[BROADCAST] Whidbey Island Music Festival: The Mysterious Zoë de la Rue (through 9/30/2020)
$10 / $20
Tess Altiveros, soprano
Tekla Cunningham, violin
Maxine Eilander, harp
In the second half of the 18th century, beginning with Marie Antoinette, Europe experienced a strong fashion for women playing the harp. The composer most closely associated with Marie in her native Vienna, was Christoph Willibald Glück whose Orfeo of 1762, also placed the harp in the mythological context of Orfeo’s lyre. Later, as the Queen of France, she opened the door for Glück’s later triumphs on the operatic stage in Paris, while at the same time creating the iconic image of the female harpist. The imposing figure of Zoë de la Rue has remained shrouded in mystery, and is virtually unknown today, even amongst harpists and scholars of the historical harp. She was a celebrated harpist during her lifetime, and wrote many sonatas for solo harp and harp & violin, as well as a set of three French songs. In an era when much fashionable music was light and ephemeral, her music aims at deeper human emotions – closer to Ludwig van Beethoven than to Jacques Offenbach. Louis Spohr’s glorious arrangement of “Ach, ich fühls” from W.A. Mozart’s The Magic Flute introduces a program of Zoë de la Rue’s sonatas for violin & harp, as well as a selection of her songs.
This program is a co-production with Pacific MusicWorks.
Opening Night for this broadcast is Friday, August 22 at 7:30pm Pacific. Pre-concert ZOOM chat with festival artists at 7pm Pacific. This broadcast will be available online until September 30.
This online concert will be presented on Vimeo.com – purchase ticket to view link.
Link to donate: http://whidbeyislandmusicfestival.org/donate-online
Tickets: $20 (reduced price admission $10)