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Apollo’s Fire: “Hope and Solitude” featuring countertenor Reginald Mobley (Nov. 17)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Apollo’s Fire concertmaster and assistant artistic director Alan Choo curated an thoughtful, unusual, and thoroughly engaging program at Rocky River Presbyterian Church on Sunday afternoon, November 17.

Featuring the formidable vocal gifts of countertenor Reginald Mobley, the program managed to gather under a single banner an orchestral suite and other selections by Henry Purcell, lute music by John Dowland, a suite by John Eccles, and an aria from J.S. Bach’s “Hunting” cantata as well as his solo cantata Ich habe genug. The well-attended concert ended with Spirituals that fit remarkably well into a menu of music played on period instruments.

In his director’s notes, Alan Choo wrote that this program “epitomizes the universality of music and its ability to uplift, heal, and revitalize the human spirit,” quoting the text of 17th-century Anglo-Welsh royalist poet Katherine Phillips’ O Solitude as set by Henry Purcell. [Read more…]

Les Délices to unveil “Arcadian Dreams”

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by Mike Telin

For their latest performance and recording project, Les Délices has turned to the bucolic paradise of Arcadia — a place of pastoral perfection where nature and humanity are in perfect balance  — for inspiration.

“Arcadian Dreams” features works for soprano and chamber ensemble by Jean-Philippe Rameau and a young Georg Frederic Handel, rarely-performed pieces by Louis Lefebvre and Thomas Louis Bourgeois, and music by Arcangelo Corelli and Domenico Scarlatti.

The premiere performances are on Saturday, October 19 at 2:00 pm at the Hudson Library & Historical Society — click here for a seating reservation — and Sunday, October 20 at 7:30 pm at Harkness Chapel. Tickets are available online.

I caught up with Les Délices oboist and artistic director Debra Nagy and soprano Hannah De Priest by Zoom. I began by asking them how the project came about.

[Read more…]

Les Délices: Debra Nagy’s singular, ambitious Four Seasons (Apr. 13)

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by Peter Feher

Most Clevelanders spend at least part of the year wishing they could change the seasons here. But oboist Debra Nagy has actually done it with her ambitious rearrangement of Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

In adapting these familiar violin concertos to the strengths and tastes of Les Délices — her period-instrument ensemble that continues to push historical performance in unexpected directions — Nagy has achieved something singular. [Read more…]

Les Délices concludes 15th anniversary with “Seasons Transformed”

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by Mike Telin

From the beginning of time, artists have been inspired by the seasons, and no musical work dedicated to them is more recognizable than Vivaldi’s set of violin concertos Il Quattro Stagioni or The Four Seasons. His music has inspired admirers and imitators alike.

On Friday, April 12 at 7:30 pm at the Akron Civic Theater, to conclude the ensemble’s 15th anniversary season, Les Délices will present “Seasons Transformed.” The program will be repeated on Saturday at 7:30 pm at Disciples Cultural Arts Center and Sunday at 4:00 pm at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Les Délices: Noel, Noel at Holy Trinity, Akron (Dec. 20)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Giving hope and joy at the darkest time of the year is one reason, maybe the reason, for the timing of holiday celebrations in December, and music and poetry are good ways to ward off the cold and gloom.

Les Délices’ Christmas-themed program, this year titled “Noel, Noel,” offered many glimmers of cheer on Wednesday evening, December 20 at Holy Trinity Lutheran in Akron. But on their journey from the contemplative toward the celebratory, this serious band seemed more comfortable with the former than the latter.

The program grouped beloved carols, seasonal hymns, and seventeenth century instrumental variations into six sets, like stages on a Christmas journey, from “Darkness” through “Hope,” “Peace,” “Joy” and “Love,”  to “Light,” with poetry readings in between. But the musicians’ devotion to skill and restraint came through the loudest.

[Read more…]

Les Délices: Noel, Noel from darkness into light

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by Mike Telin

With the Winter Solstice and the conclusion of Advent upon us, the days grow shorter in the Northern Hemisphere — a quiet time for meditation, reflection, and anticipation that brightness will soon arrive.

On Wednesday, December 20 at 7:30 pm at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Akron, Les Délices will present Noel, Noel, performed by Amanda Powell (soprano), Debra Nagy (recorder and direction), Julie Andrijeski and Allison Monroe (violins), Rebecca Landell (viola da gamba), Mark Edwards (organ), and Daniel Swenberg (theorbo and Baroque guitar). The program will be repeated on Thursday at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church and Friday at the Cultural Arts Center at Disciples Church, both at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire at Lakewood Methodist — “Fire & Joy: from Bach & Vivaldi” (Nov. 17)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Baroque music reaches some of its loftiest heights in concertos, and those by Antonio Vivaldi (who left us some 500) and Johann Sebastian Bach (who seeded his cantatas with concerto-like movements, wrote a collection of six famous concertos, and rearranged — or lost — goodness knows how many others) are among the most popular with ensembles like Apollo’s Fire.

On Friday, November 17, the ensemble brought its program “Fire & Joy: from Bach & Vivaldi” to Lakewood Methodist Church as a stop on its local tour that included performances in Akron, Cleveland Heights, and University Circle. Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell chose concertos by Vivaldi and Bach, pairing them with brief Bach cantata sinfonias.

The concert began with Vivaldi’s D-minor Double Violin Concerto — which Bach arranged for organ during his time at Weimar, when Italian orchestra concertos were all the rage. [Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire presents Fire and Joy: Nicole Divall talks about the ‘Viola of Love’

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by Mike Telin

“The first time I played the viola d’amore it was a bit of a rush job,” Apollo’s Fire principal viola Nicole Divall recalled. “It was for the St. John Passion and I borrowed an instrument and just fell in love with it. Its sound was just so sweet and beautiful I couldn’t stop practicing.”

On Thursday, November 16 at 7:30 pm at First United Methodist Church in Akron, Divall will be the featured soloist in Vivaldi’s Concerto in d for viola d’amore and orchestra.

Directed by Jeannette Sorrell, the program also includes Bach’s Oboe Concerto in F with Debra Nagy as soloist, Vivaldi’s Concerto in d for Two Violins & Cello, and three Bach Sinfonias as well as Brandenburg Concerto No. 4

The program will be repeated on Friday at 7:30 at Lakewood United Methodist, on Saturday at 8:00 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, and Sunday at 4:00 at University Circle United Methodist Church. Violinist Andrew Fouts will give a pre-concert talk one hour before each performance. Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

Apollo’s Fire begins new season: a conversation with Jeannette Sorrell

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by Mike Telin

Apollo’s Fire is moving full steam ahead into their 2023-24 season, which opens this week with four Northeast Ohio performances of their program “Splendour in London.” The concerts also mark the beginning of a busy fall for the musicians and for the ensemble’s founder and artistic director, Jeannette Sorrell. In fact, with all the forward motion that Apollo’s Fire has experienced over the past couple of years, Sorrell can certainly be described as a person on the go.

I caught up with her via Zoom in Chicago while she was literally in transit and began our wide-ranging conversation by asking her to reflect on Apollo’s Fire’s recent European tour.

Jeannette Sorrell: It was a wonderful experience. That was our Exile program, which we first took to Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco. The New York concert was especially fun — it was at the Met Museum and we were sold out two weeks in advance. When you have an audience that really wants to be there, there’s always a special energy.

[Read more…]

Les Délices celebrates fifteen years

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by Mike Telin

Anniversaries are an opportunity to reflect and to forge new adventures. When Debra Nagy set out to plan Les Délices’ 15th season, she wanted it to be “familiar and extremely ambitious.”

Les Délices will launch their season next week by taking the award-winning SalonEra series to another level. On Saturday, September 23 at 3:00 pm at Heights Theater, audiences are invited to attend the debut of SalonEra Sessions with a program titled Songs for Social Justice. The 75-minute concert and conversation, hosted by Nagy, will feature countertenor Michael Walker and tenor Haitham Haidar, who will explore themes of identity and representation, struggle and resilience, and community and belonging. The event will be recorded, edited, and released as a SalonEra episode later in the season. During the program Walker and Haidar will be joined by Nagy (oboe), Rebecca Reed (cello), and Brian Kay (lute and oud).

[Read more…]

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