Bach Parley: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5

J. S. Bach’s beloved Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 is the centerpiece for the Bach Parley’s season finale on June 4, which marks music director Valerie Arsenault’s 15th anniversary leading the Bach Parley. This Brandenburg concerto spotlights the virtuosic extremes of the harpsichord with special guest Patrick Merrill. In 2016, Merrill won second prize at the Mae and Irving Jurow International Harpsichord Competition, an event first held in 1982 here in Tallahassee Florida under the leadership of Bach Parley co-founder Karyl Louwenaar Lueck.

In addition to the Brandenburg concerto, the concert will also include two heartwarmingly gorgeous Bach trio sonatas, one for two violins, and the other for flute and “scordatura” violin, which means that instead of the usual G-D-A-E tuning of the four violin strings, for this piece they will be altered to G-D-G-D. The other period instrument performers are traverso player Vivianne Asturizaga, violinists Valerie Arsenault and Gesa Kordes, violist Brian Arsenault, cellist Kim Jones, and bassist Christian Marshall.

As a special treat, this concert will introduce Wayne Pearcy, a graduate student in jazz at the FSU College of Music, playing Torelli’s Concerto in D major for trumpet and strings. Pearcy will perform on highly specialized Baroque trumpet, or natural trumpet. Pearcy’s Baroque trumpet is a replica of an eighteenth-century trumpet, with tubing about twice as long as a modern trumpet, and without any valves or fingerholes for changing the pitch.

The Bach Parley performs on period instruments – harpsichord, baroque style stringed instruments with gut strings, natural trumpet without valves or holes, and an early version of the flute made of wood and without keys called a traverso. The French word “parley” means discussion, and a key element of Bach Parley concerts is the commentary provided by Valerie Arsenault who gives historical context about the composers and the instruments and offers suggestions about what to listen for in the music.