The GambaCast – Musica Pacifica – La Follia

Musica Pacifica – La Follia

Performed at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Los Gatos California May 23, 2008.

Musica Pacifica performs its own arrangement of popular and obscure versions of the famous 16th-century chord sequence “La Follia”- by Vivaldi, CPE Bach, as well as original arrangements by Musica Pacifica. To view Musica Pacifica’s original videog, please also visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0RJGkHuqYw&feature=channel.

About Musica Pacifica

Musica Pacifica achieved recognition as one of North America’s premiere baroque ensembles soon after the group’s founding in 1990. They have been described by the press as “some of the finest baroque musicians in America” (American Record Guide) and “among the best in the world” (Alte Musik Aktuell). At home in the San Francisco Bay area, the artists are members of Philharmonia Baroque and American Bach Soloists, and they appear with many other prominent early music ensembles nationally and abroad. They have collaborated with such early music luminaries as Stephen Stubbs (lute/guitar) and Maxine Eilander (harps); sopranos Ellen Hargis and Julianne Baird; countertenor and cornettist, Michael Collver; bassoonist Michael McCraw, and Baroque dancers Linda Tomko & Co. Musica Pacifica’s stylish, high-energy, and virtuoso performances have consistently received enthusiastic reviews from critics and audiences alike. These qualities have led to appearances on such prestigious chamber and early music concert series as Music Before 1800 and the Frick Collection (NY), Tage Alter Musik (Regensburg), the Shrine to Music Museum (Vermillion, SD), the Cleveland Art Museum, the Pittsburgh Renaissance and Baroque Society, the Seattle Early Music Guild, Milwaukee’s Early Music Now, the Houston Early Music Society, the Los Angeles County Museum, the San Diego Early Music Society, and the Cambridge Early Music Society (MA), among many others. They have three times been a featured ensemble at the Berkeley Early Music Festival, and their first appearance there was cited in Early Music (UK) as “perhaps the standout of the entire festival.” They have performed at festivals in Germany and Austria and have been heard on German National radio as well as on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” and “Harmonia.” Musica Pacifica’s seven CD releases–Bach Trio Sonatas and a 2-CD set of Marais, Pièces en trio on Virgin/Veritas; Alessandro Scarlatti Concerti da camera, Mancini Concerti da camera, Telemann Chamber Cantatas and Trio Sonatas, Vivaldi La Notte: Concerti per strumenti diversi , and Fire Beneath My Fingers, on Dorian–have won national and international awards, including the highest ratings in several CD magazines and each one being chosen as “CD of the Month” by the early music journal Alte Musik Aktuell (Regensburg). Fire Beneath My Fingers was touted as “one off the most exciting Baroque recordings I’ve heard” on Audiophile Audition, and was a featured recording on Minnesota Public Radio. The Telemann CD, described by Early Music America Magazine as “superbly elegant . . . exemplifying the finest in historical performance today,” won Chamber Music America and WQXR’s 2003 Record Award honoring the best chamber music recordings of the year. The Mancini recording was cited as a “Noteworthy Disc” in the 2000 International Antonio Vivaldi Awards for Italian Early Music in Venice–the only CD that year by a North American ensemble to receive the honor.

This video content is Copyright © 2009 Musica Pacifica and appears here on the GambaCast by permission. For more information on Musica Pacifica, visit http://www.MusicaPacifica.org/. For more videos by Musicaacifica, please visit http://www.youtube.com/musicapacificasf.

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Based in the Chicago area, Dr. Serna works to bring the early western string instrument family known as the viola da gamba into many area schools – demonstrating solo literature from the Renaissance, Baroque and early Classical periods for treble viol, tenor viol, bass viol & violone. Please help us make viols accessible to both young and old.

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Viols in Our Schools Copyright © 2009 Dr. Phillip W. Serna. For more information, visit http://www.thegambacast.org/ & http://www.violsinourschools.org/.