REBEL and Paul Hecht, Narrator
Sunday, October 4, 2015, 4 p.m.
Corpus Christi Church
Jörg-Michael Schwarz and Karen Marie Marmer, violins, directors
Paul Hecht, narrator
Ben Harms, baroque timpani, field drum
Matthias Maute, traverso
Risa Browder, viola
John Moran, cello
Dongsok Shin, harpsichord, fortepiano
A Path to Enlightenment
During the turbulent years surrounding the French Revolution, the great thinkers of the day—Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, Herder, and Burke—were fascinated by a certain question: “What is Enlightenment?” In this concert of 18th-century instrumental music, readings are interspersed with REBEL’s varied choices by J.S., J.C., and C.P.E. Bach, Buffardin, Leclair, and Edelmann.
Artist website: www.rebelbaroque.com
Soundcloud tracks: Concerto in G Major, 1. Allegro
Artist Bios
Hailed by the New York Times as “Sophisticated and Beguiling” and praised by the Los Angeles Times for their “astonishingly vital music-making”, the New York-based Baroque ensemble REBEL (pronounced “Re-BEL”) has earned an impressive international reputation, enchanting diverse audiences by their unique style and their virtuosic, highly expressive and provocative approach to the Baroque and Classical repertoire.
The core formation of two violins, recorder/traverso, cello/viola da gamba and harpsichord/organ expands with additional strings, winds, theorbo and vocalists, performing on period instruments. REBEL, through its longterm residency from 1997-2009 at historic Trinity Church, Wall Street in New York City, has achieved high acclaim for its collaborations with Trinity Choir in performance, radio broadcasts, webcasts and recordings with works ranging from the cantatas of Bach to large scale works by Monteverdi, Handel, Bach, Purcell, Mozart and Haydn.
Named after the innovative French Baroque composer Jean-Féry Rebel (1666-1747), REBELwas originally formed in The Netherlands in l99l. In the Fifth International Competition for Ensembles in Early Music, Utrecht 1991 (now the Van Wassenaer Competition) REBEL was awarded first prize. Since then the ensemble has performed at European venues such as the Holland Festival Oude Muziek, Tage Alter Musik Berlin, the Konzerthaus (Vienna), La Chapelle Royale (Versailles), Internationale Festtage für Alte Musik Stuttgart, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg and the Händel Festspiele (Halle an der Saale, Germany), amongst others.
REBEL has appeared to critical acclaim at distinguished American venues such as the Da Camera Society, the Schubert Club , Friends of Music Kansas City, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Library of Congress, Caramoor, Chautauqua Institution,Stanford Lively Arts, University of Chicago Presents, University of Arizona (Tucson) Presents, the Shrine to Music Museum, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, theCleveland Museum of Art, the Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals and Music Before l800 in New York City.
REBEL has collaborated with renowned vocalists Max von Egmond, Derek Lee Ragin, Suzie Le Blanc, Daniel Taylor, Marta Almajano, Peter Kooy and Barbara Schlick; in 2005 REBELappeared in collaboration with Renée Fleming at Carnegie Hall to
critical acclaim. The ensemble has recorded for all the major European national radio networks and has been showcased in performance and interview on BBC’s Radio 3. Arguably the most aired American Baroque ensemble in the U.S. today, REBEL has been regularly featured on NPR’s Performance Today and MPR’s St. Paul Sunday. In 1999 REBEL became the first and only period instrument ensemble to be awarded an artists’ residency at National Public Radio.
REBEL has recorded for Deutsche Harmonia; Dorian; ATMA Classique; Hänssler Classic; Bridge Records; Naxos and Sono Luminus/Dorian. REBEL’s highly-praised CD on Sono Luminus , Corellisante: Trio Sonatas by A.Corelli & G.Ph.Telemann was the subject of a feature article in Chamber Music America Magazine.
