Purcell's Star Shines Tonight
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
Our early evening is brightened both by Henry Purcell’s own music and by Benjamin Britten’s take on a Purcell theme, better known as “A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.”
Purcell’s incidental music for “Diocletian” and his harpsichord lessons from “Musick’s Handmaid” get us off to a lively start. Soon we will be smiling at something perhaps even more familiar, as Britten’s “A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” presents the various orchestral instruments, solo and in combination.
Bernstein and the Vienna Phil bring us Beethoven’s Second Symphony, a work still rooted essentially in the Classicism of the 18th century. Debussy enthusiasts will rejoice as members of the Nash Ensemble play his delicious “Trio” Sonata for harp, flute, and viola.
Vacation time is a good time to take a musical trip, so that’s just what we’ll do: Ken Benshoof’s “Traveling Music,” played by the Kronos Quartet, takes us down some very American-sounding folksy and bluesy byways (see if you catch that quotation from “Kisses Sweeter than Wine”).
If your taste runs to overseas travel, unencumbered by too much luggage (especially mental), take a listen to Milhaud’s “Le voyageur sans bagages,” a suite taken from music originally written for Jean Anouilh’s wacky play of the same name, about a man who had lost his memory... And, of course, there is always more...
Purcell’s incidental music for “Diocletian” and his harpsichord lessons from “Musick’s Handmaid” get us off to a lively start. Soon we will be smiling at something perhaps even more familiar, as Britten’s “A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” presents the various orchestral instruments, solo and in combination.
Bernstein and the Vienna Phil bring us Beethoven’s Second Symphony, a work still rooted essentially in the Classicism of the 18th century. Debussy enthusiasts will rejoice as members of the Nash Ensemble play his delicious “Trio” Sonata for harp, flute, and viola.
Vacation time is a good time to take a musical trip, so that’s just what we’ll do: Ken Benshoof’s “Traveling Music,” played by the Kronos Quartet, takes us down some very American-sounding folksy and bluesy byways (see if you catch that quotation from “Kisses Sweeter than Wine”).
If your taste runs to overseas travel, unencumbered by too much luggage (especially mental), take a listen to Milhaud’s “Le voyageur sans bagages,” a suite taken from music originally written for Jean Anouilh’s wacky play of the same name, about a man who had lost his memory... And, of course, there is always more...
