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Les Délices: “Mozart in Paris” (Jan. 22)

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by Daniel Hathaway

LesDelicesPlymouth012217The 21-year-old Mozart planned to take Paris by storm on his second visit in 1778, but he chiefly succeeded in alienating colleagues and patrons alike with his arrogance. The composer fared far better on Sunday afternoon, January 22 at Plymouth Church, when Les Délices presented “Mozart in Paris,” a program that surrounded his Oboe Quartet with works by Gluck, Cambini, Duport, and Boccherini, all pieces that the Parisian public might have heard in the French capital during that period. [Read more…]

Cellist Elinor Frey to join Les Délices for “Mozart in Paris” this weekend

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by Mike Telin

frey-elinorMozart made an excellent impression visiting Paris with his father and sister in the mid-1760s. However, when he returned to the city in the spring of 1778, things didn’t go so well. “Despite the successful premiere of his Paris Symphony, and a few other commissions, he felt misunderstood,” oboist Debra Nagy said during a recent conversation. “But it was his bad attitude that was ultimately his undoing.”

On Saturday, January 21 at 8:00 pm at 2731 Prospect Gallery, Les Délices will present “Mozart in Paris.” The program, which marks the ensemble’s first full concert featuring music from the Classical era, will include Mozart’s Quartet for Oboe and Strings, quintets by Luigi Boccherini and Christoph Willibald Gluck, a string quartet by Giuseppe Cambini, and an etude by renowned French cellist Jean-Louis Duport. The program will be repeated on Sunday, January at 4:00 pm at Herr Chapel in Plymouth Church. In addition to Nagy, performers include violinists Julie Andrijeski and Beth Wenstrom, violist Cynthia Black, and cellist Elinor Frey. [Read more…]

Save the dates: January events to log in your classical music calendar

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by Daniel Hathaway

gaffigan-jamesFormer assistant conductor James Gaffigan will return to the podium at Severance Hall from Thursday, January 5 through Saturday, January 7 to lead The Cleveland Orchestra and pianist Kirill Gerstein in Bernard Hermann’s Suite from Psycho, Arnold Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto, the original, jazz band version of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Performances include Thursday and Saturday evenings, a Friday matinee and a Fridays@7 event.

From January 6-8, the Philadelphia-based vocal ensemble, The Crossing, will give sixeen performances of David Lang’s Lifespan in Gallery 218 — the glass house that rises above the Cleveland Museum of Art’s East Boulevard façade. Surrounding a 4-billion-year-old rock suspended from the ceiling, three vocalists will whistle and breathe, moving the rock like a pendulum, “a poetic form of wind erosion” (read a preview here). Performances are scheduled for Friday at 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, 7:00, 7:45 and 8:30 pm, and on Saturday and Sunday on the hour from noon to 4:00 pm. Weigh in on your experience by sharing your own comments on the ClevelandClassical.com Facebook page. [Read more…]

Les Délices: “Songs Without Words” at Plymouth Church (October 16)

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by Mike Telin

NAGY-DebraA good song is a good song, and for centuries vocal music has been a fruitful source of repertoire for instrumentalists. In “Songs Without Words,” Les Délices artistic director Debra Nagy has created an inspired program that juxtaposes 17th-century art songs with 20th-century jazz standards. [Read more…]

Les Délices ventures into jazz standards with its “Songs Without Words” concerts

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by Mike Telin

NAGY-Debra“Instrumentalists, especially during the last couple of decades of the 17th century, would often turn to vocal music as a source of repertory for their solo playing,” said Debra Nagy, Les Délices Artistic Director, during a recent interview. “This program uses that idea as its point of departure and brings the concept into the 20th century with jazz standards arranged for and improvised by the ensemble.”

On Saturday, October 15 at 8:00 pm at SPACES, and on Sunday at 4:00 pm at Herr Chapel, Plymouth Church, Les Délices will kick off its new season with a program titled “Songs Without Words.” The program will feature torch songs spanning the 17th to 20th centuries, including music by Michel Lambert, Marin Marais, Billy Strayhorn, and Nina Simone. [Read more…]

Les Délices: Vaudeville in the French Baroque (May 8)

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by Nicholas Jones

TheatredelaFoireWhen we hear the big names of French Baroque music — Couperin, Lully, Rameau — we think of the opulence of the courts of Paris and Versailles. And we think big — long, serious operas on mythical subjects, string bands packed with dozens of players, and hefty subsidies from king and courtiers. But outside the heady claustrophobia of the courts, Paris also had a looser musical counterculture in the suburbs: small ensembles that played music based on popular tunes, and presented “operas” based not on the tragedies of gods and heroes but on the complications of everyday life. [Read more…]

Les Délices to present
“Concertos Comiques”

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by Mike Telin

CorretteFinding ways to circumvent rules has always been a popular pastime. It has also often inspired creative genius. When Louis XIV put a stranglehold on entertainments such as opera and theater by enforcing rules designed to secure official monopolies, non-court composers and playwrights countered with Fair Theaters (Théâtre de la Foire), low-cost performances on the outskirts of Paris. The satirical plots regularly mocked the pretentiousness of the bourgeois by featuring servants who were far more intelligent than their bosses, or by poking fun at old men who chased after young girls.

On Saturday, May 7 at 8:00 pm at the Bop Stop and Sunday, May 8 at 4:00 pm at Plymouth Church, Les Délices will present Concertos Comiques. The program will include works by Michel Corrette, Francesco Corbetta, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, and Jean-Joseph Mouret, performed by Debra Nagy (oboe), Julie Andrijeski and Scott Metcalfe (violins), Josh Lee (viola da gamba), and Simon Martyn-Ellis (theorbo and baroque guitar). [Read more…]

Les Délices to hold Ohio City residency from March 17—20

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by Mike Telin

LesDelicesPopUp2Les Délices, Cleveland’s period instrument ensemble specializing in French Baroque music, will settle into Ohio City beginning on Thursday, March 17 for a weekend full of free events. As a resident of the neighborhood, Artistic director Debra Nagy feels strongly about reaching out to Cleveland’s Near-West Side community. “The primary goals for the residency are to build awareness of chamber music performance, expand the group’s West-Side audience, and increase visibility for Cleveland artists,” Nagy said in an interview.

The ensemble’s residency also celebrates Early Music Month, devised by Early Music America. Nagy, who is an EMA board member, explained that the month is designed to draw attention to the quantity, breadth, and richness of the country’s early music scene. [Read more…]

Les Délices: “Folly of Youth” at Harkness Chapel, CWRU (Feb. 20)

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by Christine Jay

Rubens-fall-of-phaetonDoing stupid things when young is natural. Two epic failures in youth — alas, fatal ones — are found in the myths of Icarus and Phaeton. Both are ambitious teenagers, their unrelenting and unchecked egos inducing catastrophe. Although similarly bold, the Les Délices program titled “Folly of Youth” at Case Western Reserve University’s Harkness Chapel on February 20 delighted and enthralled, with no signs of godly demise. [Read more…]

Les Délices to present “Folly of Youth” with guest soprano Shannon Mercer, Feb. 20 & 21

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by Mike Telin

Mercer-ShannonRemember being young and thinking you were immortal: never believing that your actions could have tragic consequences? This weekend Les Délices will explore the “Folly of Youth” on Saturday, February 20 at 8:00 in Harkness Chapel and Sunday, February 21 at 4:00 pm in Herr Chapel, Plymouth Church. The program will pair George Frideric Handel’s youthful cantata Tra le fiamme with French Baroque works that recount the stories of Icarus and Phaeton — young men who dared to fly too close to the sun. The weekend will also include a 45-minute free Family Concert on Saturday beginning at 3:00 pm at The Bop Stop.

“The program is a vocal workout, but I’m looking forward to it!” exclaimed Canadian soprano Shannon Mercer during a telephone interview. “There’s a youthful frivolity to it, and the French works all have a lot of drama.”

The text to Handel’s cantata Tra le fiamme explores the concepts of fatal attraction, temptation, pleasure, and exhilaration. Mercer, who will be making her Les Délices debut at these concerts, said the work is highly ornamented in its depiction of flight, feathers, and butterflies. [Read more…]

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