Tempesta di Mare, Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, returns to Chestnut Hill Saturday, Nov. 23,  for a program at Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting entitled “Duo Silvio,” a recital featuring Richard Stone and Cameron Welke who will perform works by Silvius Leopold Weiss.

The dynamic duo of Stone and Welke, lute, will be playing Stone’s own reconstructions of some of Weiss’ concerti turned into flute duets. This program, which begins at 5 p.m., comes in the tradition of reconstructions Stone made of Weiss’ lute concerti, a project that began in 2001.

Most Renaissance and Baroque instrumental music was not deliberately intended to be played by only a specific instrument or instruments. Rather, the tradition that came from the late Middle Ages was that various and diverse instruments of the same range could play each other’s music. Stone, a co-founder and co-director of Tempesta – along with flute and recorder player Gwyn Roberts – is among the leading baroque specialists to engage in this seminal task so that little known composers of the 17th and 18th centuries can reach a wider audience. The performance at Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting is at 20 E. Mermaid Lane. 

Tempesta di Mare will return to the Hill Sunday, Dec. 15, at 4 p.m. in The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave., for “A Neapolitan Christmas.” For more information call 215-755-8776 or visit tempestadimare.org.

‘Christmas at St. Clement’s’

Jonathan Coopersmith will conduct the Philadelphia Chorale in “Christmas at St. Clement’s” Saturday, Nov. 30, at 4:30 p.m. in St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, 2013 Appletree St., in Center City. The parish’s organist and choirmaster, Peter Richard Conte, will accompany the Chorale in music by American composers Daniel Pinkham and Morten Lauridsen as well as arrangements of Christmas favorites by Alice Parker and Robert Shaw. Conte is best known as the principal organist of the Wanamaker organ in the Center City Macy’s Department Store.

For decades, St. Clement’s Church was the site of “Christmas on Logan Square.” The concert featured the late Michael Korn and the Philadelphia Singers, one of America’s only full-time professional choruses. The concert became so popular that two performances were given and both sold out St. Clement’s 600-plus principal sanctuary.

St. Clement’s Church was designed by John Notman (who also designed St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Locust St., and the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square) in the Victorian/Romanesque style. It is the region’s leading “Anglo-Catholic” parish, combining the liturgical and musical traditions of the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church’s “Tridentine Mass” with the Oxford Movement of the Church of England. I attended its “Sung Mass” Sunday, Nov. 10, and heard the all-professional choir give stunning renditions of Leonard Lechner’s “Missa prima, Domine Dominus noster” and “Novit Dominus.” The Church’s resonant yet clear acoustics are perfect for choral concerts and are beautifully enhanced by its glowing stained-glass windows. For ticket information visit phillychorale.org.

Early Music Concerts

Two of the region’s instrumental ensembles specializing in music from the Renaissance and Baroque epochs presented concerts Friday and Saturday, Nov. 8 and 9. Filament performed “The Cries of London” in the Fleisher Art Memorial in the Queen Village section of Philadelphia on Friday. Camerata Ama Deus played “Vivaldisimo” in the Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Saturday. 

Filament – violinist Evan Few, violist da gamba Elena Kauffman and harpsichordist John Walthausen (the director of music at First Presbyterian Church in Germantown) was joined by mezzo-soprano Meg Bragle for a delightful roster of songs and suites from Elizabethan England. The music sparkled with bawdy vitality.

Valentin Radu presided over a program of sinfonias and concerti by Antonio Vivaldi. The evening’s most compelling readings were those given the concerti for oboe, trumpet and oboe and trumpet together, featuring Sarah Davol and Bob Wagner.

For more information about both groups visit filamentbaroque.com or VoxAmaDeus.org.

Met Opera Auditions

New York’s Metropolitan Opera held its regional auditions Sunday, Nov. 10, in the Mary Louise Curtis Branch of Settlement Music School’s Presser Hall. Pianist Jose Menendez (a senior vocal coach at Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts) accompanied at a stunning Steinway & Sons concert grand piano a bevy of aspiring young opera singers. They sang selections from the broadest span of the repertoire – from the baroque George Frideric Handel to the contemporary Kevin Puts – and proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that opera is alive and well in America.

 The five winners were baritone Benjamin Sokol, soprano Emilie Kealani, bass-baritone Nan Wang, soprano Alla Yarosh, and bass Raul Morales Velasco.

You can contact NOTEWORTHY at Michael-caruso@comcast.net.