Archive for Robert Mealy

Yale in New York: Stylus Fantasticus

Posted in News with tags , , , , on April 18, 2011 by Craig Zeichner

I’ve been greatly impressed by the Yale Baroque Ensemble, an outstanding group of young performers in an intensive one-year postgraduate program for string players dedicated to the study and performance of baroque music. The omnipresent (he’s just back from a touring Boston Early Music Festival production, and is performing as concertmaster in New York’s Trinity Baroque Orchestra and Choir’s complete Bach Cantata series) baroque violinist Robert Mealy is the man heading the program and Mealy and company are coming to Zankel Hall on April 25th as part of the eclectic Yale In New York series when they present a program called Stylus Fantasticus.

The program is super juicy:

Dario Castello (fl. early 17c): Sonata decimaquarta (two violins, two cellos, harpsichord from Sonate Concertate in Stil Moderno, Libro II, Venice 1629)

Giovanni Paolo Cima (c. 1570–1622): Sonata a tre (two violins, cello, harpsichord from Concerti Ecclesiastici, Milan, 1610)

Castello: Sonata quarta (two violins, harpsichord)

Giovanni Battista Fontana: (c. 1589–1630): Sonata seconda (violin, harpsichord from Sonate… per il violino, Venice 1641)

Michelangelo Rossi (1602–1656): Toccata settima (harpsichord)

Castello: Sonata decima two violins, cello, harpsichord

Tarquinio Merula (1594–1665): Ballo detto Eccardo & Ciaconna (violins, cello, harpsichord from Canzoni ovvero Sonate Concertate, Libro III, Venice 1637)

Johann Rosenmüller (1619–1684): Sonata quarta (two violins, cello, harpsichord
from Sonate a 2, 3, 4, 5 stromenti d’arco, Nuremburg 1682)

Intermission

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644–1704): Battalia (full ensemble)

Johann Heinrich Schmelzer: (1620–1680): Sonata a tre violini (three violins, continuo)

Johann Jakob Froberger (1616–1667): Toccata (harpsichord)

Schmelzer: Sonata quarta (violin, harpsichord from Sonate unarum fidium, Vienna 1664)

Henry Purcell (1659¬–1695): Three Parts upon a Ground (full ensemble)

Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713): Concerto Grosso in D major, Op. 6, No. 4 (full ensemble)

Tickets are available at the Carnegie Hall website and at the box office.

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Pygmalion: My Unfair Lady

Posted in News with tags , , , , , , , , , , on April 27, 2010 by Craig Zeichner

I’m really excited about an upcoming production of Rameau’s Pigmalion by the Underworld Productions Opera Ensemble. This should be quirky fun with an extremely clever take on the always fascinating French composer’s work. I quote from the company’s press release:

“Rameau’s music stunned its original auditors with its dissonance and innovation. In order to capture his daring for modern ears, the evening’s curtain-raiser features performance artist Lynn Book in preview scene from “The Annotated Hippolyte et Aricie.” In this trans-media treatment of the Prologue from Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, Book creates an alternative narrative and sonic world to the opera scene that includes video by media artist Robin Starbuck and music composed by Katharina Klement (who will appear live from Vienna via Skype). The precedent for this format is taken from a March 20, 1754 revival of Pygmalion performed alongside the Prologue from his Platèe. “

This is going to be very hip. Also very “HIP” as in “historically informed performance” because the outstanding baroque violinist Robert Mealy is leading the period instruments of the Sinfonia New York.

Pygmalion: My Unfair Lady (Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Pigmalion, 1748) is being performed on May 13, 2010 at 7:30 PM at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater.

For more information visit Underworld Productions Opera Ensemble at their

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