Summer 2025, an overview
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David YangLike the big, messy, and complicated country it springs from, American music has a big, messy, and complicated history.
Last week I referred to a "novelty work" by Marin Marais for cello and harpsichord and narrator on the Winter Baroque concert (December 22nd at 3:00 at St. Paul's - tickets on sale here). It all starts with a kidney stone. If you have had one, I’m told the pain is akin to childbirth. While I’ve never birthed a baby, I have had a kidney stone. I thought I was dying.
French baroque composer Marin Marais had a similar experience. He even chronicled the operation he underwent in 1725 at 64 years old in a short work titled, imaginatively, Le Tableau de l'Opération de la Taille ("The Bladder-Stone Operation"). You know what they didn’t have in 1720? Anesthesia!
The libretto is not for the faint of heart.
The rest of the concert should be considerably more relaxing with some of the most beloved, comforting music ever written including Vivaldi’s triple concerto L’Estro Armonico, a life-affirming solo cello suite by Bach, a stormy concerto grosso by Handel, and Bach’s perfect double concerto for two violins. What better way to celebrate the holidays? The concert is a little over an hour with no intermission.
If you’ve been good this year, Santa might just have a very special encore for you.
David Yang, Artistic Director
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David YangLike the big, messy, and complicated country it springs from, American music has a big, messy, and complicated history.
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David YangA degree in music, even from a school like Juilliard, leaves the recent graduate staring into the abyss.
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David YangWhat a way to start the year: the largest audience we’ve ever had for a spring concert - not including the bat that strafed the audience.
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