COUNTDOWN to The NSO's FEBRUARY 17th CONCERT--- Post #1

Our next two concerts---Feb 17th and April 7th---are actually ONE
CONTINUOUS CONCERT, since they are in effect a chronological
journey  through the latter half of the 18th-century (the "Golden Age"
of the Classical era) into the 19th, the dawn of the grand, Romantic
era.

Our Feb 17th program, like every concert we perform, will delight
and inspire you, I promise.  We will perform FOUR works, and I
will "count-down" one work per day for the next four days.



Two Passepieds by Jean Phillipe Rameau

You may recall our opening work on September's French concert, the
grande, enchanting Suite from Rameau's opera Nais. After that experience,
I have decided that, whenever possible, the NSO must play something by
this fabulous French Baroque master, since his music is breathtakingly
beautiful.... I mean, really exquisite stuff!

Last fall, I discovered this delightful little dance from Rameau's tragic drama
Zoroaster ; it was one of those experiences where I had to hit the "re-play"
button on the cd player again and again; this miniature gem lasts less than
2 minutes, and I simply did not want it to end. (The passepied is like a
fast Minuet, and is usually associated with pastoral settings and characters;
this one is scored for 2 flutes and strings only...which is all it needs.)

Problem is, there's no available source for the actual music that I could find.
Luckily, though, we Internet users have a great new resource at our disposal--
an on-line music library which includes TONS of public domain (older) music
that you can view and download free of charge....and there's many of Rameau's
works available. I found Zoroastre in an old, 18th-century French edition, and
thus was able to locate the little Passepieds dance and transcribe it, using
the on-line music and a recording to fill in a few missing parts by ear.

Long story short:  we will open our concert with this delightful, breezy little
dance, sort of a belated Valentine gift to our audiences.

Yes, it seems that...among other things...the NSO is now becoming the Rameau
orchestra of the Chicago area; this is music that is simply too good not to
be heard.

MORE tomorrow.......

Thanks for reading,

Larry