Tempesta di Mare performs more Modern-Time Premieres by Bach-contemporary Johann Friedrich Fasch
Plus: 4th CD Recording of Fasch Orchestral Works & Award of the Fasch Prize of the City of Zerbst, Germany
Since 2008, Tempesta di Mare has been among the ensembles, almost all of them European, leading the charge to revive the music of Bach-contemporary Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688–1758). In the seasons since, the ensemble has performed over 25 of his orchestral compositions, of which at least 15 were modern-time world premieres, recorded three discs for the British label Chandos, and created modern performance editions, which have been sought out for subsequent performances by ensembles across the US and Europe.
On March 18 and 19, 2023, Tempesta will perform three more world premieres by Fasch, the Orchestral Suite in E minor, FaWV K:e1, the Symphony in B flat, FaWV M:B1, and his Violin Concerto in G, FaWV L:G6. Concertmaster Emlyn Ngai will perform the violin solo. Also on the program is Fasch’s Orchestral Suite in D, FaWV L:16, which Tempesta premiered in 2022. Performances will take place at Philadelphia’s Episcopal Cathedral and in Wilmington, DE, respectively.
In June 2023 the orchestra will travel to Germany with the same program to open the 17th International Fasch Festival in Zerbst, the town where Fasch lived and worked as court composer for most of his career. In recognition of the ensemble’s role in the rediscovery and promotion of Fasch’s work, Tempesta di Mare will be awarded the city’s Fasch Prize at the event. It will the first time that this distinguished award, or any of the handful of named composer prizes of the baroque era, will be awarded to a non-European ensemble.
While in Zerbst, Tempesta di Mare will record a fourth all-Fasch orchestral premieres record for Chandos (release expected in Fall 2024) at the former Riding Hall of the castle, which was completed during Fasch’s lifetime in 1732 and is now repurposed as the Municipal Hall of the city. BBC Music Magazine called Tempesta’s Fasch recordings “essential listening” and awarded them a 5-Star rating for their “sparkling strings and punchy horns”.
“One of the things we love about Fasch’s music that goes beyond the craftsmanship, expressivity, inventiveness and wit is the very distinct voice that lies behind the compositions,” says Tempesta co-Artistic Director, Richard Stone, who has transcribed and reconstructed Fasch’s music from their often-times damaged manuscripts for years. “He’s not an imitator of any of his famous contemporaries like Vivaldi, Corelli or Telemann. Those influences are there, but he is also very much his own composer with a musical flavor that sets him apart from everyone else.”
The two main repositories of Fasch’s music are in Dresden, where he sent music to his friend Georg Pisendel (1688–1755), concertmaster of the fabled Dresden Hofkapelle orchestra, and Hesse-Darmstadt, where much of his music is copied in the hand of its then-capellmeister, the composer Christoph Graupner (1683–1760). The music in this program comes from both courts. The Dresden scores are often heavily damaged from water and subsequent ink erosion after the WWII bombings of that city, requiring note-by-note reconstruction before assembly into performance-ready editions.
More information about Tempesta and Fasch can be found on Tempesta’s website: https://tempestadimare.org/in-focus/the-fasch-project/
TEMPESTA DI MARE PHILADELPHIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA
Fanfare magazine has hailed Tempesta di Mare for its “abundant energy, immaculate ensemble, and an undeniable sense of purpose.” Led by directors Gwyn Roberts and Richard Stone with concertmaster Emlyn Ngai, Tempesta performs baroque music on baroque instruments with a repertoire that ranges from staged opera to chamber music. The group performs all orchestral repertoire without a conductor, as was the practice when this music was new. The ensemble has presented over 350 concerts-projects with music by more than 70 composers, emphasizing a sense of discovery for artists and audiences alike. Their Philadelphia series launched in 2002, and has included over 45 modern world premieres of lost or forgotten baroque masterpieces, leading the Inquirer to describe Tempesta as “an old-music group that acts like a new-music group, by pushing the cutting edge back rather than forward.” Its supporters include the Pew Charitable Trusts, the William Penn Foundation, the Presser Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
In a marketplace dominated by European ensembles, Tempesta is the only American baroque music group to record for the prestigious British label, Chandos. Current releases are Weiss: Lute Concerti (2004), Handel: Flaming Rose (2007), Scarlatti: Cantatas and Chamber Music (2010), Fasch: Orchestral Music, vol. 1 (2008), vol. 2 (2011) and vol. 3 (2012), Bach: Trio Sonatas, BWV 525–530 (2014), Mancini: Sonatas for a Flute, (2014), and Comédie et Tragédie: French baroque orchestral music for the theater, vol. 1 (2015), vol. 2 (2016). 2018 saw two additional discs: Janitsch: Rediscoveries from the Sara Levy Collection, and the first complete recording of Georg Philipp Telemann’s Concerti-en-Suite. A fourth volume of Fasch premiere recordings is expected for 2024. National broadcasts of live performances include SymphonyCast, Performance Today, Sunday Baroque and Harmonia. Live concert recordings are distributed worldwide via the European Broadcasting Union, a global alliance of public service media organizations, with members in 56 countries in Europe and beyond.
International appearances have included the Prague Spring Festival, the Göttingen Handel Festival, the Mendelssohn-Remise Berlin and the International Fasch Festival in Zerbst. Recent North American appearances have included a return engagement at the Frick Collection and the National Gallery of Art. Other notable presenters have included the Miami Bach Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, Abbey Bach Festival, Whitman College, Cornell Concerts, the Yale Collection, the Flagler Museum and the Garmany Series, Hartford. In March 2022 Tempesta was the first non-European ensemble to perform at the renowned International Telemann Festival in Magdeburg, Germany.
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For further information, image or interview requests please contact Sarah Giampietro, 215 755 8776, [email protected].
For further details about Tempesta di Mare, please visit http://tempestadimare.org
PERFORMANCE DETAILS
The Fasch-Files: modern orchestral premieres by Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758)
Saturday, March 18, 7:30pm
Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral
19 S. 38th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Sunday, March 19, 4pm
Immanuel Highlands Episcopal Church
2400 W. 17th Street
Wilmington, DE 19806
Single tickets $29, $39; Full-time students and Youth (3rd-12th grade) free at the door.
Tempesta performs at the Fasch Festival Zerbst
Thursday, June 15, 8pm
Reithalle
Zerbst/Anhalt
Germany
