Rembrandt Chamber Musicians to Present “Holiday Baroque” December 6 and 8 with Works by Bach, Albinoni, Handel and More
Rembrandt Chamber Musicians, Chicago’s flagship ensemble covering the full spectrum of classical chamber music, will present a festive “Holiday Baroque” program December 6 in Chicago, and December 8 in suburban Evanston, Illinois.
The program will feature members of the Chicago Symphony and Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestras and other highly accomplished artists in colorful, celebratory works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Tomaso Albinoni, George Frideric Handel, and Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco.
“It’s a program of engaging and uplifting music for the holiday season, sparkling with decorative Baroque ornamentation,” says violinist John Macfarlane, Rembrandt Chamber Musicians artistic director and assistant principal second violin of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra.
“Holiday Baroque” opens with one of Bach’s most popular secular cantatas, “Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten” (Depart, gloomy shadows), BWV 202, familiarly known as his “Wedding Cantata.” Likened to a duet for soprano and oboe, the work depicts winter’s “frost and winds” giving way to the joyful promises of spring and youthful romance. It ends with a dance movement and song wishing listeners “a thousand bright days of happiness.” Soloist for the work is Dutch soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg, with the Chicago Symphony’s Scott Hostetler playing the prominent oboe part.
In addition to being a virtuoso at the organ and harpsichord, Bach was also devotee of the violin, which he played expertly throughout his life. Macfarlane will solo in Bach’s Violin Concerto in E Major, BWV 1042, an inventive and varied work of lush melodies and expressive dissonances, imbued with Bach’s signature use of complex counterpoint.
William Welter, principal oboe of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, will be the soloist in Tomaso Albinoni’s Oboe Concerto in D Minor, Op. 9, No. 2. The most renowned of the Venetian composer’s nine oboe concertos has been described as a treasure house of melody. His highly melodic musical style, which brought him success as an opera composer, is evident in the concerto’s song-like oboe part.
Stoppelenburg, an internationally acclaimed Baroque music specialist, will sing two songs by Handel. The beautiful “Süße Stille, sanfte Quelle” (Sweet quiet, gentle source), HWV 205, compares a lovely moonlit spring night emerging after daylight hours to the eternal peace awaiting us after life’s labors. The text is by Handel’s friend, German poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes.
Handel’s “Flammende Rose, Zierde der Erden” (Flaming Rose, Earth’s Adornment), from the composer’s “Nine German Arias,” is about the divine presence in nature’s beauty.
Dall’Abaco fused his native Italian musical language with French and Dutch Baroque elements, creating a style all his own. His five-movement Concerto grosso à più instrumenti in D Major, Op. 5, No. 6, exemplifies his distinctive musical voice. A skilled violinist and cellist, Dall’Abaco spotlights those instruments.
Harpsichordist is Stephen Alltop, director of music for Northwestern University’s Alice Millar Chapel and senior lecturer in conducting, harpsichord, and oratorio in NU’s Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music, where he conducts the Baroque Music Ensemble.
Rembrandt Chamber Musicians ensemble members performing in “Holiday Baroque” in addition to Macfarlane, are Carol Cook, principal viola of the Lyric Opera Orchestra, and Calum Cook, principal cello of the Lyric Opera Orchestra.
“Holiday Baroque” concerts will take place 7 p.m. Friday, December 6, 2024, at the Church of the Atonement, 5749 N Kenmore Ave., Chicago; and 3 p.m. Sunday, December 8, at Northwestern University’s Alice Millar Chapel, 1870 Sheridan Road, Evanston.
General admission tickets are $39. Admission is free for students in grades K-12 and college undergraduates. Tickets can be purchased online at rembrandtchambermusicians.org or by phone at 872-395-1754. The concerts include a complimentary ENCORE! wine reception with the musicians.
