Faculty dazzles with annual

It’s difficult to write about a genre so specific that only a handful of people will relate to it.ˇThe music of Monday night’s Baroque Ensemble showcase in Boyd Hall belonged to one of those genres.
Every year, Rowan University’s College of Music assembles a troupe of faculty members to perform a program of Baroque music. This year, the ensemble was able to up its roster with four more members and perform works by composers that would have otherwise been left in the shadow of Bach.
“Partita for Violin,” by J. S. Bach, was played by Lenuta Ciulei Atanasiu with scarcely a breath between movements. This piece was executed with specific attention to the subtle details, graces, and simultaneous melodic lines that seem to split the lone player into three at times.
The second song was also a Bach composition. “Sonata in E Major for Flute and Continuo” was played by Adeline Tomasone on flute and Bette Holladay giving the first show of the harpsichord in the program. The familiar mesh of wind and keyboard displayed how both players were at home showing the utility of their instruments in Baroque music.
After the first quarter of the program, Holladay accompanied Douglas Mapp on bass, Terence Belzer on oboe, and Lawrence Stewart on bassoon.
Before they began, Stewart approached the podium to speak. He thanked the four performers new to the ensemble that year, including Mapp, Holladay, George Atanasiu, and Marion Steiber.
The composer of the piece they were to perform, Giovanni Platti, “was around the same time as Handel and Bach … he represents composers that weren’t ‘all-stars’ at the time,” Stewart explained to the audience.
Stewart also mentioned that the incorporation of oboe and bassoon in this piece was a rarity. When “Trio Sonata in C Minor” started, however, the rare combination had a unique sound that shifted when the two players were handling the lines or playing them in unison. This was also the first song with a noticeable backbone of bass to it.
After intermission, violinist Ciulei Atanasiu and oboe player Belzer were brought back to the stage along with cellist Atanasiu to play Johann Joachim Quantz’s “Trio Sonata in E Minor.” ˇBelzer told the audience how the composer became the court attendant to the King of Prussia when he was given “an offer he couldn’t refuse” when he was only the young prince’s twice-a-year flute teacher. ˇThe last piece of the evening welcomed back Bach with a vocal piece for soprano performed by Steiber, accompanied by flute, cello, violin and harpsichord.
The final word for performances such as this is to go experience them first-hand.
ˇNo amount of descriptions, clever analogies, or pretty imagery will invoke the experience of a Baroque Ensemble recital. The music is something to be heard with your own ears.