In early March, Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s baroque orchestra, barely made it through their latest regular concert season series program, “O Jerusalem: Crossroads of Three Faiths,” when everything changed.
Even before they would up their final performance Wed 3/11 at the Cleveland Museum of Art, they’d been forced to move to a new venue for the Tue 3/10 concert when The Temple-Tifereth Israel was closed due to COVID-19 being detected in the community. Sadly, it’s cancelled its April 1-4 performances of Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion.
But at the same time, it’s launched a new online series called “Music for the Soul: Video Series for Homebound Music Lovers.”
Says Apollo’s Fire’s founder and artistic director Jeannette Sorrell, “I hope you are well in these uncertain times. All of us at Apollo’s Fire are grateful that music, art, and literature nourish us during hardship. You recall Boccaccio’s delightful Decameron, penned during a 14th century plague. Later, Handel composed his masterpiece, Messiah, during a personal financial crisis. Throughout history, the human spirit has triumphed through the arts.
Today, Apollo’s Fire launches “Music for the Soul,” a semi-weekly series of online programs featuring concert videos, interviews, and related reading — all for your pleasure at home. Each Tuesday and Friday for the next few weeks, cozy up with Apollo’s Fire! We’ll be starting with some old favorite videos, and will include NEW videos and interviews next week.”
This week on Fri 3/27 Episode #4 will look at “Beethoven the Revolutionary,” with a performance of Symphony No. 4, Violin Concerto, featuring Noah Bendix-Balgley and Egmont Overture. On Tue 3/31, Episode #5 will reprise the “O Jerusalem” performance from the Cleveland Museum of Art a few weeks ago, one that some vulnerable ticketholders skipped because of the warnings starting about gathering in public. Now they and anyone else interested can catch the program.
“O Jerusalem” depicts in music and poetry the coming together of Jewish, Christians and Muslims in the Middle East. It features selections from Claudio Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers, featuring influences of Arabic love songs and Jewish cantorial singing. The performers include those of Jewish, Palestinian, Muslim and Christian backgrounds, with a mixture of instruments such as oud, theorbo, medieval harp, vielle, qanoon, strings, wooden flutes, and various percussion, along with vocals. Featured performers include Daphna on wind instruments, Palestinian musician Zafer Tawil on oud and qanoon, with vocals by soprano Amanda Powell, tenors Sorab Wadia and Jacon Perry and baritone Jeffrey Strauss.
Check the Music for the Soul page for upcoming episodes, including Bach’s St. John Passion, Fri 4/3, replacing the live Bach performance of the St. Matthew Passion as their Good Friday/Easter offering.