La Rhétorique des Dieux

La Rhetorique des Dieux: Echoes of Antiquity in 17^th Century French Lute Music

Catherine Liddell, Baroque Lute

Born out of the salons of the Grand Siècle, the manuscript called La Rhetorique des Dieux offers an impressive synthesis of music, mythology, engraving, gold work, prose, and poetry. Weaving ravishing music with the spoken word, this concert mines the mythological roots of lute repertoire of Versailles, one golden age mirrored in another.

This concert is made possible by the generous co-sponsorship of NYU Maison Française and generous support of the Florence Gould Foundation.

Catherine Liddell is known primarily for her skill, sensitivity and experience accompanying 16^th and 17^th century music on lute and theorbo. In that capacity, she has performed with many of America's leading period instrument ensembles, including the Boston Early Music Festival, the Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, and the New York Collegium. As a soloist, she has long nursed a deep passion for 17^th century French music, giving recitals of this rarely-heard repertoire at the Lute Society of America Summer Seminars and in fringe events at the Boston Early Music Festival. Her solo recording, La Belle Voilée, 17^th Century French Music by Jacques Gallot and Others is available on the Centaur label and on iTunes. She has also recorded for the Dorian, Titanic, and Musical Heritage Society labels.

Among her publications is Sacred Music for Lute, available through Lyre Editions, Fort Worth, Texas. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Ms. Liddell earned the Soloist Diploma from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. She is Lecturer in Lute in the Historical Performance Program at Boston University and coaches Baroque ensembles there. She recently was appointed Chairman of the Board of the Aston Magna Foundation, which sponsors the longest running annual summer festival in America devoted to historical performance. For this program she explores the lute's association with ancient Greek mythology which began in the 15^th century and continued into the 17^th century.