Vitality: A Baroque Thanksgiving: Music to give thanks by

So you've devoured turkey, savored mashed potatoes and gravy, and sampled green-bean casserole – at least. You may have even enjoyed a turkey sandwich or two, along with one or more slices of pie, in front of but not necessarily watching innumerable football games. By the time Thanksgiving Saturday rolls around, you're stuffed like the bird was on Thursday and ready for something completely different. Well, the Chamber Soloists of Austin have an item on their menu they hope will add a very special course to your holiday weekend – Vitality: A Baroque Thanksgiving, the first concert in CSA's 21st concert season.

Having a season's first concert on a holiday weekend might seem counterintuitive, but it's worked out well for CSA. "We always avoided Thanksgiving weekend," says founding member and violist Joan Kalisch, "thinking, 'Oh my God, everybody's going to be out of town!' But three or four years ago, we were having some really fine musicians come down to Austin for Thanksgiving, and we thought, why don't we try a concert? So we did, and, lo and behold, we actually got a good audience. And we decided that's because a lot of people have guests come in for Thanksgiving, and by Saturday they're looking for something to do. So we don't necessarily get all the same people that usually frequent our concerts, but this may draw some new audience members to our future concerts."

Thoughts of Thanksgiving don't necessarily give rise to desires for Baroque music, the often rambunctious, always highly ornamented style that saw its greatest popularity at the beginning of the 17th century. But in practice, the two go together like turkey and cranberry sauce. Baroque composers wrote innumerable pieces for small ensembles in intimate settings because so many of them were employed at court. Says Kalisch: "They often were the hired help and provided music for all occasions. There were different kinds of music that their counts or their princes wanted to have. If it was a wedding, they wanted a big, fancy, celebratory piece, and if it was a special dinner, they wanted some chamber music. A lot of Baroque music was written for some kind of celebration. It's very happy, joyous music, and it goes really well with Thanksgiving."

To put the cream on the pudding, CSA offers a chamber group rather than a chamber ensemble, as 14 musicians will participate in Vitality, playing pieces by Bach, Vivaldi, and Telemann, two of whom were employed as court composers. "We're featuring the string players," says Kalisch. "We have a piece for four violas that's a concerto and a piece for four violins that's a concerto and one for two cellos, and then we have one solo violin piece and one solo flute piece." The concert will be followed by a reception and a little something that every one of us can use at this time of year: dessert!

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The Chamber Soloists of Austin present Vitality: A Baroque Thanksgiving, Saturday, Nov. 24, 8pm, at First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa. For more information, visit www.chambersoloists.com.