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Alix Goolden Performance Hall
July 15, 2025
For many classical musical listeners, baroque music serves as a gateway to the wider world of classical music. The ubiquity of Pachelbel’s Canon and Vivaldi's Four Seasons make it hard for anyone to avoid baroque music. Other familiar pieces of the period, such as Bach’s orchestral suites and concertos (particularly the Brandenburg Concertos) and Handel’s Water Music and Messiah, can also provide novice listeners with a place to start exploring the 700-plus years of "classical" music.
For musicians, however, the modern relationship with what we now call "early music", the baroque period included, is much more complicated. There has been a sea-change over the past five decades in how early music is performed, as scholarship informs the understanding of how this music was performed in its day, including the nature of the instruments themselves. This has led to a recognition that the music requires a different approach to performance aesthetics, and the use of instruments that more accurately reflect the time, which bring tonal differences when compared to their their modern counterparts.
In addition to dimensions of performance, the same scholarship and research has also expanded the breadth and depth of the available repertoire of the baroque period. Not only have additional works by the famous names been unearthed, but many works by previously unknown composers have been found.
The Victoria Conservatory of Music’s "Summer Intensive Baroque" program (one of the many "Summer Intensive" streams offered by the VCM) provides young musicians an opportunity to focus on these aspects of the music, studying with professional musicians with expertise in the field. While there are student concerts at the end of the program, this concert brought the members of the faculty together for a varied evening of music.
The programme and performances demonstrated how far this scholarship has brought performance. Only one of the aforementioned big name composers was on the programme (an arrangement of one of Bach’s trio sonatas), instead relying on a couple of familiar names (Couperin and Monteverdi) and a very diverse list of works by unknown (to me at least) composers of the period.
In addition to the diversity of composers, the program featured a diversity of ensembles. The programme was bookended by concertos by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, one of those composers who was well-regarded in his day, but was largely ignored in the intervening years. The concertos, both for flute and oboe soloists. The soloists Soile Stratkauskas (flute) and Curtis Foster (oboe) were accompanied by a small ensemble of eight other instrumental faculty, including harpsichord and chamber organ.
In between the Stölzel concertos, we were treated to a revolving array of instrumental combinations. These included solo organ and harpsichord pieces, performed by Christina Hutten and Byron Shenkman respectively.
One of the highlights to my ears were the movements from Nouveaux Concert No.5 by François Couperin, performed here by Foster and Shenkman. This suite, written for the court of Louis XIV, opens with a prelude followed by dance movements; the performance here were the Allemande and Musette. The tones of the period oboe are warmer and less bright than a modern instrument, and made this a most charming entry on the programme.
Also worthy of note was Joseph Bologne’s String Quartet in C minor, Op.1 No.4. This Haydn-esque work in two movements was new to my ears, and based on the performance we were treated to, something that I will be seeking out to listen to again. The ensemble of Chloe Meyers and Kathryn Wiebe (violins), Mieka Michaux (viola), and Christina Mahler (cello) obviously enjoyed playing this delightful music.
In addition to the instrumental works, the programme included a number of vocal works sung by contralto Vicki St. Pierre, all based on religious texts...a reminder that in the baroque period, composers and musicians often relied on religious patrons. With a variety of instrumental accompaniment, these pieces were performed with panache.
The breadth and depth of the music captured but a taste of the baroque period…perhaps more of a musical buffet than a banquet, but all in all, a splendid way to spend a summer evening.
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