S and I had a make-up symphony show last weekend. It was a beautiful day and a bit of a bummer to be sitting inside, but at least we had some upbeat music to keep us company.
On the dance card were:
Three Studies from Couperin (Thomas Ades)
Concerto in C major for Flute & Harp (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Suite from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (Richard Strauss)
Thomas Ades is alive and well. This piece of music, though, is an ode to three movements from Francois Couperin's Pieces de Clavecin, a beautiful French baroque composition, which is why it fit with the theme.
The Mozart piece was written for a one-time potential patron of the musician's, the Duc de Guines, and the Duc's daughter. He was an amateur flautist, she a harpist. Imagine how disappointing it was for WAM when, after working with the two, including giving composition lessons to Marie-Adrienne, the Duc stiffed Mozart on his fee for both the piece and the lessons.
After intermission, it was time for Strauss. "The Would-Be Gentleman" had a curious beginning. Back in 1670, Moliere wrote a satirical play of the same name, which Strauss and his librettist revived in the 19-teens and renamed "The Middleclass Nobleman." The first performance was combined in a four-hour theatrical marathon with Strauss's opera, Ariadne auf Naxos. It proved to be too much, and the two pieces were split -- one now well recognized in the operatic canon, and the other slightly less well recognized in the symphonic realm.
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