Coming up in Philly music: A Baroque cannoli

In her latest contribution to the Tempesta di Mare blog, historian Anne Schuster Hunter compares the musical works of Tempesta’s December offering to Italian pastries. Tempesta (whose home office is in South Philly’s Italian Market) is greeting the opening of the holiday season with warm, lighthearted chamber music from Venice, Rome, and Naples.

Hunter creatively captures the mood by likening a Vivaldi concerto for two flutes to tiramisu: “spongecake soaked in coffee, layered with cream, dusted with chocolate.” Lute music by Falconieri is an olive-oil-and-honey cake. And a sweet pastorale by Manfredini is, obviously, cannoli. These treats will be served, as always, on intimate 18th-century instruments, played by some of the most knowledgeable and experienced period-instrument specialists in the United States.

The Tempesta di Mare Chamber Players will present their pastorale concert, The Holidays In Italy, on December 1 at 8 pm at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral, 23 South 38th Street (between Market and Chestnut Streets); and on December 2 at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Avenue. Tickets ($25-$39; free at the door for full-time students and youth in third through twelfth grades) are available online and at the door.