London’s “Best Five Classical Concerts of the Year,” Apollo’s Fire’s 2014 London performance was praised for “superlative music-making … combining European stylishness with American entrepreneurialism.” 
 
North American tour engagements include Carnegie Hall (twice), the Tanglewood and Ravinia festivals (several times), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (several times), the Boston Early Music Festival series, the Aspen Music Festival, Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art, and major venues in Toronto, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. In 2021, Apollo’s singers made their debut with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Jeannette Sorrell, winning rave reviews. 

 At home in Cleveland and Chicago, Apollo’s Fire enjoys sold-out performances at its series, which has drawn national attention for creative programming. 
 
With nearly 14 million views of its YouTube videos, Apollo’s Fire has released 30 commercial CDs and won a Grammy Award in 2019 for the album Songs of Orpheus with tenor Karim Sulayman. Eleven of the ensemble’s CD releases have become best-sellers on the classical Billboard chart, including Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Monteverdi’s Vespers, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, and Sorrell’s crossover programs including Sacrum Mysterium – A Celtic Christmas Vespers; Sugarloaf Mountain – An Appalachian Gathering; Sephardic Journey – Wanderings of the Spanish Jews; and Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain. 

To learn more about Apollo’s Fire, please visit their website. 

Grammy-winning conductor Jeannette Sorrell is recognized internationally as one of today’s most compelling interpreters of Baroque and Classical repertoire, and a leader in creative programming exploring cultural roots. She is the subject of the documentary by Oscar-winning director Allan Miller, titled PLAYING WITH FIRE: Jeannette Sorrell and the Mysteries of Conducting (commercially released in 2023). 

Sorrell studied conducting at the Aspen and the Tanglewood music festivals under Leonard Bernstein and Roger Norrington and harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. She won First Prize in the Spivey International Harpsichord Competition, competing against over 70 harpsichordists from four continents.  

Sorrell made her New York Philharmonic debut in 2021 and Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2022, both to rave reviews. She has repeatedly conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Utah Symphony, Florida Orchestra, New World Symphony, and  Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco; and she has also led the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Bach’s St. John Passion), the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Opera St. Louis with the St. Louis Symphony, and Grand Rapids Symphony, among others.  Upcoming engagements in 2023-24 include a return to the New York Philharmonic and debuts with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, Houston Symphony, and Indianapolis Symphony. 

As founder and conductor of Apollo’s Fire, she has led the renowned ensemble at London’s BBC Proms, Carnegie Hall, and many international venues. Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire have released 30 commercial CDs, including 11 bestsellers on the Billboard Classical Chart and a 2019 Grammy winner. Her CD recordings of the Bach’s St. John Passion and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons have been chosen as best in the field by the Sunday Times of London (2020 and 2021). Her Monteverdi Vespers recording was chosen by BBC Music Magazine as one of “30 Must-Have Recordings for Our Lifetime” (September 2022). With nearly 14 million views of her YouTube videos, Sorrell has attracted national attention and awards for creative programming, using contextual and dramatic elements.   

Singaporean violinist Alan Choo has established himself on the global stage as a leading soloist, chamber musician, and historical specialist. He is Concertmaster and Assistant Artistic Director of Apollo’s Fire, the Grammy Award-winning baroque orchestra in the United States, and made his solo debut with them at the Tanglewood and Ravinia Music Festivals in 2017. He is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Red Dot Baroque, Singapore’s first professional period ensemble, which has been recently named Ensemble-in-Residence at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. In May 2019 he was invited as guest concertmaster and soloist with the Shanghai-based baroque ensemble, Shanghai Camerata. His CD album of the complete Mystery Sonatas by Heinrich Biber will be released on AVIE Records in March 2024.

Alan has appeared as a soloist with Apollo’s Fire at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall (NY), the Tanglewood Music Festival (MA), Ravinia Music Festival (IL) and St. Martin in the Fields (London, UK), and also with the FVG Orchestra (Italy), the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra (Russia), Tafelmusik Winter Institute Orchestra (Canada), Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Orchestra of the Music Makers (Singapore), and more.

A proponent of contemporary music, Alan is co-founder of SG Inspirations, a project dedicated to performing works by Singaporean composers. In 2015, he recorded the SG Inspirations commemorative CD album with pianist Lin Hengyue as a gift to their nation on Singapore’s 50th anniversary. His piano trio Trio Phoenix combines both worlds of early and contemporary music by performing works by living composers and exploring the wealth of baroque repertoire performed with stylistic awareness of modern instruments. The trio completed their Asia Summer Tour in 2015 to critical acclaim, with repertoire ranging from Jean-Philippe Rameau to Alfred Schnittke, and were guest artists at the Lexington Bach Festival 2017.

Alan’s achievements in all areas of performance have earned him awards such as the Early Music Award 2016 from Peabody Conservatory, the Paul Abisheganaden Grant for Artistic Excellence 2015, the Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award 2014, the Grace Clagett Ranney Prize in Chamber Music 2014 and 1st prize in the Singapore National Piano and Violin Competition 2011, Artist Category. He has also given masterclasses and lectures in violin performance, performance practice, and stage presence to college students at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Michigan State University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Bowling Green State University, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. 

Alan holds a Doctorate in Historical Performance Practice from Case Western Reserve University, as well as degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. His teachers include Julie Andrijeski, Risa Browder, Victor Danchenko, and Alexander Souptel. Learn more by visiting his website.

The American soprano Amanda Forsythe, celebrated for her performances on both sides of the Atlantic, is a regular soloist with the highly acclaimed baroque ensembles Les Talens Lyriques, the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Tafelmusik, Apollo’s Fire, Opera Prima, Pacific Musicworks, Early Music Vancouver, and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. She sang Euridice on the recording of Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux enfers with the Boston Early Music Festival which won the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. Her début solo album of Handel arias “The Power of Love” with Apollo’s Fire was recently followed with the highly praised “Heavenly Bach”. She toured with the outstanding French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, performing works based on the Orfeo myth, and subsequently recorded the role of Euridice in a new edition of Gluck’s Orfeo for the ERATO label. Her discography includes more than 25 albums and DVDs, many of them premiere recordings. Forthcoming discs include Handel’s Roman Cantatas with Opera Prima, Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona, and a solo Telemann album, both with the Boston Early Music Festival.

Equally at home on the concert platform and on the opera stage, in recent seasons Amanda Forsythe’s major concert engagements have included performances with the Boston Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Hong Kong Philharmonic, The New York Philharmonic, the Orchestra Sinfonica Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, The Academy of Ancient Music, The St. Louis Symphony, Music of the Baroque, and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra.

Amanda Forsythe made her American stage début with the Boston Early Music Festival, where her many roles have included Poppea L’incoronazione di Poppea, Eolie Desmarest’s Circé, Angelica Orlando Generoso (Campra), Isabelle Le Carnaval de Venise (Campra), Serpina La serva padrona and Edilia Almira, Königin von Castilien, for which she has received rave reviews. With Boston Baroque she has sung Poppea Agrippina, Melissa Amadigi, and the title roles in L’incoronazione di Poppea and Partenope. With Seattle Opera, she has sung Pamina Die Zauberflöte, and with Opera Philadelphia she recently made her role début as Handel’s Semele.

She made her European operatic début in the role of Corinna Il viaggio a Reims at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, subsequently returning to perform Rosalia L’equivoco stravagante, and Jemmy Guillaume Tell, which were both released on DVD. At the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, she has performed Nannetta Falstaff, Manto Niobe, Amour Orphée, and most recently, Marzelline Fidelio. Other European engagements include Pamina Die Zauberflöte in Barrie Kosky’s production at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and the Komische Oper in Berlin.

She has performed under the baton of Giovanni Antonini, Jonathan Cohen, Laurence Cummings, Sir Colin Davis, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Matthew Halls, Thomas Hengelbrock, Nicholas Kraemer, Bernard Labadie, Susanna Mälkki, Nicholas McGegan, Christopher Moulds, Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Sir Antonio Pappano, Martin Pearlman, Christophe Rousset, Jeannette Sorrell, Stephen Stubbs, and Jaap van Zweden.  She has premiered opera productions by Gilbert Blin, Robert Carsen, Tobias Kratzer, and Graham Vick.

In the 2022/2023 season, Ms. Forsythe made débuts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic (St. Matthew Passion), the Victoria Symphony (Mozart and more), The St. Louis Symphony (Messiah), the Academy of Ancient Music (Messiah), the Festival Radovljica (Handel Roman cantatas), and the Royal Northern Sinfonia (C Minor Mass).  She returned to the New York Philharmonic (St. Matthew Passion), the Chicago Symphony (Vivaldi’s Gloria and Magnificat), Apollo’s Fire (Storms and Tempests), Boston Baroque (b minor Mass), and the Boston Early Music Festival (Circé).

In the coming seasons, she returns to The New York Philharmonic (Handel’s Israel in Egypt and Mozart’s Requiem), the Chicago Symphony (Handel duets program), Tafelmusik (a Handel Celebration), Boston Baroque (Messiah and Handel’s Silete Venti), Pacific Musicworks (La Serva Padrona), and an American tour with Opera Prima (Tormento Seicento).  She will make her début with the Houston Symphony (Messiah), the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater), and the NDR Radiophilharmonie (Handel’s Deborah).