Quartetto Paradiso
www.viaparadiso.org
Updated: 31 May 2023
Quartetto Paradiso is a group of amateur musicians who
enjoy playing music that was either written for, or can be adapted to,
both recorders and other instruments that were used for chamber music
in the 17th and 18th centuries.
We are devoted to playing music of the baroque, but have also greatly
enjoyed being immersed in the musical ideas of contemporary composers,
such as Glen Shannon, Lance Eccles and Nancy Bloomer Deussen,
who have written music for these instruments.
Although originally formed as a quartet, we have recently
started to expand the group and the repertoire.
We play at A415, not because it's fashionable,
but because A415 instruments (particularly alto recorders)
have a mellow tone that is nicer than those a half-tone up at A440.
Our repertoire emphasizes the baroque, early classical, and modern.
Concerts
The Covid19 pandemic caused cancellation of FDA concerts in 2020, 2021
and 2022, so it has been four years since the set of FDA concerts in 2019.
Our groups played in both FDA (Flauto Dolci et Amici) concerts in 2023.
For the April 22, 2023 concert
at Foothill Presybterian Church in San Jose, California,
Quartetto Paradiso played one of our favorite Telemann Trio Sonatas,
a reprise of a performance in 2019, and Amaranta performed Soren Sieg's
African Christmas Suite.
The Telemann trio sonata TWV42:A2 has a range and key (A major) that
fit perfectly on baroque flutes and on voice flutes (tenor recorders in D).
Pat is playing on an A=415 Peter van der Poel voice flute and Dan is
using one made by Adrian Brown.
Quartetto Paradiso performed this sonata in 2019, but it's such a nice
piece that we figured it was worth another take. The movements are
slow-fast-slow-fast. The first and third movements are expressive
and relaxed. The second movement is a sparkling alla breve,
and the final movement feels like a fast peasant dance in triple meter.
Play
For the March 18, 2023 concert
at Foothill Presybterian Church in San Jose, California,
"Trio Paradiso" played a Bach Organ Trio, Amaranta played Oblivion by
Astor Piazzolla (arranged by Phil Neuman) and Five Ukranian
Folksongs by Lance Eccles, and DJLD performed two Canzonas by Giovanni
Gabrieli and Jig by Pieter Campo.
J. S. Bach wrote six beautiful pieces for organ, BWV 525-530, which are
often referred to as "organ trios" because they have two upper voices
plus the bass. All six trios are in the fast-slow-fast tradition
of Italian sonatas. Gil Garty made excellent transcriptions
for 2 alto recorders and bass. Of the set, one of our favorites
is the 5th trio, BWV 529, which "Trio Paradiso" played at A=415 with
two alto recorders and bass viol. The two recorders bounce ideas
back and forth throughout. The two Allegro outer movements are upbeat,
and the Largo second movement is reflective and intricately elaborated.
Play
Amaranta, our recorder group that plays baroque and modern works
at A=440, played Oblivion, one of Astor Piazzolla's most
popular compositions. Of the many versions of Oblivion on YouTube,
Dan's favorite is the melodically haunting rendition by oboist Eugene Izotov
accompanying himself on piano.
We play Phil Neuman's very nice transcription of Oblivion for
5 recorders, where the lowest part is doubled on great bass recorder and
bass viol.
Play
Lance Eccles is one of our favorite contemporary composers for recorder.
Amaranta plays his suite Five Ukranian Folksongs, written in 1999.
The fifth part is doubled by a contrabass and bass viol, providing
a solid grounding to the ensemble. Eccles's writing implicitly suggests
tempo variations, and we took them liberally.
Eccles often generates a spooky feeling by putting chromatic modulations
into his pieces. The fourth in the set, "The Dark Cloud is Coming"
is the most chromatic and seems prescient in view of the Russian
invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022.
Slava Ukraini!
Play
DJLD (the initials of the players, pronounced "DeJailed") performed at A=440
two of Giovanni Gabrieli's famous canzonas, transcribed for recorder quartet
with four essentially equal parts.
Play
Pietro Campo is another of our favorite contemporary composers. One reason
that Campo is a delight to play is that he is a virtuoso player and
knows how to write well for recorders.
Campo's Jig is a set of modest variations. Although it is short, DJLD
found it to be a bit repetitious if played as written, so we modified
the tempo, starting slowly to allow the audience to get the tune
in their head, and then suddenly speeding it up. And we made the same
tempo changes near the end as well.
Play
For the April 6, 2019 concert
at Foothill Presybterian Church in San Jose, California,
Quartetto Paradiso played trio sonatas by Corelli and Telemann, and
Amaranta played two pieces by Belgian composer Pieter Campo. There
are excellent versions of Campo's Meditativo on Youtube, so we
will not add our not-so-fine rendition.
It is always surprising what Corelli can conjure up from a few well-chosen
notes, including a French style sarabande in the third movement. Here is Corelli's trio sonata No. 5 from Op 2:
Play
Amaranta, our recorder group that plays baroque and modern works
at A=440 pitch, played Kardos, a lively, foot-stamping piece
in (mostly) 7/8 meter, by Pieter Campo. Pat Marion on the contrabass
is the rhythm "section" that really brings the piece to life.
Play
For the March 9, 2019 concert
at Foothill Presybterian Church in San Jose, California,
we played works by composers from the Renaissance to the present.
All four videos from the concert were produced by Deb Soule, using a
recording made by Glen Shannon.
Our new, expanded group Consorte Paradiso began with a mixed consort
(4 viols and 2 recorders) rendition of a Fantasia by John Ward for
6 instruments. We used voice flutes (tenor recorders in D) to better
match the range of the top two voices and the tone quality of the viols.
Play
William Boyce was a late 18th century English composer, whose most
famous compositions are his 8 little symphonies. Fred Palmer arranged
the first movement of Boyce's Fifth Symphony for six voices, which
we performed with 3 recorders, 2 viols and organ. This is a
rollicking piece, that begins with a trumpet fanfare and leads into
an energetic fugue, all in the style of G. F. Handel. When you hear
the high recorders, think 'trumpets'.
Play
We then played a trio sonata by Johann Joachim Quantz, one of the great flute
players of the baroque. This was written for recorder, transverse
flute and basso continuo. Baroque flutes were made in the key of D,
so it was natural to play the flute part on a voice flute (D tenor recorder).
The piece has 4 movements in the standard German sonata sequence of
slow/fast/slow/fast. See if you can figure out which movement has a fugue.
Play
Then Amaranta, our recorder group that plays baroque and modern works
at A=440 pitch, was joined by Glen Shannon to gave a rendition
of Pieter Campo's Vuur. This firey
piece ("vuur" means "fire" in Dutch) was written for 2 bass recorders
and 3 altos, and we used a contrabass recorder for percussive emphasis
on one of the bass parts.
Play
Amaranta, again with Glen Shannon, also performed the World Premiere of
Glen's new composition, Fippalicious, which was written to support
San Francisco Early Music Society workshop scholarships for recorder players.
This lively piece, which includes one of Glen's signature swinging fugues
in the middle, was written for ATTB, with two optional parts for a fifth
line (either great bass or contrabass). Here it is!
Play
For the April 21, 2018 concert
at Foothill Presybterian Church in San Jose, California,
we played works by three composers. We began with two early baroque
Italian canzonas, ca. 1620, for two soprano instruments and continuo by Giulio
Mussi. La Fanzaga seems like a fanfare, and it is followed by
L'Amaltea, in which the two instruments first echo each other, and
then echo themselves. These pieces, written 400 years ago, are from
the earliest period where soloistic instrumental music was composed.
The three videos from the concert were produced by Deb Soule.
Play
We followed this with a piece we intended to play a year ago, a Handel
trio sonata in F, which has two "happy" arpeggio-laden allegro movements
(the first in triple meter and the last a gigue), and, in between,
the requisite introspective adagio.
Play
The final piece was written by the Australian composer Lance Eccles
in 2013, in celebration of the large meteor that had recently exploded over
Chelyabinsk, Russia, with the energy of a half million tons of TNT.
Eccles wrote it orginally for accordian, and at Pat's request transcribed
it for our quartet. Meteor changes keys several times and, within
each key, is constantly modulating in a special way that anyone familar with his compositions
will recognize. It begins with a foreboding introduction, and then alternates
between blissful ignorance of the incoming rock and building concern that
perhaps all is not as it seems. At the end it is evident that a white ball
of fire is coming in fast. Irene plays the keyboard part on the organ
to enhance the atmosphere of whimsical malevolence.
Play
For the March 10, 2018 concert
at Foothill Presybterian Church in San Jose, California,
we played a fairly well-known trio by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier.
Although we always referred to Boismortier as "dead wood", we were
disappointed to learn that his name means "mortared wood", a
technique for joining pieces of wood. The trio is nominally for
flute and bassoon, and it works very well with voice flute (a recorder
in D, the same key as the baroque flute) and viola da gamba.
Deb Soule handled all aspects of the video production.
Play
For the March 4, 2017 concert
at Foothill Presybterian Church in San Jose, California,
our quartet was prepared to play pieces by Handel and Eccles.
However, at the last minute our bass viol player was unable to make it.
Irene and Dan had not had much time to prepare one of the Corelli
Op 5 sonatas, but nevertheless decided to give it a try after
watching Sarah Jeffery's YouTube video on
My biggest on-stage DISASTERS!,
because they figured that it couldn't be that bad.
In 1700, Corelli published 12 Sonatas for violin and B.C, Op. 5. Because
he did not make use of the very high notes that are possible on
the violin, these sonatas have been easily transcribed to fit the
range of the alto recorder. We played four movements of Sonata No. 3,
and the video editing was done by Deb Soule.
At this time, we are surprisingly unable to find any other recorder
performances of this sonata on YouTube.
Play
For the February 28, 2015 concert
at Westminister Presybterian Church in San Jose, California,
Dan Bloomberg played Wat zalmen op den Avond doen by
Jacob van Eyck, for solo recorder.
This is from van Eyck's Der Fluyten Lusthof, a large collection from the 1640s of variations on tunes for solo recorder. It was played on a Ganassi alto recorder in g, made by Peter van der Poel. The slide-show of Dutch paintings was composed with the audio by Deb Soule. You can hear hail rattling the church windows at the beginning of the piece!
Play
Yellowstone Suite by Nancy Bloomer Deussen, for soprano
and alto recorders, viola da gamba and harpsichord.
Pat Marion approached San Francisco Bay Area composer Nancy Bloomer
Deussen with a request to compose something for our quartet, and
Nancy wrote the Yellowstone Suite. Although Nancy is a
prolific composer, this is the first piece she has written for viola da gamba
in an ensemble. It was quite a challenge for us, and we had a lot of
fun working it up. It was recorded in June, 2014.
Deb Soule made the slide-show, which perfectly captures the feeling of
the piece visually.
There are three movements. Daybreak at Hayden Valley, The Yellowstone
River (which reminds some of us of Smetana's Moldau), and Playful Pelicans.
Play
For the
March 9, 2013 concert
at Foothill Presbyterian Church in San Jose, California,
we played the J. S. Bach Trio Sonata in F, BWV 1028,
for 2 alto recorders, viola da gamba and harpsichord.
This is our favorite of the very nice Bach trio sonatas. It has four movements: Adagio, Allegro, Andante, Allegro. Our approach to the work is moderation: not too slow in the slow movements (for example, performances by string players tend to drag, but wind players need to breathe) and not too fast in the fast movements, which have plenty of intrinsic momentum. The last movement has an unusual, cadenza-like section of modulating arpeggios near the end.
Play
For the
March 24, 2012 concert
at Foothill Presbyterian Church in San Jose, California,
we played the Dornel Suite in d minor,
for 2 alto recorders, viola da gamba and harpsichord.
Louis-Antoine Dornel (ca. 1685 - 1765) was a French composer who lived in Paris. Not being a court composer, he wrote for the aristocracy. Relatively little survives of his compositions, which we found original and enjoyable, in spite of being highly mannered in the style of the period.
The Suite has 7 movements, all with French names as one might expect.
Play
At the same concert, the group Quintessence (with Juliette Faraco, Dan Chernikov and Christopher Flake) performed a version of Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite that was arranged for 5 recorders by Stanley Taylor. This works very well on recorder quintet. We switched instruments between movements, and in playing the six movements of the suite, we all managed to play most of the different recorders (from sopranino to bass).
Play
For the
March 5, 2011 concert
at Foothill Presbyterian Church in San Jose, California,
we played the Christoph Schaffrath Trio in C Major,
for 2 alto recorders, viola da gamba and harpsichord.
Schaffrath (1709 - 1763) composed in a transitional style between
the high baroque and the classical, that is sometimes called "roccoco".
It has three movements: Adagio, Allegro and Vivace. We added
a fourth movement, a musical joke played on the audience,
that we called "Allegro Irlandese".
Play
For the
May 23, 2010 concert
at Foothill Presbyterian Church in San Jose, California,
we played the Trio Sonata
in Imitation of Birds by William Williams ("Bill Bill"),
for 2 alto recorders, viola da gamba and harpsichord.
This is one of only a very few pieces that Williams composed. It is
very much in the tradition of English baroque music, and as the
title implies, gives the performers a number of chances to make
birdlike trills, chirps and squawks. Lightweight and melodic.
You may notice that we took the short fourth movement at a relaxed,
lyrical pace. The movements are Adagio, Allegro, Grave, Allegro.
Play
For the
March 1, 2009 concert
at Foothill Presbyterian Church in San Jose, California,
we played the Glen Shannon Trio Sonata No. 1 in d minor
for 2 alto recorders, viola da gamba and harpsichord.
This is a beautiful piece in 4 movements. We found the first movement
to be the most difficult to play in an interesting and appealing way.
The second movement is a lively fugue in the inimitable Shannon style.
The third movement is a lyrical andante, and the fourth is a rollicking
allegro in the 6/8 style beloved by baroque composers.
Here are the four movements:
I. Adagio
II. Allegro
III. Andante
IV. Allegro
Also at the
March 1, 2009 concert
at Foothill Presbyterian Church in San Jose, California,
Tetratoot, which is a remix of the recorder
players in Quartetto Paradiso, played the world premiere of
Glen Shannon's "The Bloomberg Codex" for recorder quartet. Featured
in the performance are Glen Shannon (himself) on bass and Mark McMahon,
who plays the wild solo on soprano in the second movement.
The piece is played entirely in swing style, and is a (tetra)hoot to play.
There are three movements. The first, "Aria", alternates between the
parts playing in synchrony and going off in little riffs. The second
movement, "Recitative", is a soulful solo for the soprano. The third
movement is the fugue (there's always a fugue), and although everyone
shares with the theme, they mostly share the fugue theme with the tenor,
which gets the lion's share. One caution for musicians: these themes
are so catchy that you'll find them playing in loops in your head for
days.
I. Aria
II. Recitative
III. Fugue
This piece was subsequently recorded in a fine recording session,
with professionals Vicky Boeckman and Frances Feldon joining Glen and Mark:
I. Aria
II. Recitative
III. Fugue
For the February 17, 2008 concert
at Foothill Presbyterian Church in San Jose, California,
we chose the Handel Trio Sonata in F for 2 alto recorders,
viola da gamba and harpsichord, because it's such a blast to play.
Here are the four movements:
I. Adagio
II. Allegro
III. Affettuoso
IV. Vivace
Concerts with Recorder Journey
April 18, 2010:
Recorder Journey and Quartetto Paradiso, at Ladera Community Church, 3300 Alpine Rd, Portola Valley.
We played music from the middle ages to modern,
including works by Handel, Legrenzi, J.S. Bach and Monteverdi,
Ole Buck and Sylvia Rosen.
May 30, 2010:
Recorder Journey and Quartetto Paradiso, in
the Sierra Room of the Forum, at Rancho San Antonio Retirement,
23600 Vía Esplendor, Cupertino, CA.
This is mostly a repeat of the April 18, 2010 concert. Quartetto
Paradiso will substitute the "Bill Bill" trio sonata for the Bach.