Silentwoods offers a new program showcasing the innovation and virtuosity that flourished in the middle years of France’s ancien régime. French composers of the late 17th and early 18th centuries—and their English counterparts across the Channel—addressed the crushing authority and repression of their time through music. These humble and most obedient musical servants (as they were obliged to designate themselves on their publications’ title pages) wove cautionary tales and reflection into their work, implicitly reminding rulers of their own fragility, moral responsibility, and temporal existence. The works of Clérambault, Rameau, Rebel, Barriere, Purcell, and Locke draw on mythology and rhetoric to navigate an environment of social hegemony. Hidden within these gorgeous pieces, we find cryptic warnings to rulers on the dangers of hubris and greed, as well as messages of hope that humanity will triumph over cruelty.
Silentwoods Collective
Howell Petty, soprano
Danilo Bonina & Nelli Herskovitz-Jabotinsky, violins
Andrew Koutroubas, cello
John McKean, harpsichord
Luce Burrell, theorbo
