LET THEM HEAR MUSIC
There may not be cake, but there will be plenty of celebration as Ars Lyrica Houston transports its audience to a day in the life of Marie Antoinette, in a sense.
The Austrian-born royal of the late 18th century is part of the ensemble’s Saturday concert at the Hobby Center honoring the enduring impact of women like Antoinette as patrons of the arts, performers and philanthropists.
Despite her extravagant lifestyle, Antoinette had a reputation for being compassionate and charitable. In her public role, she amassed commissioned pieces of art, particularly by portrait painter Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun and composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, one of her former music teachers and the composer of “Orphée et Eurydice.”
A ballet suite from said opera, which is based on classical Greek mythology, will be performed in Saturday’s concert alongside a Mozart flute quartet. The program, which will feature leading baroque violinist Cynthia Roberts as guest concertmaster, will also include a violin concerto by Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges — who was another one of Antoinette’s former music teachers — and one of Joseph Haydn’s Paris symphonies, which was identified as her favorite and henceforth subtitled “La Reine de France.”
Although the Mozart piece is on a more intimate scale, showcasing only four instruments — flute, violin, viola and cello — the Haydn symphony presents a full complement of strings and winds by a large orchestra. Despite these differences, the majority of the concert is representative of the gallant, melodic style and the popular dance rhythms that typify the time period, said harpsichordist, conductor and artistic director Matthew Dirst, who founded the period instrument ensemble in 1998.
“Since the beginning, Ars Lyrica has specialized in what I would call offbeat Baroque music,” he said. “That is to say, stuff that you don’t necessarily hear in the dentist’s office or in an office hallway.”
Rather, the core group of nearly 30 musicians presents an array of innovative programming that is historically informed and unveils the rich history of early music as it pertains to a particular time, person or place.
This weekend, the organization also honors nine philanthropically inclined, successful mothers in Houston — Sonja Bruzauskas, Cecilia Duarte, Rachel Ellsworth, Connie Kwan-Wong, Sara Loperena, Dominique McCormick, Yvonnamor Palix, Ishwaria M. Subbiah and Stephanie von Stein.
The honorees, who largely support the arts as Marie Antoinette once did, also are dedicated to instilling passion into the next generation of artists. So, to these artful women, an expression that has long been attributed to Antoinette: Let them eat cake!