La voce del violoncello

Again we went to a concert today. It’s unusual to go so often in one week. This was an afternoon concert sponsored by the Bellingham Music Club. Elinor Frey played a concert of some of the first music written for the cello. The cello was a new lighter version of a viola da gamba. It was called a violoncello and these pieces all mentioned that instrument in the sheet music. The earliest were in the mid 17th century. I love music of this period. She also played some Bach unaccompanied cello to replace a couple of pieces that weren’t playable due to humidity (a couple of strings buzzed when plucked) and for an encore. The room had perfect acoustics and she played extremely well. I hadn’t heard of any of the composers and was surprised to see two of them lived into their 90s.