Guest conductor Bernard Labadie will lead Seattle Symphony on Friday, January 11, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, January 12, at 8 p.m. in a Basically Baroque program, including works by Handel, Marcello, J.C. Bach and Rameau.
Seattle Symphony Acting Principal Oboe Ben Hausmann will be featured on Marcello's Oboe Concerto.
Hailed for his "full-bodied" and "strongly dramatic" interpretations that manage "to preserve a sense of transparency" (Toronto Star), Bernard Labadie has established himself as one of the leading conductors of the Baroque and Classical repertoire. Much of his unique reputation is the result of his work with Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Quebec, which he founded in 1984 and 1985 respectively, and continues to lead as Music Director. He has appeared with the Los Angeles Chamber, Minnesota, Philadelphia and St. Paul Chamber orchestras; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the symphonies of Atlanta, Detroit, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Toronto and Vancouver; the New World Symphony in Miami; and the Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco, among others.
Labadie recorded two Juno Award–winning discs on the Dorian label: Handel's Apollo e Dafne and Mozart's Requiem (with Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Quebec) and his own arrangements of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations and The Art of Fugue, Vivaldi's Concerti for Strings and two discs of Bach's Secular Cantatas. The Canadian government honored Labadie with the Officer of the Order of Canada (2005); Quebec made him a Chevalier de l'ordre national du Quebec (2006); and he received the Opus Award from listeners of Radio-Canada's Chaine culturelle.
Ben Hausmann currently serves as Principal Oboist for Seattle Symphony and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, as well as Co-Principal Oboist and IRIS Chamber Orchestra. Prior to joining Seattle Symphony, Hausmann was Principal Oboist of L'Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, the Florida Philharmonic and the Savannah Symphony; he also served as Principal Keyboardist for the Hilton Head Orchestra (1999–2001).
He has made guest appearances with the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony and Aspen Music Festival. Hausmann was awarded the Aspen Music Festival Oboe Fellowship (1999–2002) and the Aspen Music Festival Wind Concerto Competition (2002), which resulted in his performance of Richard Strauss' Oboe Concerto, later broadcast on NPR. In addition to music composition, Hausmann enjoys writing sonnets and studying history.
George Frideric Handel assembled his Concerti Grossi, Op. 6, in 1739. Many individual movements in the 12-concerto set derive from earlier works he had written.
Handel possessed a gift for wedding the so-called "common touch" with the full mastery of a learned composer—his No. 9 in F major shows a broad range of expression, conveyed by his alternation of vibrant counterpoint and rich chordal progressions.
A contemporary of Vivaldi, Alessandro Marcello composed a number of works for solo wind instruments, including his Oboe Concerto in C minor, a three-movement work with invigorating outer movements and a touching central Adagio.
Johann Christian Bach was the youngest child of J.S. Bach.
Having set up shop in London, he became known as the "London Bach" and was an important figure in the emerging classical style. His Sinfonia in G minor is an example of the "Storm and Stress" style that coursed through European instrumental music in the 1770s. The Sinfonia's agitated and energetic outer movements flank a highly expressive Andante piu tosto Adagio.
Jean-Philippe Rameau composed Dardanus to a libretto whose story concerns the presumed founder of the royal house of Troy. It is richly filled with enchanting dance-based interludes, collected as a delectable suite that stands on its own merits outside of its original home in the complete opera. -- www.seattlesymphony.org
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