Les Délices
Overview
Les Délices (pronounced Lay day-lease) explores the dramatic potential and emotional resonance of long-forgotten music. Founded by baroque oboist Debra Nagy in 2009, Les Délices has established a reputation for their unique programs that are “thematically concise, richly expressive, and featuring composers few people have heard of.” The New York Times added, “Concerts and recordings by Les Délices are journeys of discovery.” The group’s debut CD was named one of the “Top Ten Early Music Discoveries of 2009” (NPR’s Harmonia), and their performances have been called “a beguiling experience” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), “astonishing” (ClevelandClassical.com), and “first class” (Early Music America Magazine).
Les Délices made its New York debut before a sold-out audience at the Frick Collection in May 2010. Recent and upcoming performances for the ensemble include Music Before 1800 (New York City), Da Camera Society (Los Angeles), Houston Early Music Society, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, San Francisco Early Music Society, the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments, and Columbia University’s Miller Theatre. In addition to touring engagements, Les Délices presents its own annual four-concert series in Northeast Ohio. Les Délices has been featured on WCPN, WCLV and WKSU in Ohio, WQXR in New York, NPR’s syndicated Harmonia and Sunday Baroque, and had their debut CD featured as part of the Audio-guide for a special exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (Watteau, Music, and Theater). Les Délices’ fourth CD, Songs Without Words, was released on the Navona label in November 2018 to critical acclaim.
Program
- Sonade from La Françoise (1726), François Couperin (1668-1733)
- Medée (1710), Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749)
- Vertigo (1746), Pancrace Royer (1703-1755)
- Circé (1729), Colin de Blamont (1690-1760)
Les Délices
- Hannah De Priest, soprano
- Julie Andrijeski, violin
- Debra Nagy, oboe & recorder
- Rebecca Reed, viola da gamba
- Mark Edwards, harpsichord