Imagine Baroque music with Hebrew words! Such music was performed in the Jewish communities of Italy, southern France and the Netherlands from the 16th to 18th centuries to celebrate weddings and circumcisions, to inaugurate synagogues and to rejoice on special Sabbaths during the year. A full program of Baroque Jewish music will be performed, including compositions by Jewish composers, such as Salomone Rossi of Mantua, Italy and Abraham Caceres of Amsterdam as well as compositions by non-Jewish composers such as Christiano Lidarti and Louis Saladin, who were hired to compose to the Hebrew words.
The Albany Consort, a Bay Area Baroque music ensemble directed by the gifted Jewish husband and wife team of Jonathan Salzedo and Marion Rubinstein, gave a performance at Beth Am on period instruments and was accompanied by soloists and a full chorus. Familiar texts of Adon Olam and Kaddish were revealed in a whole new way by The Albany Consort, a group which got its start on Albany Street, London in 1974 and which has been thrilling Bay Area Baroque music fans with their expansive repertoire since 1981.
In the Consort, Jonathan Salzedo plays the harpsichord while Marion Rubinstein plays recorder and organ. Their daughter, Laura Rubinstein-Salzedo, a Juilliard-trained violinist, is the group's concertmaster. Twenty other musicians complete the ensemble, including orchestra principals Amy Brodo and Brandon Labadie, as well as vocal soloists Rita Lilly, JoHanna Brock, Mark Bonney and Jeff Fields.
This event was sponsored by Mike Morganstern in memory of his sister, Jacqui Morgan, a pioneering female illustrator, and in honor of Beth Am's 60th birthday.