Chatham Baroque presents night of French music in Upper St. Clair
From left are Chatham Baroque artistic directors Andrew Fouts, Baroque violin; Patricia Halverson, viola da gamba; and Scott Pauley, theorbo.
Stephen Schultz
Justin Wallace
Caroline Giassi
For Chatham Baroque’s latest program, what’s old is new.
The ensemble’s core trio welcomes three guests for “Les Nations: Music from the Time of Louis XIV and XV,” featuring the works of 18th-century French composers, with opening night Feb. 25 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Upper St. Clair.
Leading up to the “Les Nations” concerts, including performances the following two days at Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside, the musicians are developing their own arrangements for instrumentation based on the original scores.
“In rehearsal, part of our time will be spent kind of orchestrating how we want the music to sound, so that we can get as much variety as possible,” Chatham Baroque founding member Patricia Halverson said. “There’s really no right answer. We’re just looking for, well, what strikes us as being the best combination in late February of 2022? There are a lot of options that can work.”
She forms the ensemble with fellow artistic directors Andrew Fouts and Scott Pauley, with the mission of presenting early music playing the instruments that were in use at the time. Performing with them in “Les Nations” are Caroline Giassi, Baroque oboe; Stephen Schultz, Baroque flute; and Justin Wallace, harpsichord.
The program is named for an extended composition by François Couperin (1688-1733) featuring sonatas and dance suites, first published in 1726.
“We’re sort of modernizing it, in that it’s our choice which movements we play. Couperin writes these pieces, but he doesn’t specify this one’s for flute or this one’s for violin,” Schultz said about the instrumentation. “So we have a lot of flexibility in how we perform it, and that’s what’s attractive to me about playing this particular program, besides the fact that French Baroque music is really gorgeous and sounds great on the flute.”
He joins Giassi and Fouts, who plays Baroque violin, in taking the parts for higher-register instruments. Pauley’s theorbo, a long-necked lute, provides him an opportunity to play basso continuo, a musical form of chords in combination with the bass line.
For “Les Nations,” Halverson is playing a seven-string bass viol, which has an extra, lower-register string compared with her main period instrument, the viola da gamba. Also providing bottom to the overall tone is Wallace’s harpsichord.
As part of the program, his keyboard is featured in a selection from “Pièces de Clavecin en Concert” by Jean-Philippe Rameau.
“It’s very virtuosic for the harpsichord, and as well for the other players. It’s super hard,” Halverson said.
Her affiliation with Chatham Baroque goes back to the ensemble’s formation in 1990, and she, Fouts and Pauley have been members together for nearly 15 years. Following a break in live performances because of COVID-19, they resumed concerts in the fall.
“Les Nations” also includes a sonata for flute and violin by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689-1755). For Schultz, that means playing what alternately is known as a traverse or traversière.
“It’s basically just kind of a stick with holes on it,” he said. “And so it’s challenging to make a nice sound on it, but it feels so much better, because that’s the sound and the feel of the music the composers wanted. They were writing specifically for the wooden flute, so they knew what it could do and couldn’t do.”
Schultz has played the instrument since he was a teenager, studying it at the Royal Conservatory of Music in the Netherlands. For the past 20 years, he has been an instructor at Carnegie Mellon University.
He and harpsichord player Jory Vinikour have recorded two albums, with their performance of Couperin’s “Concerts Royaux” released in August. They collaborated on Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord” in 2018.
And Schultz does have an interest in more recent music. In fact, he teaches a Carnegie Mellon course on the Beatles.
“It’s pretty popular. It goes anywhere from 100 to 200 students,” he said. “And it’s really fun. It’s mostly non-music majors, so I don’t talk too technically about the songs. But I give kind of a historical overview of the’60s and the recording process the Beatles went through.”
He has a history of performing with Chatham Baroque as they were presented together by the Renaissance and Baroque Society of Pittsburgh in 2011 and Chamber Music Pittsburgh in 2013, plus Chatham Baroque’s own series in 2017.
“It’s really fun playing with Chatham Baroque,” he said. “Not only are they the only original-instrument group in town, but they’re also great. So anytime they invite me to play with them, I’m really, really excited.”
”Les Nations: Music from the Time of Louis XIV and XV” is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Upper St. Clair, and 8 p.m. Feb. 26 and 2:30 p.m. Feb. 27 at Calvary Episcopal Church, 315 Shady Ave., Shadyside. Proof of vaccination and adherence to COVID safety protocols are required. For more information, visit www.chathambaroque.org/2021-2022-season.