Oboist Debra Nagy, founder and artistic director of the Cleveland-based period instrument ensemble Les Délices, presents an album on the eponymous label with her longtime collaborator, harpsichordist Mark Edwards. The program features François Couperin’s 1er Concert in G major from Concert Royaux and J.S. Bach’s Oboe Sonata in G minor, BWV1030b (better known as Flute Sonata in B minor, BWV 1030) as well as ingenious new arrangements for oboe and harpsichord of Couperin’s 6eme ordre for solo harpsichord and Bach’s Violin and Oboe Concerto in C minor. The composers were both revered organists, neither having written or experimented with opera, who nevertheless studied and incorporated Italian style into their works.
The Poet and the Prodigy
The featured composers’ works are both characterized by intricate ornamentation and complex harmonies. Bach puts much more on the page, whereas Couperin’s manuscripts are riddled with markings that assume the players know the rules. American baroque oboist Debra Nagy—frequently heard in Chicago with Apollo’s Fire—and Canadian harpsichordist Mark Edwards demonstrate an elegant ease with the selections by Couperin and make a passionate case for their reduction of the well-known Bach concerto.
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