Details

A true musical dialogue between the flute and the harpsichord.

The Muses’ Delight are musical explorers who open a window to the past, illuminating historic works that still spark wonder today, centuries after they were first performed. Time travellers at heart, The Muses’ Delight believes that using period instruments and informed practices provides exciting new ways to discover fresh and interesting sonic possibilities. Their historical approach is coupled with intelligent programming and a warm and inviting performance manner.

About the concert

Their performance in Primrose Potter Salon presents a program of intimate and challenging works that showcase a true musical dialogue between the flute and harpsichord. Towards the end of the Baroque period, many composers started to write obbligato sonatas. Obbligato sonatas are an exploration of the various styles of Baroque music and the emotional resonances of genres from joyful to melancholic. Rather than accompanying the instrumentalist, the harpsichordist’s right hand plays a line on an equal footing with the soloist. The Baroque tradition of rhetoric resulted in music that expressed intense feelings and passions to move an audience. The composer would draw inspiration from speech-like patterns in an attempt to ‘make music talk’. This concept is perfectly encapsulated in these sonatas where the two voices are intertwined.

Join The Muses’ Delight as they present some of these fascinating works, with a focus on JS Bach, who wrote some of the best-known obbligato sonatas.

Praise for The Muses’ Delight

‘Straight from the hearts of the players to the hearts of the audience.’ Classic Melbourne

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ARTISTS

Meredith Beardmore flute
Peter Hagen harpsichord