ENSEMBLE LEONARDA

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Susan Graham, flute; Claire Smith, violin; David Himmelheber, cello; Elizabeth Weinfield, gamba; Nancy Kito, harpsichord.  With soprano Lauren Alfano.

WHERE:  French Church du St. Esprit, 109 E. 60th Street (between Park and Lexington Avenues),  New York City

WHAT:  Ensemble Leonarda explores the French Baroque Cantata.  Music of Dornel, Boismortier, and Monteclair's "Pan et Syrinx".

ADMISSION:  $20 ($15 seniors & students).  This is a 1-hour concert, no intermission.

INFO:  917-214-8714

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Boy (the Greek god, Pan) sees girl (the nymph Syrinx).  Boy falls in love with girl.  Girl wants nothing to do with him.  Girl runs away.  Boy chases girl.  Boy almost catches up with girl.  Girl calls to the river nymphs for help and is changed into a cluster of reeds.  

“And Pan, who thought that he had caught the nymph,
did not clutch her fair body but marsh reeds;
and he began to sigh; and then the air,
vibrating in the reeds, produced a sound
most delicate, like a lament. And Pan,
enchanted by the sweetness of a sound
that none had ever heard before, cried out:
‘And this is how I shall converse with you!’
He took unequal lengths of reeds, and these
Pan joined with wax: this instrument still keeps
the name Pan gave it then, the nymph’s name – Syrinx.”

(Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book One)