February 28, 2009

Pre-concert talk at 7:30 pm; Concert at 8:00 pm

Unitarian Church of Princeton

The Birds and the Bees:

Nature and Music in 18th Century Europe 

Laura Heimes, soprano

Donna Fournier, viola da gamba

Janet Palumbo, harpsichord

John Burkhalter, recorder

with guest artist

Elissa Wagman, baroque violin

 

Join us for concert featuring 17^th and 18 century chamber music inspired by nature.

 Soprano Laura Heimes will be featured in two very different cantatas.  Clerambault’s L’amour piqué par une abeille (Love stung by a bee) is a classic example of the French baroque secular cantata, with an amorous text set to virtuosic music.  The Stocking, by the English composer Stokes, is an 18th century parody of pastoral cantatas; while the music is as charming and elegant as the “real thing,” the text mocks the literary conventions of the day.  This surprising work is made available to the ensemble by the Roan-Burkhalter collection of rare 18th century musical prints.  Violinist and former Princeton resident Elissa Wagman will be featured in the Sonata representativa by the 17^th century German composer Heinrich Ignaz von Biber.  A work of stunning virtuosity, this sonata for violin and continuo “represents” several different animals, including the nightingale, the cuckoo, the frog, and the cat.  Janet Palumbo will perform Rameau’s Harpsichord Suite in E, which includes Le Rappel des oiseaux (The call of the birds) as well as Rameau’s famous Tambourin.  John Burkhalter will play selections from The Bird Fancyer’s Delight, a collection of flute and recorder pieces in imitation of the songs of various birds, published in London around 1730. A pre-concert talk—“The Call of the Wild, or Enduring Lines”—by John Burkhalter will examine the role of the naturalist in the Age of Enlightenment and the relationship between nature and the arts. 

PROGRAM:

Biber                                              Sonata representativa

Clerambault                                 L’amour piqué par une abeille (Love stung by a bee)

Rameau                                         Harpsichord Suite in G

Couperin                                       Le Rossignol en amour (The Nightingale in love)

                                                         Selections from The Bird Fancyer’s Delight

Oswald                                          “The Hawthorn” from his Airs for the Seasons

Stokes                                             The Stocking