by Daniel Hathaway
In 2016, Les Délices’ “Songs Without Words” concerts paired 17th-century art songs with jazz standards. This season, the (usually French) Baroque ensemble’s “Torchsongs Transformed” program has built on that idea. On Saturday evening, March 7 at Lakewood Congregational Church, soprano Hélène Brunet joined previous cast members Debra Nagy (oboe), Mélisande Corriveau (viola da gamba), and Eric Milnes (harpsichord) in new pairings of French Baroque arias with 20th-century love laments. [Read more…]
Les Délices has added a new twist to their acclaimed Baroque-jazz fusion program. Previously known as “Songs Without Words” — in the form of both a live concert and a beautiful album from 2018 — it’s now called “Torchsongs Transformed,” and adds soprano Hélène Brunet to the core of Debra Nagy (Baroque oboe), Mélisande Corriveau (viola da gamba and pardessus de viole), and Eric Milnes (harpsichord).
No longer just a French Baroque ensemble, Les Délices has recently branched out into earlier and later musical periods and crossed national borders. In the latest development, founder, artistic director, and oboist Debra Nagy invited fortepianist Sylvia Berry and three period wind instrument colleagues — clarinetist Colin Lawson, bassoonist Wouter Verschuren, and hornist Todd Williams — to join her in well-known quintets from the Viennese Classical period.
You might expect that someone who’s a leader in their field was hooked from their initial encounter with it. Colin Lawson, described as 
Over the past ten years the music of Jean-Féry Rebel has become familiar to 
