WILLIAM CHRISTIE AND LES ARTS FLORISSANTS MAKE THEIR
CARNEGIE HALL DEBUTS ON THURSDAY, APRIL 3 AT 7:30 P.M. IN ZANKEL HALL
Carnegie Hall today announced that it will present acclaimed conductor William Christie and the early-music ensemble Les Arts Florissants on Thursday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall. This concert is presented in partnership with The Juilliard School, as one component of a weeklong residency at Juilliard that will focus on the works of Charpentier and Lully. The April 3 performance in Zankel Hall features Charpentier’s Te Deum à 4 voix; Le reniement de St. Pierre; Magnificat, H. 73; Litanies de la vierge à 6 voix et 2 dessus de violes; and Lully’s Salve regina and Regina coeli. Singers and instrumentalists include sopranos Claire Debono and Ana Quintans, mezzo-soprano Isabelle Druet, haute-contre Paul Agnew, bass Jonathan Sells, violinists Ada Pesch and Florence Malgoire, and cellist David Simpson. This performance marks the Carnegie Hall debut of both William Christie and Les Arts Florissants.
Tickets, priced at $56 and $62, will be available to Carnegie Hall subscribers on October 29 and to the public on October 30. Tickets are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212- 247-7800 or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website,
www.carnegiehall.org
.
William Christie is a harpsichordist, conductor, musicologist, and teacher. His pioneering work has led to a renewed appreciation of Baroque music in France, most notably of 17th and 18th-century French repertoire, which he has introduced to a very wide audience. Born in Buffalo, NY, Mr. Christie studied at Harvard and Yale Universities, and has lived in France since 1971. A major turning point in his career came in 1979 when he founded Les Arts Florissants. As Director of this vocal and instrumental ensemble, Mr. Christie soon made his mark as a musician and man of the theatre, in both the concert hall and the opera house, with new interpretations of largely neglected or forgotten early music repertoire. In 1987, major public recognition came with the production of Atys by Lully at the Opéra Comique in Paris, which then went on a successful international tour.
Mr. Christie has an extensive discography of over 70 recordings with the Harmonia Mundi and Warner Classics/Erato labels. Since November 2002, Mr. Christie and Les Arts Florissants have recorded for Virgin Classics, for whom the first release was a CD of Handel sonatas with Hiro Kurosaki, leader of Les Arts Florissants. Mr. Christie is in demand as a guest conductor and receives regular invitations from opera festivals such as Glyndebourne, where he has conducted the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in productions of Theodora and Rodelinda by Handel. Other guest appearances include Zurich Opera and the Opéra National de Lyon and since 2002, he has appeared regularly as a guest conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Mr. Christie created an academy for young singers in Caen called Le Jardin des Voix, whose first sessions in 2002 and 2005 generated a huge amount of interest in France, Europe, as well as the United States. William Christie acquired French nationality in 1995 and is an Officier dans l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur as well as Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
The vocal and instrumental ensemble Les Arts Florissants is a renowned and respected early music group in Europe and around the world. Dedicated to the performance of Baroque music on original instruments, the ensemble was founded in 1979 by the Franco-American harpsichordist and conductor William Christie, and takes its name from a short opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Les Arts Florissants has been largely responsible for the resurgence of interest in France in 17th-century French repertoire as well as in European music of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Since the acclaimed production of Atys by Lully at the Opéra Comique in Paris in 1987, Les Arts Florissants has found great success in the opera field. Notable productions to date include works by Rameau, Charpentier, Handel, Purcell, Mozart, and Monteverdi. Les Arts Florissants has an equally high profile in the concert hall, and it has many acclaimed concert performances of opera (Zoroastre and Les Fêtes d’Hébé by Rameau, Idomenée by Campra, Jephté by Montéclair, Il Sant’Alessio by Landi, L'Orfeo by Rossi), as well as secular chamber works (Actéon, Les Plaisirs de Versailles and Orphée aux Enfers by Charpentier and Dido and Aeneas by Purcell), sacred music (the Grands Motets by Rameau, Mondonville, and Desmarest; Handel oratorios such as Messiah, Israel in Egypt, and Theodora), as well as a large number of choral works.
The ensemble has an impressive discography with more than forty recordings for Harmonia Mundi, and some thirty on the Warner Classics/Erato label, the most recent of which being Theodora by Handel. As part of its collaboration with EMI/Virgin Classics (since 2003), Les Arts Florissants recently issued a live CD of the concert of the second session of Le Jardin des Voix, its academy for young singers.
For fifteen years, Les Arts Florissants has been ensemble in residence at the Théâtre de Caen, and each year they present a concert season in the Basse-Normandie region. The ensemble also tours widely within France, and is a frequent ambassador for French culture abroad and is regularly invited to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, the Barbican Centre, and the Vienna Festival.
Program Information
Thursday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m. Zankel Hall
LES ARTS FLORISSANTS
WILLIAM CHRISTIE, Director, Organist and Harpsichordist
Claire Debono, Soprano
Ana Quintans, Soprano
Isabelle Druet, Mezzo-Soprano
Paul Agnew, Haute-Contre
Baritone to be announced
Jonathan Sells, Bass
Ada Pesch, Violin
Florence Malgoire, Violin
David Simpson, Cello
Program to include:
MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER Te Deum à 4 voix
JEAN-BAPTISTE LULLY Salve regina
JEAN-BAPTISTE LULLY Regina coeli
MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER Le reniement de St. Pierre
MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER Magnificat, H. 73
MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER Litanies de la vierge à 6 voix et 2 dessus de violes
Pre-concert talk starts at 6:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall with William Christie.
Presented by Carnegie Hall in partnership with The Juilliard School.
Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.
Ticket Information
Tickets, priced at $56 and $62, are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street. Tickets may also be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or online by visiting
www.carnegiehall.org
.