Pro Musica Hebraica welcomes back the Apollo Ensemble for an evening of rare Jewish classical music from Amsterdam’s Ets-Chaim Library. Since their highly praised American debut in 2009, the musicians have been in great demand internationally for their performances of Jewish baroque music on period instruments. As required, the ensemble can expand from the core chamber group to a full orchestra. Violinist David Rabinovich, a member of both TAE and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, talked about the discovery of several works in the library and their reconstruction by Ton Koopman, founder of the ABO.
“We look forward to playing at the Kennedy Center again,” he said. “It’s an amazing venue and the response of the audience was wonderful. They loved several works we played at that time by the Italian composer [Salamon] Rossi, so we will play two sonatas that he wrote for the court about 1622, possibly for a wedding ceremony. They are performed by two violins, cello and harpsichord, a very popular combination at that time. He was one of the founders of the baroque genre and his work is a transition between the late Italian Renaissance and early baroque. Although he was Jewish, he changed his name, as many did at that time.”