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By John von RheinClassical music critic What makes Chicago a world-class center of classical music performance? It’s not just because we have established institutions operating at high artistic levels. Part of the reason lies with the fact that the many smaller groups orbiting around the big boys do quality work in their own right, complementing [...]

  John von RheinClassical music critic Francesco Cavalli was the Giuseppe Verdi of his day, a composer who had all of 17th century Italy singing. “Giasone” (“Jason”), the 10th of his more than 30 operas, was performed more frequently than any other opera of its time (it premiered in Venice in 1649). Evidently, its combo [...]

By Alan G. Artner The Baroque Band gave an effervescent concert Friday night at Evanston’s Music Institute of Chicago.  Some of the fizz came from the program, which celebrated the 300th anniversary of the birth of Giovanni Pergolesi, while exploring the new and old in Italian music of the early 18th century. The rest came [...]

Another feast of Baroque music was served three days before at the Music Institute of Chicago in Evanston, where Baroque Band continued in its quest to become the full-time period instruments orchestra the city needs. The frisky, ever-improving ensemble under Garry Clarke’s direction began its third season with a program of Italian Baroque concertos. The [...]

By John von Rhein This weekend the Chicago period instruments group Baroque Band is imagining one of the masked entertainments given in Georgian London at that city’s famed Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. The opening concert of the series, presented Wednesday at Orchestra Hall, gave the audience a flavorsome sampling of the instrumental music those bewigged patrons [...]