Thu 3/18 @ 7:30PM-Mon 3/29 @ 7:30PM
One positive impact of the marking of the 100th anniversary last year of the 19th amendment which gave women in the U.S. the right to vote is the number of classical music presenters unearthing and performing music by overlooked women composers for their 2020-201 seasons.
One of the groups doing so is Cleveland’s chamber ensemble Les Delices, whose upcoming concert (available online online) is called “Women of Genius.” In it, they look at the musically talented women of 17th-18th century France — in so far as they are able, since in that era, women’s contributions to music weren’t considering worth documenting or preserving. So much of their output has been lost.
Because of that, composer/harpsichordist Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerra has been considered a rare woman “genius” of the time. “Women of Genius” reclaims the work of other women composers, poets and performers.
“While Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre’s wide-ranging publications constitute an amazing record of her work, one has to dig a little deeper, read between the lines and in the margins, and even review contemporary lists of who’s who to reconstruct the lives and careers of the other women featured on this program,” Les Delices says in the program notes for the concert. “The works of these women may lack attribution or wide distribution, but they were no less accomplished or influential. These were the daughters, the nieces, and the cousins of musical families like the Couperins. They were poets, translators, and librettists for airs, cantatas and operas. They were brilliant improvisers and arrangers whose celebrated performances were attested to but whose works were never published.”
Soprano Clara Rottsolk (pictured), oboist Debra Nagy, violinist Julie Andrijeski, viola da gamba player Rebecca Reed and harpsichordist Mark Edwards will perform music by Jacquet de la Guerre, along with that of composers Julie Pinel and Mademoiselle Duval (whose unknown first name is indicative of how women’s contributions were lost), a piece by Louis-Nicolas Clérambault with text by Marie de Louvencourt and pieces by the Couperins associated with women performers. Read the full program notes here.
The virtual concert debuts Thursday March 18 and can be accessed through Monday March 29. Tickets are $20. Go here to buy them.