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From The Providence Journal

Baroque orchestra tours 1700s France

01:00 AM EST on Monday, January 7, 2008
By Channing Gray
Journal Arts Writer

Foundling, the all-female Baroque orchestra that performs in jeans and deals with domestic-violence issues, spent yesterday afternoon exploring music of 18th-century France in a charming program at Providence’s Grace Church that opened with the theme from public television’s Masterpiece Theater.

That popular fanfare is from a suite by Jean-Joseph Mouret, and it turned out to be part of an attractive assortment of movements that included an elegant minuet and a buoyant finale.

But the rest of the program was made up of unknown pieces, such as the curious cantata by Louis-Nicolas Clerambault that sang the praises of opera.

Foundling, now in its fourth season, takes its inspiration from the orchestra of an 18th-century Venetian home for orphaned girls where Vivaldi taught music. This season it is affiliated with the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence and welcomes donations for women and children in shelters.

Most Foundling concerts feature a small ensemble of about a dozen strings, but for yesterday’s concert, resident natural trumpeter Kris Ingles was back, along with Baroque timpanist Michelle Humphreys, both of whom spiced up the Mouret.

Foundling member Lisa Brooke stepped into the spotlight during the first half of the program for a performance of a Leclair violin concerto that just might have been the most rewarding offering of the afternoon. Leclair was a Bach contemporary who pushed the limits of violin writing, and who straddled a couple of different styles. The opening movement of this concerto, a three-movement piece in A Minor, sounded an awful lot like Vivaldi, with dramatic phrases and crisp string work. The elegant slow movement was more in the French tradition, and the driving finale contained a bit of both schools.

Brooke, who has performed with both classical and popular acts, including Liza Minnelli and Barbara Streisand, sailed through the piece, easily negotiating some ticklish passagework without slighting the work’s lyricism.

But the Clerambault, a cantata entitled La Muse de l’Opera, was certainly the most intriguing work on the program. It was written for a gala at the Paris Opera, a must-attend event during which the seating area was raised to the stage level to create one large space in which to party.

There is no plot, but rather a series of arias for soprano and strings that tell of all the sights and sounds one might encounter at the opera.

After a pastoral prelude about shepherds frolicking in fields, the score launched into an agitated section entitled “Tempest.”

“The sun grows dark, the sea billows and storms,” sang soprano Pamela Murray, as the orchestra droned and rattled its way through the accompaniment. Peace returned as birds sang and “love entangled you.” But there was more drama in store in the “Infernal Prelude,” with its “chords so filled with horror.”

Murray, the group’s resident soprano, was in especially fine voice yesterday, sounding pure and silky. And the strings were right on the mark.

Recorder ace Verbruggen makes music sing

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, April 21, 2008
By Channing Gray
Journal Arts Writer

Marion Verbruggen, the ace recorder player from Amsterdam, was back in town yesterday to serenade an audience at Providence’s Grace Church. And she left her fans cheering.

Verbruggen, who can do things on this instrument of schoolchildren everywhere that most players only dream of, shared the stage with Foundling, the all-female Baroque orchestra that not only plays up a storm but helps raise awareness for women and children in need.

On tap were concertos by three giants of the period, including one by Vivaldi that was the most rewarding. Verbruggen performed it on a tiny high-pitched sopranino recorder made of ivory, an instrument that sounded like a glittering music box.

This was dazzling playing with lots of snap, pliant melodies and crisp passagework. Verbruggen, who bobbed and weaved with the music even between solos, not only proved fleet of finger, but a real stylist who can make the music sing. There was an appealing elegance to the phrasing in the slow movement of the Vivaldi, the way she leaned into long notes.

After intermission came a concerto by Telemann that paired Verbruggen’s recorder with Anna Marsh’s Baroque bassoon, and a Bach oboe concerto scored for recorder by Verbruggen’s teacher Frans Bruggen. Neither had the infectious gait of the Vivaldi.

The highlight of the Telemann was the jazzy finale, which found the two soloists nimbly playing off one another. As for the Bach, that had lots of bounce.

Foundling has been around now for five years and continues to be one of the treasures of the local music scene. Actually, the group draws its members from far and wide. Besides Verbruggen, Kay Ueyama, the afternoon’s harpsichordist, is based in Paris.

The group sticks pretty much with music from the 18th century, for which it has a real knack. Yesterday, just 14 players were on hand, but they tended to carry well in Grace Church’s ample acoustics.

Although there were balance problems with Ueyama’s rendition of the Bach D Minor Harpsichord Concerto. The harpsichord was parked at the rear of the stage area, which was fine for continuo work, when it was used to flesh out the orchestra parts. But when it was called on for solos in the concerto, it tended to get buried by the strings. Too often we were left listening to inconsequential violin parts, while the crucial solo lines were lost in the mix.

Things, no doubt, would have fared better had the instrument been placed out front of the strings.

Still, the concerto was nicely put together. First violinist Dana Maiben insisted on a nice little sigh at the top of the opening phrase, which added a graceful touch to what is often a hard-edged salvo. There was in fact a relaxed, buoyant feel to the whole movement, which unfolded at a pretty leisurely pace.

Ueyama took a bit of a breath at the start of the cadenza in the first movement, which added an extra bit of drama to the moment.

She saved the drive for the last movement, which enjoyed somewhat better balances, perhaps because of coupled keyboards, perhaps because of more muscular keyboard writing.

The program opened with a nod to the season, with a spirited reading of the “Spring” concerto from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, which despite its overplayed status sounded fresh and vibrant. Susanna Ogata did the honors as soloist, and except for a few errant notes was a joy to hear.

The repeated accompaniment in the slow movement was a little heavy-handed, but Ogata added some tasteful flourishes to the melodic line.

Foundling remembers a forgotten master

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 8, 2006
By Channing Gray, Journal Arts Writer

The Foundling baroque orchestra has in its first couple of seasons tackled programs of Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi. Last night it took up the cause of a somewhat-overlooked giant of the baroque, Georg Philipp Telemann.

In his day, Telemann, who lived from 1681 to 1767, was actually better known than Bach. But today he exists in the musical shadows.

But the members of Foundling, decked out in their signature getup of jeans and T-shirts, made a convincing case for the forgotten master. Of course, they had a little help from Dutch recorder ace Marion Verbruggen, who lit up Rhode Island College’s Sapinsley Hall with her dazzling performances of the composer’s A Minor Suite and the F Major Concerto. Those two works took up the opening half of the program.

Verbruggen, who has been called the Yo-Yo Ma of the recorder, makes this instrument of schoolchildren everywhere really sing. She not only has an astounding facility, but a wonderful sense of style. Her playing was clean, crisp and beautifully shaped, with lots of snap in the quicker sections and a wonderful lilt to slower movements.

And she had the light touch for the two buoyant minuets that ended the concerto.

It was nice, too, that Verbruggen and the orchestra were on the same page, playing off one another nicely.

After intermission, the players, now with added winds and brass, moved from the stage to the pit for a curious cantata titled Ino. Telemann wrote this dramatic score when he was 84. The plot is a little lame, but the music is lovely, with shades of Mozart in Haydn in some sections. Unlike Bach, who stuck with Baroque idioms until his death, in 1750, Telemann, it turns out, was much more flexible and in tune with the times.

The cantata tells the story of Ino, whose husband is placed under a spell and becomes a demented murderer. After killing one son, he hunts down the fleeing Ino and their other son.

She runs until she reaches a cliff. Facing certain death at the hands of her husband, she decides to leap into the sea.

Miraculously, she finds she has survived and can breathe under water, where she is welcomed by the gods.

Two Dutch artists, friends of Verbruggen, projected images onto screens spread across the stage. Some were classical-looking faces, others were cut-out shadow puppets of mermaids and fish that glided across a big screen at the center of the stage.

But they looked pretty silly, not adding much to the music. In fact, they might have been a distraction.

Resident soprano Pamela Murray sang beautifully, though. Like Verbruggen, she has a nice sense of the period, singing with a sweet clean tone and savoring each phrase.

Foundling strings shine in all-Bach performance

The ensemble produces an elegant and refined reading of the third Brandenburg concerto.

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, May 1, 2006
BY CHANNING GRAY
Journal Arts Writer

After an all-Mozart program that was a little soft around the edges, Foundling, the all-female string orchestra that dresses in jeans and plays up a storm, was back in its element yesterday with an all-Bach afternoon at Grace Church in Providence.

It's not that the Mozart program, heard in January, was all that bad. It just didn't have the bite and drive of yesterday's event, which featured a winning rendition of the D Minor double violin concerto, one of Bach's most masterful creations.

The performance paired the group's music director, Dana Maiben, with protegee Susanna Ogata. And the two matched each other beautifully, with one player chasing the other through that intricate maze of melodies. The slow movement was especially touching, and the finale thrilling.

The concerto, the high point of the afternoon, was dedicated to Perry Rosenthal, the Rhode Island Philharmonic's principal cellist, who died last week at the age of 42.

Foundling, named for the Venetian foundling home for girls where Vivaldi taught violin, is made up of harpsichord and about a dozen string players, all using period instruments.

The program was mostly made up of greatest hits, the popular G Major Brandenburg Concerto, No. 3; an excerpt from the great B Minor Mass; and B Minor Overture for flute with its jazzy badinerie. Only the secular cantata, "Non sa che sia dolore," was not well known.

Baroque flutist Sandra Miller did the honors in the overture, bringing to the music a nice snap and buoyancy, while the strings leaned into the beat, giving the music a pleasing thrust.

Pamela Murray, the group's house soprano, didn't do a lot with the "Laudamus te" from the B Minor Mass. Maiben's solo violin work was upbeat and energetic, but Murray seemed to be holding back, just going through the motions.

She was more engaging in the cantata, although that was not quite as catchy a work as the aria from the mass.

If the double violin concerto took top honors, the third Brandenburg, performed with just nine strings, was a close runner-up. This was an elegant, refined reading, especially when it came to the finale. Here the players took their time and let the music breathe, rather than blast through it like so many early music groups tend to.

There was a lightness to the piece, a kind of joyousness that was hard to resist.

Foundling celebrates Mozart's 250th

An impressive turnout gathers at Grace Church for the concert by the Baroque string orchestra.

01:00 AM EST on Monday, January 9, 2006
BY CHANNING GRAY
Journal Arts Writer

PROVIDENCE -- For the past couple of seasons, Foundling, the Baroque string orchestra of women who perform in jeans and sweaters with impeccable musicianship, has stuck pretty much to Vivaldi, Bach and Handel.

But with an important Mozart birthday looming on the horizon (the beloved composer's 250th is on Jan. 27), Foundling decided to throw a Mozart birthday bash yesterday at Grace Church, with some well-known and not so well-known offerings on the program.

This was not as thrilling a concert as Foundling's appearance at Grace Church in April 2004. That was inspired, edge-of-your-seat playing.

But still, there was much to savor in this often revealing afternoon of Mozart, such as soprano Pamela Murry's sparkling Exultate, jubilate, and a fine account of the popular Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola.

But the highlight of the afternoon was a joyous, graceful reading of the Symphony 29, an early Mozart masterwork that closed out the program.

Because the forces taking part were so modest (just over a dozen strings and a handful of imported winds), and because the players were using less strident period instruments, such as natural horns, it was possible to hear all sorts of nuances and details that often get swallowed up by an 80-piece orchestra.

This was especially true in the Sinfonia, where the duet work was as clear as can be. Artisic director Dana Maiben tackled the violin solos and conducted when she had a free hand, while Rachel Evans, a Juilliard grad, did the honors of the viola.

The ensemble work was not as tight as it was in the final symphony, but the textures were translucent, even with Grace Church's live acoustics. Some of the best solo interaction came in the lovely slow movement, with its delicate cadenza.

Soprano Murray, who is a regular with Foundling, contributed in the first half of the program a short, brooding aria from The Magic Flute that had its moments. But she could do no wrong in the Exultate, where she leaned into harmonies with a modicum of vibrato and brought the most lovely bell-like quality to top notes.

The group opened with an early symphony, No. 14, which had some humorous harmonic changes in the menuetto, but none of the charms of the later No. 29. That was performed conductorless, with the string players standing, much the way they do in Baroque-era programs.

But for the more complex and demanding Symphony 29, Maiben grabbed a baton to lead the players.

The turnout for the show, by the way, was impressive, perhaps because of Mozart's enduring popularity, or maybe because of a deal with RIPTA to ferry listeners via trolley from the East Side to the steps of the church.

String group's performance full of moments to savor

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, April 12, 2004
BY CHANNING GRAY
Journal Arts Writer

Foundling is one of the best things to happen to the local classical music scene in a long, long time.
The fledgling string group gave a stunning performance last night at Grace Church, the kind of program you might expect to hear in major music centers but not around here.
This was loose, fluid playing that was attentive to detail and at its best, able to swing.
A violin duet in the middle of a Bach cantata was about as close to jazz as Baroque music gets.
This all-female ensemble takes its name from the women of the Italian foundling home where Vivaldi once worked as a music teacher.
The group has been working in tandem with the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, as a sort of orchestra with a social mission. Part of the proceeds from its concerts help support the coalition.
Foundling made its debut back in the summer, and last night music director Dana Maiben was talking about launching a Providence season next year. It would be welcomed.
The players, most from the Boston area (although acclaimed Baroque cellist Elisabeth LeGuin lives in California), are all specialists in Baroque performance styles, which calls for a flat, vibratoless tone and a lighter bow technique, not to mention a knack for dressing up melodic lines.
Providence, by virtue of being in the shadow of Boston, an early music mecca, has hosted many a fine Baroque-period group in the past, but none with more bounce and drive than Foundling.
This was playing that was full of surprises, of unexpected twists and turns. And moments worth savoring, like the courtly polonaise from a Handel concerto grosso.
Even the group's wardrobe was a little unusual. The women showed up in jeans and white T-shirts.
Last night's program was all Baroque with a nod to Easter. Boston-area soprano Pamela Murray sang a couple of arias from Handel's Messiah, then ended the evening with Jauchzet Gott, one of Bach's most joyous cantatas.
Kris Ingles joined in on the natural trumpet for the Bach. That's the high valveless cousin of the modern trumpet that's heard so often in Baroque music.
Murray, who has the Baroque sound down cold, was a perfect fit for this band of 14 instrumentalists. She might have carried better, though, had she stood in front of the strings. As it was, her clear but light soprano tended to be overshadowed by the orchestra and gobbled up by Grace Church's ample accoustics.
But her upbeat rendition of "Rejoice greatly" from Messiah was a real treat, with all those running passages sounding so crisp and smooth.
Maiben and Julia McKenzie, interesting and energetic players both, teamed up for some incredible duet work in the Bach, the kind of playing that had a wonderful sense of rapport and that makes Foundling so special.
Let's just hope Providence gets behind this exceptional band of string players.

PRESS RELEASE Kill Date: January 11, 2010
CALENDAR ANNOUNCEMENT (see below)

On Sunday January 10 at 3:30 p.m. at Grace Church in downtown Providence, Foundling, the “string orchestra that dresses in jeans and plays up a storm,” (The Providence Journal) will perform a concert entitled “Friendly Rivals: Music of Bach and Telemann.”

Foundling, along with Artists in Residence Pamela Murray, soprano, and Kris Kwapis, natural trumpet, and a multitude of soloists from the ensemble, will offer a program of music by two greats of the Baroque era who knew and respected each other, but whose legacies have taken very different forms.

Foundling plays three masterpieces of Bach: Brandenburg Concerto 3, which features 9 solo string players; the double violin concerto, with Foundling violinists Dana Maiben and Martha Perry; and Cantata 51, Jauchzet (Rejoice), sung by Pamela Murray, soprano, with Kris Kwapis, natural trumpet, and Foundling’s strings. Telemann is represented by two joyful and masterful works, his Sonata for trumpet and strings, and his Concerto for three violins and strings, with soloists Lisa Brooke, Anna Griffis, and Adriane Post.

Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philip Telemann were professional rivals of a sort: Their personalities were quite different, and their reputations diametrically opposed. J. S. Bach was a particularly brilliant member of an illustrious family of musicians, and was trained from childhood to enter the family profession; G. P. Telemann’s family was unhappy with his musical activities, insisting that he study law. Nonetheless his talent was so great (he is said to have mastered three instruments by the age of ten, and he wrote his first opera at 12) that he eventually overcame their objections.

Bach’s music was considered old-fashioned in his time, whereas the music of the affable Telemann was forward-looking and immensely popular. Telemann was able to get jobs more easily than Bach, and even beat him out for the Kantor job at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, a place strongly connected with Bach today. When Telemann turned down the appointment, it fell to Bach. Thus Telemann, who wrote even more church cantatas than Bach did, unknowingly conveyed to the modern world Bach’s legacy as the pre-eminent baroque composer of sacred music.

In spite of their apparent professional rivalry, the two were on friendly terms, evidently respected one another a great deal, and stayed in touch throughout the course of their very different careers: Bach was a subscriber to Telemann’s publication of the Paris Quartets, and several works of Telemann survive in manuscript copies in Bach’s own hand. And Georg Philip stood as godfather to Johann Sebastian’s son Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach.

Foundling’s seventh season will continue on April 18: Foundling will bring its National Gallery of Art program home to Rhode Island. The program, titled ¡MADRID! was created to celebrate the great Spanish still-life painter Luis Meléndez, and includes music by Boccherini and Brunetti, plus a Northeast premiere of a newly discovered comic tonadilla “Las Musicas” by Blas de Laserna.

Foundling works this season in affiliation with the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence to raise awareness about domestic violence issues and provide assistance to survivors. Concert-goers are invited to bring donations of diapers, personal hygiene & personal care items for women and children in Rhode Island shelters.

All concerts take place Sundays at 3:30 at Grace Church in downtown Providence, an accessible space. More information at foundling.org. Tickets at ArtTixRI.com, 401-621-6123, or at the door.

[(for images and bios see foundling.org)]Calendar announcement

WHAT: Friendly Rivals: Music of Bach and Telemann
WHO: Foundling Baroque Orchestra, with Artists in Residence Pamela Murray, soprano, and Kris Kwapis, natural trumpet, plus soloists from the ensemble
WHERE: Grace Church, 175 Mathewson St, Providence, RI
WHEN: Sunday, January 10, 2010, 3:30 PM
BRING: Audience is invited to bring diapers, personal hygiene & personal care items for women and children in Rhode Island shelters.
TICKETS: ArtTixRI.com, 401-621-6123, or at the door: General $25, Donor $50, Senior $20, Student or Low-income $10.
WEBSITE: foundling.org

Prospectus (PDF)
Foundling News, No. 2 (PDF) March 2005
Foundling News, No. 1 (PDF) March 2004