David Bates

David Bates conducts "English Eccentrics," a program of English baroque music for Music of the Baroque, appearing in Skokie and Chicago, Illinois. The concert brings together theater music, an opera scene, and orchestral works by Purcell, Locke, Blow, Boyce, Avison, and Handel.

This program gathers English music from roughly 1670 to 1750, much of it written to accompany plays or dramatic scenes rather than stand alone in a concert hall. Purcell's suite from "Abdelazer" and Locke's music for "The Tempest" both began as incidental music, full of sharp contrasts and dance rhythms meant to underline stage action. Blow's "Venus and Adonis" is a short, early example of English opera, alternating song and instrumental interludes. Boyce's symphony and Avison's concerto grosso (a piece built around a small group of soloists trading material with the full string ensemble) represent the more abstract, purely orchestral side of the era, while Handel's "Il pastor fido" excerpt returns to vocal drama. Listeners can expect crisp string textures, dance-inflected rhythms, and the alternation of stage-derived drama with formal orchestral writing typical of this repertoire.