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From our 2019-2020 season, this Pick of the Week brings you Scotland's Dunedin Consort led by director, harpsichordist and organist John Butt. We paired it with a pre-concert talk in which Butt discusses Bach's compositions, relationship with the clergy and the texts of his cantatas. We hope you enjoy! From our 2019-2020 season, our Pick of the Weekend brings you the young Paris-based Arod Quartet. We are pairing the performance with a conversation with members of the quartet in which they discuss their first tour in the United States and their experience with the Library's Stradivari instruments. If you were there, we hope this concert brings back lovely memories. If you were not, you are in for a special treat! Lastly, we are topping this curated selection with David Schoenbaum's fascinating talk on his book: "The Violin: A Social History of the World's Most Versatile Instrument." We hope you enjoy it.
John Butt, Director | Meg Bragle, Mezzo-soprano
Hear “Bach at his most ravishing” (The Independent) in what promises to be an extraordinary concert by Scotland’s Dunedin Consort. Led by harpsichordist and organist John Butt, a pre-eminent Bach scholar, the ensemble makes its first Washington appearance with an intimate, elegant band of eleven players, revealing the virtuosic instrumental writing of the composer’s cantatas and concerti, often heard in much larger configurations. This is an exceptional group, with performances marked by what The Times calls “the sheer sense of joy.” The program included the following works by J.S. Bach:
The young Paris-based Arod Quartet has taken the world by storm since winning the first prize in the 2016 ARD International Competition in Munich. The group has appeared already at prestigious venues such as the Auditorium of the Louvre, the Verbier Festival and Carnegie Hall. The Arod Quartet takes its name from Legolas’ horse in J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings trilogy; in Tolkien’s mythic Rohirric language, Arod means “swift.” Make sure you see them before they fly away!.
