Salish Sea Early Music Festival back with Baroque

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Hear the past come to life as the Salish Sea Early Music Festival continues with early chamber music played on period instruments.

A pair of 2 p.m. Sunday shows are slated for March with “Musica Alta Ripa Goes Baroque” on March 12, and “Obbligato Harpsichord and Flute” on March 26.

“Musica Alta Ripa Goes Baroque” features violinist Anne Röhrig and harpsichordist Bernward Lohr, two internationally renowned musicians who come from Hanover, Germany to join flutist Jeffrey Cohan.

“I’ve had them here a couple of times,” Cohan said of the German duo from the ensemble Musica Alta Ripa. “Hanover” originally evolved from “Hohes Ufer,” meaning “high riverbank” or “Alta Ripa” in Latin.

Lohr is director of the group, one of Germany’s most active period instrument ensembles. Röhrig, leads the Hannoversche Hofkapelle (the Hanover Court Orchestra), another of Europe’s premier Baroque orchestras.

“They’ve made 30 recordings, they’ve received a lot of awards, and they’re just kind of the movers and shakers for early music in Hanover,” Cohan said.

Cohan first met the Hanoverian duo after a series of performances led Cohan through France to Germany during a tour with a friend. His fellow performer became ill, and Lohr, who is married to Röhrig, stepped in at the last minute.

“We met in the afternoon and went through the program, and then we did the concert in the evening. It was just such a wonderful experience. We both really hit it off,” Cohan said.

Together again stateside, the three old friends will present 18th century French, Italian, and German trio sonatas and solos by composers Johann Sebastian Bach, Archangelo Corelli, Andre Chéron, Louis-Antoine Dornel, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Johann Christian Bach.

“Obbligato Harpsichord and Flute” features David Schrader on harpsichord alongside Cohan again on Baroque flute.

“I’ll be going back both with Bernward and Anne and with David to the flutes of the Baroque, which are flutes from roughly 1685 through 1750,” Cohan said.

Composers like Bach who lived and worked in that time were writing for just such an instrument.

“That’s the flute with which they were familiar, the one key flute, and that’s what I’ll be using,” Cohan said.

Schrader hails from Chicago, though his renown goes far and wide.

“David was for many years the main performer of all keyboard instruments, he played as featured soloist with the Chicago Symphony and the San Fransisco Symphony and I don’t know how many other orchestras,” Cohan said.

The harpsichordist will be taking on music fully written out.

“The keyword is obbligato, and that simply means fully written out; that the part for the harpsichord is fully written out for the left hand and the right hand,” Cohan said.

“Often, many wonderful musicians don’t even read music; they just can read the chord chart, and they improvise what they’re playing to back up the vocals or whatever according to the keys,” he added.

The complex compositions chosen for this occasion span the years 1720 through 1760.

All of the Early Salish Sea Music Festival performances in Port Townsend will take place at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Admission is by suggested donation of $20 or $25 (a free will offering), and those 18 and under are admitted free.

For additional information, go to salishseafestival.org/porttownsend.