'Aristocratic Strings' at the National Museum

Love the casual setting of a little concert at the Exhibition Galleries that housed the portraits and items from 'Princely Treasures from the House of Liechtenstein'. 'Aristocratic Strings' saw Er Yenn Chwen on the violin, Leslie Tan on the cello and Yang Tien on the harpsichord. The girlfriends aren't big on the music of the middle and late Baroque period. Still, they gamely attended the concert.

The programme booklet is beautifully dotted with paintings from the exhibition that correspond to the selected musical pieces and composers of the particular concert. Enjoyed reading through the history of the period too. Leslie Tan mentioned that the tuning this evening on their baroque instruments were different from what we've been accustomed to in the A-440(Hz) for the last century. We grinned. Yeah, there weren't a 'standard pitch' of sorts back then. We were whispering among ourselves and didn't totally catch what Leslie said, but I thought they used the A-415(Hz), which has become the commonly used pitch to reflect the Baroque period.

We liked vastly different pieces, even when it involved Vivaldi. This evening's selection was the Trio Sonata in C minor for Violin, Cello and Continuo, RV 83, Cello Sonata in E minor, RV 40, and the Violin Sonata in A major, RV 758. We generally like Bach and Rameau, so the chosen pieces of Pièces de Clavecin en Concerts: Concert No.3 in A major and "Erbarme dich, mein Gott" from St Matthew Passion, BWV 244 were rather entertaining in their trills, appoggiatura and mordents. We liked that they picked a oft-less-heard Domenico Gabrielli's cello solo, 'Ricercare No.7'.