Many composers have used the influences of nature to shape their music, and on this week's CD of the Week, local ensemble Musicians of the Old Post Road presents some of their favorite nature-inspired selections.
As a fixture in the Boston area music scene for almost thirty years, the ensemble Musicians of the Old Post Road presents concerts with the goal of unearthing little-known or forgotten gems from hundreds of years ago. These musicians are an all-star cast of the Boston music scene - they have played with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, A Far Cry, and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, to name a few. They have a rich recording discography, and in their latest release, they playfully blur the line between nature and art.
Musicians of the Old Post Road, named after the concert series "Old Post Road Historic Concerts," is led by Artistic Directors Suzanne Stumpf and Daniel Ryan. In the program notes for this album, the pair explains: “All of the works heard on this CD contain depictions of natural and other 'non-musical' sounds intended to enchant the listener not so much by their resemblance to the originals, but by the composer's incorporation of the 'natural' with the 'artful.'”
In a program including such sprightly titles as William Williams’s “Sonata in Imitation of Birds” and John Frederick Lampe’s “Cu’ckoo Concerto,” the group brings their celebrated virtuosity to these evocations of nature.
Listen to a track from the album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV_UaWHsNlE
For more information, a track listing, and to purchase this recording, visit ArkivMusic.