An unusual name for a baroque chamber music group. And perhaps as the director suggested, it should have been Apollo’s Kindling, as the group that played in Spaulding only contained 6 members, instead of the usual orchestra. But it was a fine concernt nonetheless.
The director and harpsichordist, Jeannette Sorrell, dedicated the concert to the memory of John Rassias. She spent 4 summers as a student at the Rassias Institute.
The premise of the program was to emulate Bach’s coffeehouse atmosphere. The instruments are period instruments, or at least in their style, and the musicians are all specialists in the era. The music was a very nice baroque selection, with the familiar Bach piece for flute and strings, and a movement from one of the unaccompanied cello suites. It was interesting in the program to learn about how close in age the composers were, and how well they knew each other.
The last piece was a Vivaldi sonata called “La Folia” after a type of dance that was popular at that time. Jeannette dedicated it to John Rassias, remembering his “madness” which would lead him to shred his shirt at the ALPS banquet. She did not think that they would go that far, but hoped that we would leave the concert with a kind of inspiration.
Jeannette, Olivier, Johanna, and Kristen came to the stage after for some questions. They are spread over the country, but still work well together. Kristen and Johanna, the newest members, have been with the group for 12 years, and a number have been there since the founding 25 years ago.