by Mike Telin
Les Délices kicks off their new season on September 19 at 7:30 pm at The Treelawn Music Hall. The ensemble’s signature program, The Poet & the Prodigy includes music by C.P.E. Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann along with Baroque-era titans François Couperin and J.S. Bach. Reserve your free pay-what-you-can ticket here.
“Treeland Music Hall is a new venue in the Waterloo Arts & Entertainment District and I’m excited about performing there,” Les Délices’ artistic director Debra Nagy said during a recent telephone conversation.
She added that while The Poet & the Prodigy has been expanded from the original version, it’s still fundamentally about J.S.Bach and François Couperin.
“There’s a Couperin trio, L’Impériale, and J.S. Bach’s E minor Violin Sonata. The program also includes C.P.E. Bach’s Oboe Sonata in g minor, and a character portrait of Couperin by Antoine Forqueray, along with the famous arrangement of Couperin’s Les Sylvains by Robert de Visée.
Beginning on October 1 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Akron, Les Délices enters the realm of musical riddles with Bach’s Musical Offering. Performances continue on October 3 at 7:30 pm in Gamble Auditorium at Baldwin Wallace University, and October 4 at 3:00 pm in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium. Harpsichordist Mark Edwards will give a pre-concert talk 30 minutes prior to each performance.
The October 3 program is presented as part of the American Bach Society’s annual conference which is being held at BW’s Riemenschneider Bach Institute.
The music of John Dowland will be featured in a program titled Time Stands Still on November 21 at 7:30 at Trinity Cathedral and November 22 at 4:00 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. Nagy said that the new program includes songs and instrumental music from seventeenth-century England that urge us to seek solace, hold on to hope, and create community.
“Time Stands Still is also a direct reference to lutenist John Dowland — it’s the title of one of his songs,” Nagy said. “Interestingly, in the context of that song, Time Stands Still is actually about being ageless — that time doesn’t march forward. I think we could all support that on some level. And the music is gorgeous.”
Nagy noted that 2026 marks the 400th anniversary of Dowland’s death. “Part of the reason to create a Dowland-centered program was to be able to celebrate that anniversary.”
Les Délices will conclude 2026 with Concertos for Christmas. (December 11 at 7:30 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Akron, December 12 at 7:30 pm at Fairmount Presbyterian Church, and on December 13 at 4:00 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church).
The program includes Michel Corette’s Simphonie de Noëls, a concerto for two oboes by Vivaldi, J.S.Bach’s F major harpsichord concerto (BWV 1057), and Christoph Pez’s Concerto Pastorale for two recorders and strings.
Nagy said that she wanted to program music that felt festive and fun, and leaned into the gospel of Christmas trope. “I’m not sure if the Pez has ever been heard in Cleveland, but it’s a wonderful concerto grosso for strings and two recorders, with pastoral movements and a fantastic Chaconne to end it.”
Another program highlight for Nagy is J.S. Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in F. “This is rarely heard, although the concerto is Bach’s own arrangement of Brandenburg 4 — he gives the solo violin part to the harpsichord but keeps the two recorders. And Vivaldi’s Concerto for two oboes is really fun.”
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Published on ClevelandClassical.com September 14, 2026
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