Coming up in Philly music: Love affairs and Turkish rhythms

Most of the groups that play Baroque music on authentically made Baroque-type instruments are essentially chamber-music groups. The Tempesta di Mare Baroque Orchestra presents period-instrument concerts with an orchestra comparable to the larger orchestras employed in Baroque theaters and courts, with all the extra color and variety created by a full complement of woodwinds, brass, and percussion.

Tempesta’s next concert will focus on Baroque orchestral pieces that portray characters and follow storylines. François Couperin’s Ritratto dell’ amore charts the progress of a love affair from the first meeting to the inevitable aftermath. Telemann’s Ouverture Burlesque portrays the stock characters of Italian commedia dell'arte and ends with one of the first attempts to incorporate Turkish sounds and rhythms into European music. Other pieces will portray ghosts and battling gladiators. Two pieces will expand the basic theme with music that displays the fantasy and imagination composers like Handel applied to standard Baroque orchestral forms.

Tempesta di Mare presents Fantaisie: Orchestral Storytelling and Imagination on January 26 at 8 pm at the American Philosophical Society’s Benjamin Franklin Hall (427 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia), and on January 27 at 8pm at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill (8855 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia). Tickets ($25-$39) are available in advance online and at the door (full-time students and youth grades 3-12 are free at the door).