Tafelmusik will be sharing the stage with oboist Alfredo Bernardini for their Triple Espresso concerts February 21 to 23. The Italian oboist has been a guest director with baroque orchestras across the globe, from Europe to Canada to Australia and South America.
Bernardini and Tafelmusik will be performing a program the oboist has selected, including Telemann’s Concerto in B-flat Major for three violins and three oboes, the Suite in G Minor for three oboes by Fasch, Handel’s Oboe Concerto, and Bach’s Suite in D Major.
We caught up with Bernardini to ask him a few questions about the concert, and his music.
Alfredo Bernardini
Alfredo Bernardini was born in Rome, and moved to Holland in 1981 at the age of 20 to focus his studies on the baroque oboe and early music. He earned a soloist diploma at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (Koninklijk Conservatorium den Haag) in 1987. He’s performed extensively across Europe, in Canada, Asia, the Middle East, Australia and South America as a member of baroque ensembles such as Hesperion XX, Le Concert des Nations, La Petite Bande, The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, and others.
Bernardini is a prolific recording artist who appears on more than 100 releases. With brothers Paolo and Alberto Grazzi, he founded the ensemble Zefiro in 1989. Their recordings have won the Cannes Classical Award, and the Diapason d’Or de l’Année 2009.
He is currently professor at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg.
Alfredo is known for his lively and engaging performance style, as well as his virtuosity on the oboe.
Alfredo Bernardini: Q&A
LvT: How did you get your start in music? Did you grow up in a musical family?
AB: When I was six, my mother got me to sing in a children’s chorus — the choir of the Accademia Filarmonica in Rome, my hometown. My parents were scientists, but also art and music lovers. As a result of this, my three siblings are an art restorer, a composer, a painter and I am an early music performer.
LvT: Why the oboe, and why Baroque? When did you decide (or realize) that the Baroque oboe repertoire was what you wanted to specialize in?
AB: The same Accademia in Rome started a recorder class and that’s how I got into wind instruments. My passion for (early) music was sparked in 1972 at the age of 10, when I attended the Urbino summer course created by the visionary Giancarlo Rostirolla. Urbino Musica Antica is still happening each year during the last 10 days of July, and I am currently its Artistic Director.
LvT: What is it about Baroque music that earns new fans even centuries later?
AB: Music from the 18th Century is all about human emotions. It’s good that we still have feelings three centuries later! This music moves us, its language is very close to poetry, it can be really alive and not ancient at all. It was never meant to be old.
LvT: You’ve hand picked the program for the concert — what made you select these works in particular: Fasch Ouverture-Suite in G Minor; Telemann Concerto in B-flat Major; Handel Oboe concerto in G Minor; Bach Suite in D Major?
AB: These four composers were born in about the same years and in the same corner of the world: Northeast Germany. They underwent a similar rigorous Lutheran education and they very much respected each other. Yet this program is full of variety, as some pieces follow more the French dancing style, while other the Italian cantabile style. I am confident that once again Tafelmusik will move its audience with this beautiful evergreen music.
- Find more details about the concert, and tickets, [HERE].
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