This preview has been provided by Carolina Pro Musica.

Carolina Pro Musica presents “The Heart’s Adoration” on Saturday, March 28, 2015 at 8:00pm at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Charlotte, NC.  As the final concert of their 37th season, the program includes a variety of music from composers such as JS Bach, Hasse, A. Scarlatti, Handel, and Boismortier, inspiring the heart and soul through its forlorn texts and beautiful melodies.  The ensemble, consisting of harpsichordist and artistic director Karen Jacob, viola da gambist Holly Maurer, flutist and recorder player Eddie Ferrell, and soprano Rebecca Saunders, will perform sonatas, trios, and arias from operas and cantatas on period instruments.

Johann Adolf Hasse, an 18th century German composer known for his operatic and sacred music, composed a cantata for flute and voice entitled “Pallido il volto” which is the centerpiece for the concert.  Carolina Pro Musica will premiere this work from an unpublished manuscript from Montecassino, Italy.  The three known manuscript copies of the cantata are housed in Paris, Berlin, and Montecassino, each of them written in a different hand.  As a singer himself, Hasse composed this magnificent work with the soprano in mind, using dramatic recitatives to communicate strong emotions along with the lilting melodies and running passages of the two arias.

While in Italy Hasse came under the tutelage of Italian Baroque composer Alessandro Scarlatti, who composed “Mio Tesoro per te moro”, an aria in the form of a French minuet.  The chamber ensemble will perform this song with Ferrell on the recorder along with basso continuo.  Emotional and in typical Italian form, the aria emotes a sense of longing for the singer’s love, a love that desires to be restored. 

J.S. Bach’s Sonata in D major for viola da gamba and obligato harpsichord is the second of three written for the instrument. Not as well-known as the suites for solo violoncello, these pieces are technically challenging and make use of both the alto and bass character of the instrument. By the time these were written (possibly in the mid 1740’s in Leipzig), the viola da gamba was waning in popularity as the Italian cellos were gaining favor. Here, however, Bach gives the instrument beautiful melodies accompanied by a fully notated and intricate harpsichord part – certainly not a look backwards.

Georg Friedrich Handel was born in Germany but later moved to Italy where he mastered the musical style of opera and oratorio.  His opera “Amadigi” reveals some of his finest work, with “S’estinto e l’idol mio” as one of the highlights of the opera.  This alluring aria develops with languishing ornamentation as the character Oriana is pining away for her lover who she believes is dead.

Much of the music that Baroque French composer Boismortier wrote was for the flute, although he composed music for almost every instrument including the voice.  Ferrell will perform Boismortier’s “Trio in a minor” along with the viola da gamba and harpsichord.

Join us for an evening of exquisite Baroque music as Carolina Pro Musica concludes their 37th concert season, providing the Charlotte region with a world of inspiring music.

Rebecca Miller Saunders