Scholar&Lunatic

Scholar and Lunatic or the Roots of Romanticism

The Four Nations Ensemble marks the 300th Birthday of CPE Bach with a panel discussion and performance of masterpieces by one of the 18th century's most adventuresome, demanding, respected yet presently under appreciated composers.

If Dennis Diderot felt compelled to stop in Hamburg on his way back from St. Petersburg to visit the composer, how did we, in the 20th century, lose CPE Bach as the link between the Baroque and the Romantic musical mind? In this event, we will trace Carl Philippe's style from the careful study he gave to his father's work, to the role he played satisfying the stultifying old fashioned Rococo tastes of Frederick the Great, to his final period of composition in Hamburg that defines the fluidity and unpredictability of a romantic approach to music.

Join Andrew Appel (harpsichord and clavichord), Tatiana Chulochnikova (violin), Antonio Campillo (traverso), Loretta O'Sullivan (cello), Josh Lee (viola da gamba), and James H. Johnson (musicologist and author of Listening in Paris) for a celebration of the genius without whom, as Mozart tells us in his letters, we could not have the music we so love today.

A wine and cheese reception will follow the performance.