Celebration of the Dance

What’s Interesting About This Program

• Jean-Baptiste Lully was a French composer, conductor, and dancer who worked in the court of Louis the XIV. Despite his venerable status as an artist, Lully is perhaps best known for his death: He struck himself in the foot with a long conducting staff (this was before conductors waived batons, and instead would keep the orchestra in time by banging a large staff on the floor) and subsequently died of the infected wound. 
• This program features Craig Tompeter playing Viola da Gamba, a string instrument which came on the musical scene in Spain in the 1500s. A distant relative to both the modern guitar and orchestral string instruments, the Viola da Gamba most closely resembles a modern cello but usually sounds a bit softer and brighter than its orchestral cousin.
• Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 includes not one, not two, but three(!) different dance sections — Gavotte, Bourrée, and Gigue (French derived from the English “jig”). Like the other works highlighted by this concert, Bach’s Orchestral Suite reminds us that good music moves us, both figuratively and literally.

What’s Playing

Jean-Baptiste Lully: Selections from Roland
Georg Philipp Telemann: Concert for Flute, Viola da Gamba, Strings and Continuo
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Pièces de Clavecin en concert
Michael Praetorius: Dances from Terpsichore
Johann Sebastian Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 3

Who’s Performing

Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra
Stephen Alltop Music Director and Conductor
Craig Trompeter Viola da Gamba
Mary Stolper Flute