Ensemble Voltaire
Allison Nyquist, violin
Barbara Kallaur, flute
Christine Kyprianides, viola da gamba
Thomas Gerber, harpsichord

It’s springtime in Indiana – and it’s springtime in Paris! Ensemble Voltaire pays a visit to the City of Light in the 1700s where, every spring during Lent, the Opera was closed and the programs of the series known as the Concert Spirituel filled the entertainment gap with French – and some Italian- chamber music. The series was wildly popular from its inception in 1725 by the composer Anne Danican Philidor to its closing in 1790 as the French Revolution went into full swing. Music from George Philipp Telemann’s ‘Paris’ quartets is featured. Telemann made more than one visit to Paris and composed two sets of quartets for the Parisian musicians he met and admired there. Ensemble Voltaire knows the old standard “April in Paris” but suggests that a stroll along the Seine might be even nicer in the month of May!