La Pieta Seasoned in Vivaldi, Other String Pieces

In the early 18th century, services at the Ospedale della Pieta in Venice were often high-society events, thanks to the hospice’s internationally famed music establishment. No less than Antonio Vivaldi was, off and on, violin master and house composer at this orphanage for girls.

So when Canadian violinist Angele Dubeau founded an all-female string band a few years ago, she named it La Pieta and devoted its first CD to Vivaldi. Sunday afternoon the ensemble made its local debut at St. John’s Episcopal Church, as part of a series celebrating the 75th anniversary of Mount St. Mary’s College, a women’s college and sponsor of the Da Camera Society, which hosted the event.

Vivaldi--no surprise--contributed the first half of the agenda. A modern instrument group but clearly informed by period practices, La Pieta tackled Vivaldi with vitality and velocity, crisp and tightly wound in the allegros, sensuous and lightly sweetened in the slow movements. Dubeau is an exciting, dynamic fiddler, and she got able solo support from the principals of her small ensemble--10 string players plus keyboardist Louise-Andree Baril.

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The second half touched again on music composed for a girls school, in Holst’s evergreen “St. Paul’s Suite.” Matched with it were other roughly contemporary reinterpretations of early music, Hubert Parry’s almost forgotten “Lady Radnor’s Suite” and the first suite of Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances,” in a vibrant new arrangement by Baril.

The performances were consistently robust and inquiring, taking risks and taking nothing for granted. Dubeau’s well-drilled band played with agility, power, a nicely weighted sound and a fierce joy in the doing. A Bartok dance and Baril’s sassy update of Monti’s creaky old Czardas were the encores.