Ohio-Based Les Delices Performs Works Of The French Rococo

The San Francisco Early Music Society's 2017-18 concert season continues the weekend of March 2 with three concerts by Ohio-based LES DÉLICES in a program of daring, experimental works from the French Rococo, works full of wit and elegance by François-André Philidor, Jean-Philippe Rameau and more.

Les Délices performs at 8 p.m. Friday, March 2 at First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto; at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 3 at St. Mary Magdalen Church in Berkeley; and at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 4 at Church of the Advent in San Francisco. Individual tickets from $15 to $45 are available for purchase online at sfems.org.

Founded by baroque oboist Debra Nagy in 2009, Ohio-based Les Délices has established its reputation for "concerts and recordings...that are journeys of discovery" (The New York Times). The group's debut CD was named one of the "Top Ten Early Music Discoveries of 2009" (NPR's Harmonia), and their performances have been called "a beguiling experience" (Cleveland Plain Dealer), "astonishing" (Cleveland Classical), and "first class" (EMAg: The Magazine of Early Music America). In addition to Nagy, the members of Les Délices are Julie Andrijeski and Adriane Post, violins; Emily Walhout, viola da gamba; and Mark Edwards, harpsichord.

With the title Age of Indulgence, Les Délices' program spotlights the musical culture of Paris in the 1740s and '50s, a world with a wealth of opportunities to find a patron and thrive as a musician. "The works on our program don't conform to popular expectations about Baroque music, but they're not quite Classical either," writes Nagy in a program note. "Rather, they mix the humor and wit of early Haydn and Gluck with some of C. P. E. Bach's sturm und drang, adding characteristically lush French harmonies to create a truly unique sound. The result is a fusion of baroque gestures and classical forms that combine with harmonic and technical virtuosity to yield expressive extremes."

Highlights of the program include selections from Philidor's l'Art de la Modulation and François Martin's Conversations à trois; Michel Blavet's Sonata Seconda, Op. 2; Jean-Pierre Guignon's violin duo, "Les Sauvages"; Rameau's Troisième Concert from Pièces de Clavecin en concert; as well as selections from three of Rameau's operas: Boréades, Dardanus and Fêtes de l'Hymen.