Looking for a way to spice up your Valentine’s Day? Head back to the 1680s with AGAVE
By Hailey Milasich
A Grammy-nominated early music ensemble will bring Baroque-era innovation and energy to Fresno on Valentine’s Day.
AGAVE will perform “Smash Hits of the 1680s” from 4 to 6 p.m. Feb. 14 in the OAB Auditorium at Fresno City College.
The program draws a playful comparison between the 1980s and the 1680s, two decades marked by stylistic shifts and influential musical figures.
“When this music was written, it was new music,” said Henry Lebedinsky, AGAVE’s resident keyboardist, who often develops the ensemble’s themed programs. “We can’t ask audiences to hear it the way people did then, but for many of our listeners, it is new music. It’s our chance to introduce something very different and give them the tools to understand the language of it. The rest is letting the music and the performance speak for itself.”
The concert features works by composers who helped redefine Baroque music, including Arcangelo Corelli, Henry Purcell and Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber. Selections include Isabella Leonarda’s Sonata Quarta, Op. 16 No. 4, Purcell’s Sonata in Three Parts No. 10 in A, Corelli’s Trio Sonata in F, Op. 3 No. 1 (1689) and Biber’s Harmonia artificioso-ariosa, Partia I.
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“It was a decade where a lot of things were changing, a huge stylistic shift because of really influential innovators,” said Kevin Cooper, who performs on theorbo and baroque guitar. “This music is about the same things pop music is about being in love, not being in love, having fun. It’s about living as a human being. If we play it like some dusty old manuscript, we’ve failed. It needs that infectious groove it originally had.”
The ensemble features Aaron Westman and Anna Washburn on baroque violins, Kevin Cooper on theorbo and baroque guitar and Lebedinsky on harpsichord. Eva Lymenstull will perform on baroque cello in place of William Skeen for this concert.
Tickets are $20 for general admission, $10 for seniors and free for students.
For more information about AGAVE, the performers, and upcoming programs, visit agavemusic.org.
