Newport Goes for Baroque.....Music, That Is

Director & harpsichordist Paul Cienniwa

Newport Baroque, a group of professional musicians that presents concerts of music of the 17th- and 18th-centuries on period instruments, entertained music lovers at a "Royal Tea and Recital" held at the Viking Hotel recently, interpreting works of Georg Phillip Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach. Newport Baroque's Director, Paul Cienniwa, played a 55-key, specially built harpsichord, with Heloise Degrugillier on the recorder and on the “voice flute”, an unusual wind instrument, to a rapt audience.

As guests dined on tea sandwiches, scones, truffles and petit fours, the artists gave restained, thoughtful performances of of Bach’s Partita in D minor, and of a Telemann Sonata and Partita. Board members Ann Gardella, President, Marie Maguire, and David Odland, spoke to Newport Seen about their efforts in finding venues, creating programs, and setting up the concerts, of which there are several given in Newport annually.

Performing a Telemann Sonata

Two works were performed as tea was served, the opening Bach, which moved to a rhapsodic Andante, a regal second movement, then a fast fugue and quick gigue, followed by the Telemann Sonata , with elegant articulation, and lovely work by Ms. Degruillier, who has specialized solely in the recorder. The order and simplicity of the time signatures and chords transported listeners back to another era, the music with strong roots in the liturgical. Attending in proper afternoon attire were Dorcas Taylor, Jacqueline Hodgson, Peg Phelan, Marian Carroll, Mary Barret, Jane Iandolo, and Susan Odland.

Mary Barrett & Marian Carroll

Bach’s strange and eccentric Sonata in B minor, BWV 1032 , with extended and thorny motifs, closed the ambitious program. prompting the question: what mood was the great composer really in?

The technique of both performers was flawless throughout.

“Newport’s architectural character is well-suited to the music, which reflects the city’s historic preservation initiatives,” says Mr. Cienniwa. ‘In this spirit, Newport is linked to the performing arts of the period, and, with Newport Baroque, Newport lives the past through the passion and beauty of historical music."

Peg Phelan, Susan Odland & Jane Iandolo

The next concert of the 8-year-old group will be on June 5 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hawes Room at Trinity Church, One Queen Anne Square, Newport, and will feature String Quartets of Haydn and Mozart, and a harpsichord concerto by J.S. Bach with Paul Cienniwa, harpsichordist. For information, go to www.NewportBaroque.org