The glory of Apollo's Fire Baroque Orchestra

We are extraordinarily blessed to be living so close to a major metropolitan area - Cleveland - where we have access to so much great vibrant culture in museums, theatres, concerts and more. Lately, I have taken advantage of hearing one of our areas's most distinguished ensembles, Apollo's Fire: Cleveland's Baroque Orchestra, in three separate concerts. The first one that I attended was back in October at the resplendent Gothic Trinity Cathedral in downtown Cleveland. It was a performance of the magnificent 1610 "Vespers" of Claudio Monteverdi, all done with period instruments. It was breathtaking and stunningly beautiful and I was immediately smitten with this remarkable ensemble. I'd only heard them once before performing the Mozart 40th Symphony on period instruments, and that is a work that I know extremely well and it was like hearing it for the first time, it was such a fresh and amazing approach to something so familiar to me. Apollo's Fire came here to my hometown a few weeks ago to perform a magnificent concert called "Sacrum Mysterium: A Celtic Christmas Vespers". It was sort of a classical-folk crossover program and it was lively and beautiful and solemn and wonderful and I absolutely adored it. Then this past week, I traveled back to Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland to hear them perform "The Messiah" by Handel, a work that is frequently overplayed, overperformed and has unfortunately become something of a "chestnut" as a result. We typically hear symphony orchestras perform it with a large choir, but Apollo's Fire did it the justice that it so richly deserves by performing it on period instruments with a small Baroque ensemble. Some solos were only accompanied by a cello, violin and harpsichord, as they should be. It was a brilliant performance and again, it was like hearing an old familiar work as if I had never heard it before. It was fresh, it was vibrant, it was exciting, it was dramatic, it was stunning. I loved it! The awe inspiring atmosphere of Trinity Cathedral certainly helps a lot as well. It's an English Gothic Cathedral in downtown Cleveland and it feels like stepping back in time 800 years. So that helps when you are hearing glorious Baroque music in such a stunning setting as that. I am thrilled and delighted to have had the chance to have something of an "Apollo's Fire" marathon lately. I am utterly enamored with this group and I so look forward to future concerts performed by them. They are world renowned and right here in our own back yard! How lucky is that!