Apollo's Fire Performance Excites Crowd
Mozart Renditions Mesmerize Audience

by Crystal Stohr

Mozart is probably one of the first composers that most people think of when they are asked to define classical music. Who hasn’t seen Amadeus, or heard “A Little Night Music?” But rarely does the composer come alive like he did at Tuesday night’s performance by the Cleveland-based chamber orchestra Apollo’s Fire. 
Part of the growing trend of accurate historical performance, the group is made up of Baroque period instruments, such as wooden flutes, valve-less horns, gut-stringed violins, violas and celli. The musicians come from all over northern Ohio. Led by a brilliant young conductor, Oberlin alumna Jeannette Sorrel (OC ’92), roughly two-thirds of the group has ties to Oberlin, either through studying or teaching in the Conservatory, or at the summer Baroque Performance Institute. 

Sorrel, the group’s music director as well as conductor, brings to her orchestra refreshing energy and passion, which is why the group works. She has an eclectic background in harpsichord performance and modern orchestral conducting, and both are evident in her command of the music as well as the players. The group’s repertoire extends beyond the typical Baroque (i.e., Bach, Handel, Monteverdi), also accurately representing early Classical performance practice. 
Though the sound of the instruments is by nature more muted and transparent in color, the energy of her conducting makes this group’s performance of Mozart even more exciting than that of a major modern orchestra. 
The concert was titled “A Mozart Celebration,” and opened with the overture to Mozart’s dark, comic opera Don Giovanni. Soloist John Gibbons joined the group for Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major. An avid performer on historical instruments, Gibbons played the concerto on the fortepiano, the predecessor of the modern piano. And Apollo’s Fire closed the concert with the crowd-pleasing Symphony No. 35, the “Haffner.”
While most of Sorrel’s conducting was above par, her youth showed in the slow movements. Particularly in the second movement of the “Haffner” Symphony, the movement at times lacked direction and maturity, and the tempo dragged a bit. Likewise, in the piano concerto, the orchestra’s role in the Adagio movement was a bit undefined, although Gibbons’ playing rescued it. 

The highlight of the concert was Gibbon’s fortepiano playing. As an instrument, the fortepiano has a softer, lighter sound than the modern piano; the key action is easier, and the keys are closer together. These factors, coupled with an exceptionally skilled performer, create a magical keyboard sound. The notes in a scale blend seamlessly, and the intimacy of the sound draws in even the very back rows of the audience. 

Never has there been a concert in Finney Chapel where the silences between notes were so ... silent. This alone attests to Gibbons’ mastery. The audience was entranced and invited him out for a charming encore of the Mozart Fantasy in D Minor.
Apollo’s Fire gave a delightful, innovative concert of well-known Mozart works under Jeannette Sorrel’s able baton. And as the audience showed by demanding an encore, historical performance isn’t just an academic interest any more.