Baroque Blues: Apollo's Fire in café style

By Frank Kuznik, 15 February 2015

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Reviewed at St Paul's Episcopal Church, Cleveland on 13 February 2015

Monteverdi, Scherzi Musicali: Songs and Ritornelli

Works by Castello

Capricornus, Theatrum Musicum (O Felix Jucunditas)

Works by Bertali

Works by Kapsberger

Works by Storace

Ortiz, La Romanesca

Strozzi, L'Eraclito amoroso

Apollo's Fire

Jeannette Sorrell, Director

Nell Snaidas, Soprano

Karim Sulayman, Tenor

Oliver Mercer, Tenor

Jeffrey Strauss, Baritone

Animated seasonal Vivaldi from Apollo’s Fire

Mark Pullinger, 15th April

Has St Martin-in-the-Fields ever heard a more polished performance of that Baroque evergreen, The Four Seasons?

****1

Coffee House Baroque: Apollo’s Fire

Mark Pullinger, 15th August

Jeanette Sorrell and her Cleveland Baroque band Apollo’s Fire are renowned for their inventive programming and “A Night at Bach’s Coffeehouse”, with guest soloist Alina Ibragimova, deftly offered a balanced musical diet.

***11

New World Baroque: Apollo's Fire in tour send-off

Frank Kuznik, 12th August

A hit in its hometown, Apollo's Fire is making believers on the festival circuit both in the US and abroad this summer.

****1

A riveting Messiah in Cleveland

Timothy Robson, 12th December

Can a Handel's well-worn masterpiece get dramatic new life? Cleveland's Baroque orchestra Apollo's Fire and conductor Jeannette Sorrell answer with a definitive, “Yes!”

*****

Apollo's Fire sets Cleveland aflame

Frank Kuznik, 23rd February

Who says American early music bands can’t play European music? Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland-based early music ensemble that will be touring the UK and Austria with Sandrine Piau in May, took local fans on a journey to medieval Spain this past weekend with delightfully authentic songs of the Sephardic Jews.

*****

Jeannette Sorrell and the Hallé find drama in Handel’s Messiah

Leighton Jones, 6th December

Jeanette Sorrell brings a Messiah to Manchester that adds a sense of drama, bridging the gap between oratorio and opera.

****1

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Frank Kuznik

Frank Kuznik is the former Editor-in-Chief and Culture Editor of The Prague Post, Central Europe’s premier English-language weekly newspaper. He currently divides his time between Prague and his hometown in the US, Cleveland, where he covers northeast Ohio's dynamic classical music scene. In Prague he is an habitué of the Rudolfinum, National Theater, State Opera and other storied classical music venues, and an unabashed fan of Czech music.