Grace & Ornament

Grace & Ornament

Grace & Ornament presents an intimate exploration of early music, performed by Shaun Lee-Chen (violin), Krista Low(baroque cello) and Alexis Chin (theorbo).This concert draws on the expressive world of Baroque and early Classical repertoire, where elegance, rhetoric and ornamentation lie at the heart of musical expression. The programme reveals a refined language of gesture and colour, shaped by dance rhythms and lyrical lines, and features the complete Partita No. 2 in D minor for Solo Violin by Bachalongside works by Biber, Kapsberger, Telemann and Piccinini.Shaun Lee-Chen is internationally recognised for his work in historically informed performance and is Concertmaster of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. He is joined by Krista Low, a versatile performer whose work spans Baroque, contemporary and chamber music, and a founding member of the Perth-based ensemble HIP Company, and Alexis Chin, a guitarist and theorbo player with a strong interest in music of the 16th to 18th centuries and a growing reputation as a sensitive continuo musician. Together, the trio bring stylistic insight, balance and a shared commitment to early repertoire.Details & Tickets | Grace & OrnamentThe ProgramMystery Sonata No. 1 in D minorHeinrich Ignaz Franz BiberHeinrich Biber’s Mystery Sonatas (also known as the Rosary Sonatas) stand among the most imaginative achievements of the seventeenth-century violin repertoire. Composed around 1676, the cycle comprises fifteen sonatas and a concluding passacaglia, each reflecting a devotional “mystery” from the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary.The first sonata, The Annunciation, depicts the angel Gabriel’s message to Mary. Unlike most of the later sonatas in the set, it employs standard tuning rather than the altered tunings, or scordatura, for which the collection is famous. Even so, Biber’s writing is richly symbolic. Brilliant flourishes and radiant passagework evoke Gabriel’s arrival, while moments of poised stillness suggest Mary’s humility and contemplation. The work balances theatricality with inward devotion, setting the spiritual and musical tone for the remarkable journey that follows in the complete cycle.Canzona PrimaGiovanni Girolamo KapsbergerGiovanni Girolamo Kapsberger was one of the most celebrated virtuosi of early seventeenth-century Rome, renowned for his skill on the theorbo and his bold, often experimental compositional style. His Canzona Prima reflects the instrumental idiom of the early Baroque, when composers were exploring new freedoms of form and expression.The canzona evolved from the Renaissance chanson, but by Kapsberger’s time it had become a vehicle for contrast and invention. Imitative passages unfold into more rhythmically animated sections, combining contrapuntal craft with an improvisatory spirit. The work’s changing textures and gestures reveal the emerging Baroque fascination with affect and rhetoric, music conceived as a persuasive and expressive language.Fantasia No. 7 in E-flat majorGeorg Philipp TelemannGeorg Philipp Telemann was among the most prolific and admired composers of his era. His Fantasias for solo instrument demonstrate his ability to suggest harmonic richness and contrapuntal interplay within a single melodic line.Fantasia No. 7 in E-flat major unfolds in contrasting sections that alternate lyricism with dance-like vitality. Telemann’s melodic writing is both graceful and inventive, frequently implying multiple voices through arpeggiation and contour. The work exemplifies the gallant clarity emerging in the early eighteenth century, while retaining the expressive depth of the high Baroque tradition. It is music that speaks with elegance and immediacy.Ciaccona in partite variateAlessandro PiccininiAlessandro Piccinini was a pioneering Italian lutenist whose publications helped shape the development of plucked string repertoire in the early Baroque. His Ciaccona in partite variate is built upon the repeating harmonic framework characteristic of the chaconne.Over this grounding bass pattern, Piccinini spins a sequence of increasingly ornate variations. The music alternates between rhythmic propulsion and intricate embellishment, demonstrating both technical brilliance and expressive nuance. The ciaccona’s repeating structure provides a sense of inevitability, while each variation introduces fresh colour and character. In its balance of constancy and transformation, the work embodies the Baroque fascination with variation as a metaphor for both order and invention.Partita No. 2 in D minor for Solo ViolinJohann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor forms part of the celebrated Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, composed during his years in Köthen. In these works, Bach expanded the expressive and technical possibilities of the instrument to unprecedented heights.The partita follows a dance sequence: Allemanda, Corrente, Sarabanda and Giga, culminating in the monumental Ciaccona. While the earlier movements combine elegance with contrapuntal sophistication, the final Ciaccona stands as one of the towering achievements of the violin repertoire. Built on a repeating harmonic progression, it unfolds across a vast architectural span, encompassing grief, radiance and transcendence. Through multiple stopping, implied counterpoint and inexhaustible variation, Bach creates the illusion of an entire ensemble within a single instrument.The Partita as a whole exemplifies Bach’s ability to unite structural mastery with profound spiritual depth, bringing the programme to a conclusion of extraordinary expressive power.

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