Guest conductor Ivars Taurins from the baroque ensemble Tafelmusik has selected an array of French and European music from the first half of the eighteenth century (Lully, Delalande, Rameau, Philador, Handel...). Then he has linked each piece to aspects of life and history in eighteenth century Louisbourg. The symphony will play and Taurins will both conduct and narrate.
Who knew Philador wrote a march to salute the Treaty of Utrecht, which led to Louisbourg's foundation in 1713? Who knew Handel's "Music for the Royal Fireworks" was composed to accompany a spectacle mostly intended to mute Londoners' discontent with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, by which France recovered Louisbourg in 1749? Who knew Rameau wrote an opera in 1752 to commemorate the birth of French royal heir the Duc de Bourgogne, an event marked at Louisbourg by, amongst other things, the firing off of four tons of black power in artillery salutes?
Ivan Taurins knew, and he was telling me about it this afternoon. It's intensely researched (by him, not me!) and it is going to sound terrific. Halifax -- be there.
