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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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'.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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".

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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.

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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.