September 21, 2025
Lassiter Concert Hall
Marietta, Georgia – USA
Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Julie Andrijeski, concertmaster; Kelly Nivison, flute; Anna Marsh, bassoon; Paul Manno, narrator.
Jean-Féry REBEL: Les Élémens
Johann Sebastian BACH: “Air” from Orchestral Suite No. 3
Georg Philipp TELEMANN: Excerpts from Orpheus
George Frederic HANDEL: Water Music Suite III
Antonio VIVALDI: Sinfonia from Il Tamerlano
Paul Hyde | 29 SEP 2025
Bach’s famous “Air” from his Third Orchestral Suite is surely one of the German composer’s most divinely inspired instrumental pieces. The Atlanta Baroque Orchestra offered a warm, glowing account of the ever-popular piece as a part of its season-opening program at Lassiter Concert Hall on September 21.
The orchestra’s ethereal performance of Bach’s “Air” was balanced by decidedly more down-to-earth fare in a program, Les Élémens, that spotlighted works associated with the elements of earth, water, air, and fire. It was a beautifully rendered performance in a historically informed Baroque style.
The concert, which featured 16 musicians, included one of the most colorfully innovative pieces composed in the Baroque era: Jean-Féry Rebel’s Les Élémens (1737-38), inspired by the four elements. The piece begins with a Biblical depiction of the primordial chaos out of which the Earth emerges. Rebel (a Baroque rebel indeed!) stacks all seven notes of the D-minor harmonic scale on top of each other to represent the cacophonous beginning of the world. It would be another 200 years before composers would again explore the sort of striking atonality Rebel achieved in this work.
The rest of Rebel’s piece features Baroque dances representing the elements in spirited fashion but without the harmonic audacity of the opening.
Now in its 27th year, the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra is an ensemble for Atlantans to cherish for meticulously following historical performance practice. The musicians play instruments from the 1600s and 1700s or newer instruments built with Baroque specifications.
The string players use Baroque bows, shorter in length, and gut strings as opposed to more modern synthetic and metal strings. Endearingly, an audience member can tell gut strings are being used by the number of times the musicians have to retune. Baroque instruments can be obstinate.
In Baroque performance practice, the musicians stand while playing, with the exception of the cellists. The concert was led, superbly, by concertmaster Julie Andrijeski.
In a concert like this, featuring skilled Baroque musicians, one expects to hear works performed with transparency, clarity, and precision, and these qualities the ensemble displayed in rich abundance. The same program had been performed earlier at The Cathedral of St. Philip (September 19) and the First Baptist Church of Decatur (September 20).
Among the other appealing works on the program was George Frederic Handel’s Water Music Suite III, which included a graceful “Air” and delightful “Menuet.” (This Suite III is composed for strings alone, and I rather missed the raucous horns and assertive trumpets one finds in Handel’s Water Music Suites I and II.)
Narrator Paul Manno was an engaging guide for instrumental excerpts from Georg Philipp Telemann’s opera Orpheus. This was vivid music. A movement titled “Orpheus Captivates Pluto as He Plays Upon His Lute” featured pizzicato strings and an evocative offstage flute solo. Another titled “The Furies Banish Orpheus from the Underworld” was crisply and pointedly articulated.
One of the delights of any classical music concert is an opportunity to discover lesser-known works, even if composed by well-known composers. Antonio Vivaldi’s “Sinfonia” from his opera Il Tamerlano featured two rousingly lively outer movements encircling a mysterious and mournful middle section.
Concertmaster Julie Andrijeski led the thoroughly polished and stylish performance. Among the ensemble’s fine soloists were Kelly Nivison on flute and Anna Marsh on bassoon.
Three more programs remain in the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra’s season titled Metamorphosis. A performance of Handel’s chamber opera Acis and Galatea (November 14-16) will be followed by a program that includes Vivaldi’s Lute Concerto in D Major (February 27-March 1). Concluding the season will be Bach’s soaring Ascension Oratorio (April 17-19). ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Atlanta Baroque Orchestra: atlantabaroque.org
Read more by Paul Hyde.
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