Baroque ensemble brings Vienna to Kansas City for three summer concerts
Vienna was one of Europe’s great musical centers long before that city gave us classical era composers like Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. In fact, there was a tremendous flowering of music in Vienna and other cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the baroque era of the 18th century.
Kansas City Baroque Consortium, led by its founder, cellist Trilla Ray-Carter, will celebrate this musical legacy with “All Roads Lead to Vienna: Music of the Hapsburg Empire,” a series of three concerts: “The Italians in Vienna” June 23 at Village Presbyterian Church, “Phantasticus! Music for the Austrian Emperors” July 21 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and “A Bohemian Rhapsody” Aug. 18 at Visitation Catholic Church.
“As Kansas City Baroque Consortium has grown, I’ve become more and more committed to lifting the veil of obscurity from so many baroque composers that simply don’t get air time these days,” Ray-Carter said. “We know the high baroque composers, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel and Corelli, but there are hundreds of composers that led up to this high baroque that are the pioneers of that musical era.”
The series will begin June 23 with “The Italians in Vienna.” Even in the early years of the baroque era, Italian composers were dominant. Ray-Carter quotes a letter written by Maria Theresa, who ruled the Hapsburg empire from 1740 until her death in 1780:
“I prefer the least of the Italians to any Austrian composer. Here and there they are able to make one good piece or another, but on the whole, I prefer the Italians.”
The concert will feature many lesser-known but very fine composers like Antonio Cesti, Giovanni Valentini, Francesco Rognoni, Antonio Bononcini, Francesco Bonporti and Tarquino Merula. There will also be a concerto for three violins by Vivaldi.
“All of the composers we chose have some connection to Vienna,” Ray-Carter said. “They either served in the court or had been invited to the court. Vivaldi had been invited to the court, but it had been quite late in his life. Shortly after he arrived, the emperor died, and, without a patron, Vivaldi died as a pauper within a year.”
This concert and all the concerts on the series will feature recorder player Trevor Stewart.
“He’s kind of our new star,” Ray-Carter said.
The next concert on July 21 is “Phantasticus! Music for the Austrian Emperors.”
“This is the one I’m really excited about,” Ray-Carter said. “‘Phantasticus’ celebrates this style of pure fantasy that we see from a number of composers in the early to mid-1600s. This is where they’re exploring all the possibilities with no rules. Everything is open to exploration.”
Athanasius Kircher, the 17th century German Jesuit polymath, described the “stylus phantasticus” as “the most free and unrestrained method of composing, it is bound to nothing, neither to any words nor to a melodic subject, it was instituted to display genius and to teach the hidden design of harmony.”
The concert will feature music by Heinrich Ignaz von Biber, Johann Schmelzer and Georg Muffat. An unusual work on the program is “Turcaria” by Johann Joseph Fux.
“It’s full of Turkish influence,” Ray-Carter said. “It’s absolutely charming and fun. There will be some tambourines and drums and other fun things to hear.”
Bohemia in the baroque era had a flourishing musical culture, and the final concert of the series on Aug. 18, “A Bohemian Rhapsody,” will offer an opportunity to hear some extraordinary but lesser-known composers. Muffat and Biber make another appearance, but there will also be music by Gottfried Finger, František Ignác Antonín Tůma and a piece by Jan Dismas Zelenka called Hipochondrie a 7.
“It goes through a description of different physical ailments that he writes about in a musical way,” Ray-Carter said. “It’s so clever and so creative.”
The concert will conclude with Biber’s Battalia à 10.
“It’s a fascinating musical description of a battle,” Ray-Carter said. “We’ll have percussion join us for this piece. There are all sorts of effects that are used by the string instruments to create the sound of a battle, snapping strings, tapping the bows on the strings for rat-a-tat-tat, tapping on the wood of the instruments for sounds of gunshots. It’s really quite charming.”
Kansas City Baroque Consortium is an authentic period instrument group. Not many cities have the musicians, instruments or talent to put together such an ensemble, so Kansas City is quite lucky to have Ray-Carter and her group, especially since she puts together such intriguing programs.
“I’m growing as I create this series,” Ray-Carter said. “This series is a reflection of my path of exploration. ‘All Roads Lead to Vienna’ will give a chance to hear remarkable yet rarely heard voices that were so important in laying the groundwork for the great composers of the late baroque.”
The summer season
Kansas City Baroque Consortium’s summer season, “All Roads Lead to Vienna”: For season tickets, $60-$105, and single tickets, $25-$40, see kcbaroque.org.
7:30 p.m. June 23: The Italians in Vienna. Village Presbyterian Church, 6641 Mission Road, Prairie Village.
7:30 p.m. July 21: Phantasticus! Music for the Austrian Emperors. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 11 E. 40th St.
7:30 p.m. Aug. 18: A Bohemian Rhapsody. Visitation Catholic Church, 5141 Main St.
You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.
