House of Time

What if "The Four Seasons", one of the most popular pieces of all time, wasn't an original composition but an arrangement of a lost original? What if Vivaldi had scored his most famous work for a mixed chamber ensemble with violin, flute, and oboe, before reworking it for traditional string orchestra, as he did with "Il Gardellino", "La Tempesta di Mare", and other concertos? House of Time's thrilling rendition of Gonzalo X. Ruiz's colorful reconstruction of this speculative original presents Vivaldi's naturalistic masterpiece as you've never heard it before. From singing birds to babbling brooks and barking dogs, from summer storms to wintry winds, the seasons come alive in this new chamber setting. Carolyn Yarnell's riveting "Three Graces" is a savage and beautiful musical portrait of three strong women who shaped her childhood in the Sierra Nevada. Commissioned by Gonzalo X. Ruiz and guest flutist Stephen Schultz, it earned them the 2000 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.

In the year 1685 lightning struck not twice but thrice, with the births of three of the greatest composers of the baroque era. The endless wit and invention of the Italian master's keyboard sonatas is the perfect foil for the towering chamber music of the German giants. Featuring Handel's "Dresden" Trio in G minor, Bach's trio, BWV1028, for oboe d'amore and violin, and the suite for unaccompanied cello in D minor performed by the incomparable Beiliang Zhu, winner of the Leipzig Bach Competition.

Tartini claimed that his fiendish "Devil's Trill Sonata" was played to him by the devil himself sitting at the foot of his bed, while Biber's "Passacaglia" depicts the protectio of a guardian angel. In Vivaldi's "Damnation Sonata" the oboe becomes a wayward soul dragged down to hell. Trios by Arcangelo Corelli, and Marin Marais, who "played like an angel" contrast with works by Antoine Forqueray, who "played like a demon". Don't miss House of Time's exploration of these mythic extremes in baroque music, capped by a special edition of La Folia (The Madness of Spain)

This whirlwind tour includes such favorites as Couperin's "L'Imperiale", and Telemann's glorious "Paris Quartet" in E minor, as well as a thrilling sonata by the Spanish oboe virtuoso Pla, beautiful and eccentric violin works by Pandolfi, trios by Purcell, and an cello sonata by Vivaldi.

From Mozart's mercurial grace, and the endless wit of Haydn, to the explosive, revolutionary strains of Beethoven, this concert brings together the three giants of late eighteenth century Vienna. The arrangement of Haydn's Opus 50, No.5 quartet by Mozart's oboist Joseph Fiala serves as the model for Gonzalo X. Ruiz's new arrangement of Beethoven's String Quartet Opus 18, No. 1. The program is rounded out with Mozart's Adagio and Fugue in D minor and Flute Quartet K. 285 arranged for oboe in C major. 

Scholars have long supposed that many chamber works were among the hundreds of lost works by Bach and House of Time brings this speculation vividly to life. This exciting program features House of Time's arrangement of one of the organ trios as well as one his only three surviving original trios. The sonata in E minor for violin and continuo, an obbligato harpsichord sonata long thought to be for oboe, the monumental Ciaccona for solo violin and the Toccata in C minor round out a compelling imaginary night of chamber music at the Bach household.