{"id":104846,"date":"2024-06-07T16:10:24","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T20:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=104846"},"modified":"2024-06-10T08:00:02","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T12:00:02","slug":"preview-apocryphonia-rezonance-baroque-ensemble-present-schobertiade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2024\/06\/07\/preview-apocryphonia-rezonance-baroque-ensemble-present-schobertiade\/","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW | Apocryphonia & The Rezonance Baroque Ensemble Present The Schobertiade"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"L-R:
L-R: Michelle Odorico (Photo courtesy of the artist); Laura Dean Jones (Photo courtesy of the artist); Alexander Cappellazzo (Photo courtesy of the artist); Andrea Botticelli (Photo courtesy of the artist); Rezan Onen-Lapointe (Photo: Bo Huang)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Schobertiade, a chamber concert presented by Apocryphonia in partnership with the Rezonance Baroque Ensemble, is not a typo. With, as the poster announces, sonatas, strings, fortepiano, and possibly poisonous mushrooms, the concert takes place June 14 in Toronto, and features sonatas by Johann Schobert, Giuseppe Agus, Paul Constantinescu, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, among other rarely heard gems.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Apocryphonia\u2019s mission to spotlight under-programmed and forgotten works from across the centuries. Performers include Andrea Botticelli on the fortepiano, violinists Rezan Onen-Lapointe and Michelle Odorico, cellist Laura Jones, and tenor Alexander Cappellazzo.<\/p>\n

The Music<\/h2>\n

The Schobertiade is programmed around the keyboard sonatas of 18th Century composer Johann Schobert. They\u2019ll be performed on period string instruments, along with a rare Kenneth Bakeman fortepiano.<\/p>\n

Born in Germany, Johann<\/strong> Schobert<\/strong> moved to Paris to become part of the household of\u00a0Louis Fran\u00e7ois I de Bourbon, prince de Conti. There, he wrote several works until his untimely death by ingesting poisonous mushrooms \u2013 fungi he had insisted were safe. After eating a soup he\u2019d prepared, he, his wife, all his children except for one, and the doctor who\u2019d told him they were safe, died. While he\u2019s largely unknown today, in his era, he was an inspiration to a young Mozart, spanning the transition from the Late Baroque to Early Classical eras.<\/p>\n

London-based Italian composer Giuseppe Agus<\/strong> was a contemporary of Schobert\u2019s. As an artist, he went beyond the boundaries of the time, and achieved success in England. Born in Cagliari, his father was a musician in the Chapel of Cagliari, and he began his studies on the violin at age 8. After a time of relative obscurity, he reemerged in London in 1750, where he collaborated with the likes of Handel and Johann Christian Bach.<\/p>\n

British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams<\/strong> was born in 1872, and is considered one of the masters of the symphony of the 20th century. At the age of three, his father died, and Williams would go on to study at the Royal College of Music and Trinity College, Cambridge. He\u2019s become one of England\u2019s favourite composers, with works that are widely performed. He was one of the first to travel in order to collect folk melodies, which inform his Merciless Beauty, set to the words of poet Geoffrey Chaucer.<\/p>\n

Paul Constantinescu<\/strong> (1909 \u2013 1963) was a Romanian composer, and a professor at the Bucharest Conservatory. He was fascinated by Byzantine folk melodies, and became an enthusiastic researcher, as well as using them in his compositions. He studied at the Bucharest Conservatory, and in Vienna under Joseph Marx.<\/p>\n

\"L-R:
L-R: Composers Ralph Vaughan Williams; Paul Constantinescu; manuscript copy by Giuseppe Agus; Johann Schobert (Public domain images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Program:<\/h3>\n