PLATTSBURGH — Time travel sonically to 1814 this weekend via four period music concerts at Trinity Episcopal Church, 18 Trinity Place, during the Battle of Plattsburgh Commemoration.
Today’s 4 p.m. program is “Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos” performed by Champlain Strings featuring Marilyn Reynolds (violin), Robin Cameron-Phillips (flute), and John Curtis (harpsichord) performing Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Brandenburg Concertos” No. 3, No. 5, and No. 6.
“It’s music that could have been known to the people or would have been known to the people of the time of the battle, which is 1814,” Reynolds said. “Bach wrote six of these, and we are doing three of them that are only for strings, although one of our pieces has three solo instruments and one of them is flute. Baroque orchestras always had what we call basso continuo, which is bass, cello and harpsichord.”
During the Baroque period, the harmonic structure’s continuous bass line sparkled with improvised chord accompaniments.
“That would always be sort of underlying all the string players. So any Baroque pieces that you hear from that time, you will have the basso continuo. All these three pieces are all strings plus basso continuo. One of them, the fifth Brandenburg Concerto has solo players – violin, flute, and the harpsichord is a solo player in that one. It’s a huge solo. The fifth Brandenburg has a very long and unusual, for its time, solo section, where we just really enjoy it. Hopefully, the audience does, too. It has a solo flute and a solo violin, which I will be playing. The other two are also all strings plus harpsichord, basso continuo. They are beautiful pieces as well. They are somewhat similar, but they all have a different feel,” Reynolds said.
Today at 5:30 p.m., musical offerings concludes with “Beethoven’s Chamber Music For Wind Instruments by the Adirondack Wind Ensemble under the direction of Daniel Gordon.
Sunday’s programming begins at 1 p.m. with “McCarty & Macdonough: The Violist & The Commodore” featuring violist Patricia McCarty and veteran stage and screen actor Steven Mumford as Commodore Thomas Macdonough.
The series concludes with Sunday’s 3 p.m. choral concert, “Battle of Plattsburgh Vespers.”
“It is truly a privilege to be invited to conduct the very first Chamber Choir to perform gorgeous period music in this celebration of the Battle of Plattsburgh Commemoration,” Helen Demong said.
“It has been a marvelous highlight working with collaborative pianist Jennifer Moore and this wonderful group of singers. This Chamber Choir of North Country singers will fill Trinity Episcopal Church with timeless music by J.S. Bach, Mozart, Palestrina, Michael Haydn, William Billings, and others.
The choir attracted 22 voices from around the North Country.
“We’re celebrating the anniversary of the 1814 Battle of Plattsburgh, so all of the music is period music from around that time and before. It was brought to my attention that Plattsburgh had a couple of very fine church choirs. We’re bringing together a collection of gorgeous music. We are going to open up with a piece by Tallis, ‘If Ye Love Me.’ We’re starting with a Renaissance composer. Then, I decided it might fun to discover a composer that not many people have heard of before. He is the younger brother of Joseph Haydn, and his name is Michael Haydn. He has a set of miniature pieces that are lovely. This is a classical composer, and most people have never heard of him before. We are going to do two of his miniature pieces,” Demong said.
Next, the choir will perform “beautiful, luscious pieces” by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, an Italian composer of late Renaissance music.
“The most well known of the two is called ‘Sicut cervus.’ Palestrina is noted as being one of the composers that saved beautiful choral music in the Catholic Church. Music had been developing and becoming more and more complex with polyphony. He was able to go within the rules of the Catholic Church and have one syllable per note, but it still brought out gorgeous harmonies,” she said.
Tomas Luis de Victoria’s ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ is followed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus.’
“That title alone will bring people in when they hear that. Then, we are doing two pieces by William Billings. I will do these two as a set, and it’s the second one that is more well known. It is called ‘Chester.’ This is a rousing, patriotic song. Then, we’re doing ‘Hard Times Come Again No More’ by Stephen Foster. Then, we’re doing a magnificent piece by Bach, and it’s ‘Dona Nobis Pacem.’ This is his closing movement from his ‘Mass in B minor.’”
Soloists are Kimberly Weems and Thomas Stork. Piano collaborator is Jennifer Moore.
“It’s a celebration of gorgeous period music to celebrate the Battle of Plattsburgh,” Demong said.
“For people that love choral music, they will love to see that. We’re going to take a musical journey and perform pieces that flow from the Renaissance to Classic Period to Baroque to the modern age. The evocative music sung by this chamber choir and amazing soloists will lift our spirits and add a celebratory flourish to this year’s commemoration. We look forward to seeing you there.”