It is quite the day for birthdays! Jean-Philippe Rameau. Dmitri Shostakovich. Glenn Gould. Sir Colin Davis. And those are just the top of the pile. I’ve been wrapping gifts all day. Drop by for some ice cream and cake, metaphorically speaking, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
PHOTO: Shostakovich pigs out on his birthday
This is the second time I’m posting today. I wish I had better news. The conductor Frans Brüggen has died at the age of 79. Brüggen, who began his career as a recorder virtuoso, went on to become one of the leading lights of the period instrument movement. He cofounded the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century in 1981.
You have to love a man who named his daughters Zephyr and Eos. Thank you, Maestro, especially for your illuminating Rameau performances.
Here’s Brüggen playing a sonata by Willem de Fesch, with Gustav Leonhardt on the harpsichord:
And conducting a selection from Rameau’s “Les Boréades”:
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