Music of the Baroque looks towards the future in 2019-20 season
Music of the Baroque will serve up a familiar mix in its 49th season, with a big Bach work, some starry guest soloists and plenty of Mozart, Handel, and Vivaldi, alongside some less-often-explored Italian and French repertoire.
The most striking element of MOB’s 2019-20 season is not so much the programming as the fact that—under executive director Declan McGovern—the podium guest list is finally being expanded (as this coming week’s concerts with Harry Bicket also demonstrate). The organization seems to be belatedly looking toward its future after the Jane Glover era.
Patrick Dupré Quigley, founder and artistic director of the acclaimed, Grammy-nominated Miami choir Seraphic Fire, will make his MOB debut next season leading two programs. The American conductor will direct the annual Holiday Brass and Choral concerts December 19-22. Quigley will return April 5-6 to lead a mixed program of Bach (Orchestral Suite No. 3), Purcell (Suite from King Arthur), Rebel (Les Characteres de la Danse), and Rameau (Ballet Suite from Castor et Pollux).
Jane Glover conducts four programs in 2019-20, opening the season September 14-15 with Bach’s mighty Mass in B minor. MOB’s music director will lead a Mozart-Haydn program January 25-26 with two Mozart symphonies (Nos. 36 “Linz” and 38 “Prague”), along with Haydn’s Symphony No. 30 (“Alleluia”) and Trumpet Concerto with Alison Balsom as guest soloist.
Sopranos Susanna Phillips and Jane Archibald will join Glover February 23 and 24 for an evening of arias and duets by Handel (Alessandro, Admeto, and Tolomeo) and Mozart (The Abduction from the Seraglio and The Impresario). MOB will return to its church roots in the season finale with a program of sacred choral music (Purcell, Byrd, Allegri, and Vivaldi), which Glover will lead May 17-18 at Divine Word Chapel in Northbrook and Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago.
Nicholas Kraemer will be on tap for a pair of programs as is custom, both in the fall. First up October 20-21 is a typically quirky “Hunting” program with Haydn’s Symphony No. 73 (“La Chasse”) and Bach’s “Hunt Cantata” (No. 208), along with music of Telemann, Handel and Rameau.
MOB’s principal guest conductor also leads a mostly Italian, mega-concerto program November 24-25 with seven MOB members featured as soloists in works by Bach (Concertos for Two and Three Violins), Vivaldi (Concerto for Two Trumpets), Scarlatti, Marcello and Geminiani.
Subscriptions are now on scale. Go to baroque.org or call 312-551-1414.
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