The Pacific Baroque Festival - A History of the Festival

AN EVENING OF PACIFIC BAROQUE, 28 January 2005
In January 2005, an enthusiastic audience of over 500 experienced an exhilarating evening of J. S. Bach performed by the Pacific Baroque Orchestra led by Victoria-born Marc Destrubé with two soloists from the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. As reported in the Victoria Times-Colonist by Deryk Barker, “the highlight was the Concerto for Two Violins, with Marc Destrubé and Lucinda Moon the superb soloists. The brisk and exciting outer movements framed a serene account of the largo, with the dialogue between the violins such stuff as dreams are made on. Anybody who can listen to this music and still think that Bach has no emotion is in urgent need of help.”
Review of the 2005 Festival

PACIFIC BAROQUE FESTIVAL 2006, 3-4 February 2006
In spite of facing the worst storms in 20 years, two audiences of about 350 persons were swept away with two full evenings of music by J.S Bach and Boccherini, featuring a musical feast of performances by world class soloists, all with connections to Victoria. Some of these evenings’ highlights included a sublime performance by Alex Dunn of Luigi Boccherini’s “Quintet for guitar and strings in E minor” as well as an emotive performance by Tyler Duncan of Bach’s cantata “Ich habe genug”.

PACIFIC BAROQUE FESTIVAL 2007, 26-28 January 2007
Over a period of 3 days, Victoria audiences experienced wonderful period performances by Nancy Argenta, Marc Destrubé and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra of English Baroque opera and concertos. New this year was a special Choral Evensong, attended by over 350 persons, where the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and the St Christopher Singers performed the sacred music of Henry Purcell thus providing Festival audiences a full spectrum of English Baroque music.
Read review #1 and review #2 by James Young

2008 Festival Review

The Pacific Baroque Festival in Association with

Presented

A Celebration and Exploration of Vivaldi's Music, Rivals and Influence.

Festival Highlights

Pictures - 2008 Festival Pictures - Slideshow

Join the Discussion - We now have a blog with articles from the festival organisers and participants. Feedback and comments are welcome.

Video - 2008 Rehearsals Video. The Pacific Baroque Orchestra with commentary by Marc Destrube

Video - The Pacific Baroque Orchestra video of Vivaldi's Gloria from 2006

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