Barefoot Chamber Concerts (“an enterprise noted for both its quality and informality” – San Francisco Classical Voice) presents really good music in the right acoustic and without the formality of most classical music events.
Barefoot’s March concert features the House Band, the eponymous and iconic Hallifax & Jeffrey (Peter Hallifax and Julie Jeffrey), viols, with fabulous guests
Barefoot Chamber Concerts (“an enterprise noted for both its quality and informality” – San Francisco Classical Voice) presents really good music in the right acoustic and without the formality of most classical music events.
Barefoot’s March concert features the House Band, the eponymous and iconic Hallifax & Jeffrey (Peter Hallifax and Julie Jeffrey), viols, with fabulous guests Cynthia Black (violin) and Katherine Heater (harpsichord), in a concert that reflects the fantastic richness of musical life in Paris in the early 18th century.
Marin Marais was the viol player at the center of the Parisian scene. His music is represented here by the famous Labyrinthe for solo viol with continuo: a musical depiction of Theseus the Athenian’s struggle and eventual killing of the evil Cretan king Minos’ half-man, half-bull pet, the Minotaur (with an assist from the lovely Ariadne, King Minos’ daughter, who had fallen in love with Theseus). A dramatic and exciting encounter in every way (and every key). Also by Marais, we’ll hear the Sonnerie de Sainte-Geneviève du Mont, a mesmeric piece based on a repeated three-note bass pattern taken from church bells in Paris.
The piece de resistance of the program is François Couperin’s third Concert Royal for violin, viol, and continuo. This is one of the most stunning of all Couperin’s concerts, and it just exemplifies why Couperin was, and still is, regarded as the master of melodic elegance.
The program is rounded out with other pieces from this most fruitful of periods in French music. All of this in the lovely acoustic of the Parish Hall (Magdalen Hall) of St. Mary Magdalen Church in Berkeley.