Reviews

Ensemble Baroque

      On November 28, 2005 a new group, Ensemble Baroque, presented a diverse selection of Baroque chamber music. The program opened with Georg Philipp Telemann's (1681-1767) Trio Sonata in E minor played by the core players of the ensemble: Sherrie Lake Aguirre, oboe; Joanne Meyer White, flute; David Savige, bassoon and Peggy Kelley Reinburg, harpsichord. Ms. Reinburg is the ensemble's artistic director and founder and played harpsichord on all the pieces. In this well-constructed program each instrumentalist was showcased in a sonata for a single woodwind and harpsichord.

      The polished performances were impressive and indicate a generous rehearsal schedule. Ms. Reinburg led a baroque ensemble in the Washington, D.C. area for twenty-two years and is an organist who is very active in the Tidewater Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. She explained between selections that the harpsichord's stops are controlled by floor pedals and there is a delay as the mechanism falls into place, causing a pause to occur in many baroque pieces. There are noticeable pauses in recorded music that I had wondered about but never thought to ask.

      The unhurried pace of the music allows the listener to experience an alternative way of being in time that is so different from our hectic modern way. Instrumental colors unfold in the dialogue between the harpsichord and woodwinds: rich, mellow tones of the oboe in a sonata by J.S. Bach's older brother Johann Jacob Bach (1682-1722), the dancing flute in a piece by Georg Frideric Händel (1685-1759) and the jolly sound of the quick notes of the bassoon in the Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758) piece.

      The program included another trio sonata by Telemann, this one in F Major and the final piece was a Trio Sonata in C Major for all four players by Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773) who bridged the time span from late Bach through early Mozart.

      Ensemble Baroque will next perform on March 13, 2006 as part of the Feldman Concert Series with Deborah Wendells Cross as guest flutist. The brass component of the group has been formed and the string component will follow. We can look forward to many fine concerts by this new ensemble.