13 June 2023, 10:58 PM
Steve MillerApollos Fire
“A Grammy winning Baroque Orchestra in residence in Ohio and Chicago”.
We attended a performance tonight, presented in a wonderful barn-like building which was constructed recently to house performances of this type. Excellent acoustics and excellent music.
The program was “The Fiddlers of Dublin” and covered Irish music from about 1600 to 1900. Spectacular voices and some cool period instruments. It’s the first time I’ve heard a harpsichord on stage, there was a hammer dulcimer, a lute, and a “Baroque guitar” - something I’ve never seen.
The guitar has 10 strings, doubled like on a modern 12 string guitar, a very small hole in the center and no bridge give it what the musician called a “very gentle sound”. Plucked or strummed it produced an unmistakably period tone. Very pleasant.
They travel quite a bit and if you get a chance to hear them I think you’d enjoy the show.
14 June 2023, 10:58 AM
wtgThey're great. I'd love to hear them if I have the opportunity.
I've also passed along the info to a friend who was a harpsichord major in college and who has several baroque instruments in her home!
14 June 2023, 11:28 AM
MikhailohNever heard of them. Now I want to go see.
14 June 2023, 12:56 PM
wtgThe friend I forwarded the info to has seen them in the past at an early music festival in Madison. She says they're great! They will be at Ravinia this summer doing an Irish music program.
14 June 2023, 11:07 PM
RealPlayerI don’t know this group, but there’s another group called Les Arts Florissants that presents Baroque opera. Some years ago, I went to a production of an opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully, and believe me, it was nothing like our conception of opera formed in the 19th century. Beautiful, charming, dancey little numbers stitched together by the story. A light, lovely evening.
I really want to see Rameau’s “Les Indes Galantes,” the opera about Native Americans framed by Euro conceptions of them before they knew much about them. It must be a hoot!
15 June 2023, 06:03 AM
ShiroKuroI have always enjoyed hearing period instruments when I’ve had the chance to, I’ll have to keep my eye out for Apollos Fire.
16 June 2023, 09:05 AM
Piano*DadTheir flutist was my son's baroque flute teacher!