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…]
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.
by Daniel Hathaway
The ancient Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice is much on the minds of two local organizations this month.
From March 21-24, Oberlin Opera staged four performances of Claudio Monteverdi’s 1607 L’Orfeo in Hall Auditorium.
From March 8-10, Les Délices related the tale of Orpheus’ ill-fated visit to the Underworld to rescue his wife Eurydice from the clutches of Pluto in music by Philippe Courbois, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Georg Philipp Telemann, and most recently by Jonathan Woody in his cantata By much love betray’d.
Also a celebrated baritone, Woody took the role of the god of music himself, assisted by mezzo soprano Sophie Michaux, baroque oboist Debra Nagy, violinist Shelby Vamin, gambist Rebecca Landell, and harpsichordist Mark Edwards. I heard the last of three performances on Sunday, March 10 at Disciples Center. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Prior to Les Délices’ premiere of “Song of Orpheus” in a video format in October of 2021, bass-baritone and composer Jonathan Woody told this publication that he was excited when the ensemble’s artistic director, Debra Nagy, asked him to compose a new work for the program. “She asked if I would write something for their traditional forces of oboe, violin, gamba, and harpsichord. I loved that because as a singer, so often people ask me to compose vocal works. To get to write something that doesn’t have a vocal part was a fun challenge for me.”
This week Les Délices will present the live premiere of “Song of Orpheus,” a program of musical works inspired by the Orpheus myth. [Read more…]
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.
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.
by Daniel Hathaway
Debra Nagy, director of Cleveland’s period instrument ensemble Les Délices, invited Arianne Abela and her geographically widespread vocal ensemble Kaleidoscope to the first installment of its 15th anniversary season on September 29 at Lakewood Presbyterian Church.
After extensive opening remarks, the two organizations collaborated in “The Pow’r of Musick,” a two-hour concert intermingling works by English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with four contemporary choral pieces, two of them by members of Kaleidoscope. [Read more…]
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).
by Stephanie Manning
In the same way that 21st-century music lovers might display their CD collection, more than 500 years ago, Isabella d’Este inlaid her favorite music in her wall.
That piece — Johannes Ockeghem’s Prenez sur moi — kicked off Les Délices’s recent program “Isabella’s Renaissance,” which celebrated the achievements of the renowned 15th-century art patron. Whether by patronage, performance, or study, the music on this hour-long concert was connected in some way to the Marchioness of Mantua.
The evening’s six sections each included two to three pieces, often sandwiching instrumental works in between vocal ones for a sense of balance. Smooth and simple stage changes led the audience at Lakewood Presbyterian Church on April 22 to instinctively hold their applause until the end of each section.
by Daniel Hathaway
Les Délices lucked upon a sun-drenched, nearly balmy Sunday afternoon for its February 26 “Enchanted Island” program in Herr Chapel at Plymouth Church — weather that perfectly suited the subject but no doubt affected the turnout for soprano Sherezade Panthhaki’s impressive debut with the ensemble in solo cantatas by Clérambault and Rameau.
Although the ensemble reinvented itself to some extent to weather the pandemic, Artistic Director Debra Nagy continues to return to its original, winning format: one-hour programs of French Baroque repertoire, assiduously researched, prepared, and performed by Cleveland’s finest period instrumentalists, usually featuring guest vocalists. [Read more…]