GLENDALE NOON CONCERTS
has returned to live performances
in the Sanctuary of Glendale City Church!
Website: (full program & artist bio):
https://glendalenoonconcerts.blogspot.com/2025/06/glendale-noon-concerts-live-in-person.html
RELAX DURING YOUR LUNCH HOUR WITH LIVE MUSIC
610 E. California Ave Glendale, CA 91206
On Wednesday, June 18, 2025 at 12:10 -12:40 pm PT,
the Free Admission Glendale Noon Concerts program
will be performed live in the Sanctuary of Glendale City Church.
PARKING INFO:
https://glendalecitychurch.org/location
Glendale Noon Concerts 6/18/25
at 12:10-12:40 pm PT
Program:
ERGO MUSICA:
ADRIANA ZOPPO - solo viola d'amore recital
Improvisation for solo viola d'amore (1957) by Karl Stumpf
Adagio and Giga from Piéce pour la viole d'amour (1777) by Louis Toussaint Milandre
Aglaea from Charites (2021) by Kirstin Fife
Studio Modale (1982) by Aurelio Arcidiacono
Prelude No. 4 (1931) by Henri Casadesus
Mixed Up Prelude (2024) by Thomas Georgi
Studio-Capriccio No. 8 (1949/ed. Jennie Hansen 1990) by Aurelio Arcidiacono
Performer bio:
In addition to the viola d’amore, Adriana Zoppo performs on violin, viola, baroque violin and baroque viola. Director/Curator of the Glendale Noon Concerts’ early music sub-series Adriana, with Ergo Musica, is heard there frequently. Previously a member of the Carmel Bach Festival, she plays with the original instrument ensembles Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Los Angeles Baroque Players, Bach Collegium San Diego and the Corona del Mar Baroque Festival, where she has appeared as viola d'amore soloist. She has also played regularly with the Santa Barbara, New West, Pacific, Long Beach and Pasadena Symphonies, the St. Matthew Chamber Orchestra and other local ensembles. Adriana plays for film, TV, solo artist recordings and live shows of all musical styles and genres.
Program notes:
Karl Stumpf (1907-1988)was a violist in the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera, as well as a professor of viola d'amore at the Vienna Akademie für Musik, now the Hochschule. He edited and composed pieces for viola d'amore, and his performances and recordings brought many unknown viola d’amore works to the general public. The “Improvisation” is part of his method book for viola d'amore.
Louis-Toussaint Milandre (fl. ca. 1756 – ca. 1776) was a French composer, violinist, viol and viola d'amore player in the court of Louis XV of France, and editor of a Parisian musical journal.
These two movements are from a longer piece included in his Méthode facile pour la viole d'amour (Easy Method for the Viola d'amore), published in 1771 which has remained an important pedagogical work for the instrument.
Kirstin Fife is a Los Angeles based composer and friend of mine who kindly wrote a three-movement solo piece for me called Charites, which is another name for The Three Graces of mythology. The Aglaea movement imagines a conversation between the grace Aglaea and her husband Hephaestus, the crippled god of blacksmiths and carpenters. After his notorious and difficult marriage to Aphrodite, Hephaestus settled down to a harmonious relationship with Aglaea.
Aurelio Arcidiacono (1915—2000) An Italian professor of violin and a violist and violist d'amore, he also composed for television. The Studio Modale is one of two Studies (Études) for unaccompanied viola d'amore that were composed for and premiered at the First International Viola d'amore Congress of the Viola d'amore Society of America in 1982 by Arcidiacono.
The Studio-Capriccio No. 8 is from a book of 16 studies and caprices for viola d'amore.
Henri-Gustave Casadesus (1879 – 1947) was a French violist, viola d'amore player, composer and music publisher. Along with his two brothers and composer Camille Saint-Saëns, he founded the Society for Ancient Instruments in 1901. The Society was notable for premiering supposedly rediscovered works by long-dead composers that were later discovered to have been composed by Casadesus and one of his brothers. This prelude is from a collection of 24 preludes written also to develop viola d'amore technique.
Thomas Georgi is a violinist, violist, viola d'amore player and retired member of the early music ensemble Tafelmusik of Canada. An avid promoter of the viola d'amore and its repertoire, he has edited and made available to the public compositions from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, many of which he has also recorded. On a whim, he composed this Prelude based on the Casadesus Etude No. 4.
The history of the viola d'amore is somewhat shadowed in the mists of time, but references to it start in the mid to late-1600s. Though held on the shoulder as is the violin or viola, instead of 4, it has 6-7 strings and an equal number of sympathetic strings that are strung under the playing ones. It is tuned in thirds, fourths and fifths. Most of these instruments feature a carved head at the top of the neck, usually a woman with a blindfold, most likely referring to the name, the viol of love, and the phrase, “love is blind”. Another feature is the distinctive shape of the sound holes on the top of the viola d'amore. Many of the historical comments about the instrument mention its unique tone quality. Leopold Mozart poetically said it “sounds especially charming in the stillness of the evening”. Though there is chamber music and concerto repertoire for it by well-known composers of the baroque and classical eras, it was also used as a color for specific moments in pieces, especially as time went on and it became less popular to play. It appears to have always been a specialized instrument, which may explain why most of the composers who wrote for it were accomplished viola d'amore players themselves.
For more info visit www.violadamore.com and www.violadamoresociety.org
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