Camerata Pacifica’s January program is the work of Emi Ferguson, new director of Baroque music, flautist and composer, who is collaborating, in this case, with keyboardist and composer Dan Tepfer.

Emi Ferguson, Baroque music director and flutist, and Dan Tepfer, keyboardist, will perform the next Camerata program. (Courtesy photo)
Emi Ferguson, Baroque music director and flutist, and Dan Tepfer, keyboardist, will perform the next Camerata program. (Courtesy photo)

The program, called Emergence, includes selections from “Inventione a Violino solo, e Basso continuo” (c. 1712-1715) by Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672–1749); J.S. Bach‘s and Emi Ferguson’s “Partita Recomposed;” and J.S. Bach’s and Dan Tepfer’s “Inventions/Reinventions.”

Bonporti, an ordained priest, styled himself, like Tomaso Albinoni, an “amateur” with respect to music (reminding me of a remark made by the character played by David Niven in Peter Ustinov‘s “Lady L.”: “I’m a Duke by profession — that makes me an amateur at everything else!”).

He was born in Trento, and admitted in 1691 to the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, where he studied theology. During his sojourn in Rome, he also studied composition under Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni, and may have studied violin with Arcangelo Corelli. In 1695, he moved back to Trento, where he was ordained.

Bonporti’s musical work consists of 12 opus numbers, published 1696-1736. According to Wikipedia, “He influenced Johann Sebastian Bach in the development of the invention, and several of his works were mistakenly included in a set of Bach’s inventions. In reality, Bach had transcribed for harpsichord four violin pieces from Bonporti’s Op. X (1712).”
 
Bach seems, “in reality,” to have been quite taken with the Italians. He also transcribed or adapted works by Vivaldi and Albinoni, as well as some lesser lights, without ever sacrificing his Teutonic accent.

(Henry Kissinger once observed: “My German friends tell me that I now speak German with an American accent, which means that there now is no language on Earth that I speak as a native.”)

The Huntington Museum being closed due to the Los Angeles fires, the Camerata has been forced to cancel the Tuesday, Jan. 14 performance.

For now, therefore, this program will play at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 16; and 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17, at the Colburn School, Los Angeles; and at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17, at the Music Academy in Montecito.

Tickets to all venues are $35 and $75, and can be purchased by phone at 805-884-8410, or online at https://cameratapacifica.org/concerts-24-25/.