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The French Baroque Style
Madison Bach Musicians’ 21st season is ready to begin!
Once again our opening concerts will take place at Holy Wisdom Monastery nestled within the beautiful autumn prairie. The program will be a deep dive into what it means, in music, to sound French. The French Baroque Style is a sonic tour de force of 17th- and 18th-century Baroque masterworks in the French style. MBM is thrilled that internationally renowned Baroque violinist, Marc Destrubé—who last year led MBM’s season opener, Vivaldi’s Venice—will return for these concerts.
We’ll start with Jean-Baptiste Lully’s (1632-1687) zesty suite from the satirical comédie-ballet, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670). Though born in Italy, Lully spent most of his career in France at the musically extravagant court of Louis XIV. From the next generation, we’ll hear François Couperin’s (1668-1733) elegant homage, L’Apothéose de Lully, which, through instrumental music and a bit of narration, reflects upon the hybrid vigor that music acquired as French and Italian taste merged in Lully’s work. André Campra’s (1660-1744) opera-ballet L’Europe Galante was wildly popular when it premiered in 1697, and through instrumental selections and two sumptuous soprano arias, we’ll get to hear why!
In his magnificent Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, J. S. Bach (1685-1750) is in all-out French mode. The Suite, virtually a flute concerto, is replete with an expansive French Overture, fastidious ornamentation, and several favorite types of French dances; even the other-worldly tonality of B minor was a French favorite.
In 1725, the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) witnessed Native American dancers and musicians—from Illinois!—performing at the court of Louis XV. In his 1735 opera, Les Indes Galantes, Rameau integrated Native American stylistic elements with his own French idiom into some of the most stirring fusions of rhythm and melody ever penned.
Please join us on September 28 & 29 to see and hear why the 18th century has often been called “the triumph of French taste!”
Sarah Brailey–SOPRANO, Marc Destrubé, Kangwon Kim, Nathan Giglierano, Lee Joiner, Leanne Kelso, Kiyoe Matsuura & Mary Perkinson–BAROQUE VIOLINS, Micah Behr & Madlen Breckbill–BAROQUE VIOLAS, James Waldo & Charlie Rasmussen–BAROQUE CELLOS, Eric Miller–VIOLA DA GAMBA, Immanuel Davis & Linda Pereksta–BAROQUE FLUTES, Trevor Stephenson–HARPSICHORD
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/2625382-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/2625382-2
