Music Before 1800, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, has spent the last four decades delving into the arcane, the nearly forgotten, the masterful and the frankly bizarre, in an ongoing effort to present New York City with the best in "early music."
This season, they stretch the definition of that genre to its breaking point, with concerts of early Viennese music, French lute music, English motets, music of the American civil war and music of the Mexican Baroque, including a Mass composed in colonial Los Angeles.
And then the Wayward Sisters come to town, with a program entitled "The Naughty List: Music by Braggarts, Hotheads, Curmudgeons and Snobs." Prepare to be regaled by music of the bad boys of the early Baroque: Matthew Locke, Tarquinio Merula, William Brade, Nicola Matteis and Dario Castello.
It's all part of MB 1800's 40th Anniversary season, under the direction of founder Louise Basbas. For a complete schedule of events, please visit mb1800.org.
Here are a few more highlights from this uncommonly rich and diverse concert series:
Quicksilver
October 5 at 4:00 p.m., Corpus Christi Church
Quicksilver will present music from the (very first) Viennese School on this season-opening concert at Corpus Christi Church. Music in Vienna actually had its first flourishing long before Mozart, in the cultivated court of the 17th century Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. This program explores the brilliant music created for Leopold's court festivities, by composers such as Bertali, Biber, Buonamente, Kerll, Fux and Schmelzer.
Paul O'Dette presents "Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Lutebook"
November 16 at 4:00 p.m., Corpus Christi Church
Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, James I's ambassador to France, was an avid amateur lutenist who compiled one of the most important collections of lute music to have survived the early 17th century. Lutenist Paul O'Dette will play selections from this anthology of the best French, Italian and English lute music of the period.
El Mundo
December 14 at 4:00 p.m., Corpus Christi Church
El Mundo will present "Buon Natale e Felices Fiestas: A Celebration of Christmas Music from Italy, Spain and Latin America," exploring the music of three cultures that were intertwined in the 17th and 18th centuries. Their program includes works by Antonio de Salazar, Rafael Castellanos, Roque Ceruti, Domenico Zipoli, and a short mass titled Missa de Los Angeles, (1796) by Juan Bautista Sancho that was discovered in the archives of the Los Angeles archdiocese.
Wayward Sisters
"The Naughty List: Music by Braggarts, Hotheads, Curmudgeons and Snobs"
March 19 at 7:30 p.m., Kosciuszko Foundation
The Wayward Sisters will perform music by the gifted and difficult Baroque composers Matthew Locke, Tarquinio Merula, William Brade, Nicola Matteis and Dario Castello, who left evidence behind of their disagreeable temperaments as well as their prodigious musicianship.
Anonymous 4 presents "1865"
April 23 at 7:30 p.m., Cooper Union Great Hall
Fiddler and banjo player Bruce Molsky will join Anonymous 4 to perform songs of the period, from the North and South, that illuminated the personal experiences of the men, women and children affected by the Civil War and its aftermath. This performance, which will be among Anonymous 4's last appearances, will celebrate the record release of 1865 on harmonia mundi. The album and concert coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War's conclusion, and Cooper Union makes a poetic setting, as Abraham Lincoln made his landmark anti-slavery speech there during the presidential campaign of 1860.
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