Music Program Presents
Tonight! Bard Baroque Ensemble
Friday, October 25, 2013
Bitó Conservatory Building
The Bard Baroque EnsembleProf. Alexander Bonus, director
presents
Rival Families: French vs. Italian Music in the Baroque Age
Friday, October 25, 2013 at 6pm
Bito '60 Conservatory Performance Space
As Europeans in the 17th and 18th Century attested, French and Italian musical styles were as opposed as night and day. Francois Raguenet described these contrasting national tastes in 1702, stating, “It is not to be wondered that the Italians think our musick dull and stupefying…the French aim at the soft, easie, the flowing, and coherent.” In 1716 Francois Couperin quipped that the Italians “play our music less well than we play theirs.” Given their many stylistic antagonisms, composers from these two cultures might be said to comprise rival if not warring musical families.
In this eclectic and entertaining program befitting Family Weekend, the talented student musicians of the Bard Baroque Ensemble illustrate these dramatic contrasts through the lush French suites of Lully and Philidor, the electrifying Italian concerti of Corelli and Albinoni, the tender court songs of Michel Lambert, and the volatile arias of Alessandro Scarlatti.
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Location: Bitó Conservatory Building