World Premieres inspired by The Met's exhibition "Visitors to Versailles"
April 21, 2018 — 7pm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art — 1000 Fifth Avenue NYC
Grace Rainey Rogers AuditoriumMetLiveArts and Metropolis Ensemble collaborated to present world premiere Metropolis commissions by composers Caroline Shaw and Timo Andres, featuring cellist Inbal Segev, early-music ensemble TENET (led by artistic director Jolle Greenleaf), and Metropolis Ensemble (led by artistic director Andrew Cyr). This concert at The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a playful musical response to The Met’s exhibition, "Visitors to Versailles (1682–1789),” and highlighting the hold that Louis XIV’s famous Palace of Versailles has on the global creative imagination, described by Pierre Goubert as “a mixture of work and play, splendor and filth, piety and license.”
A MetLiveArts and Metropolis Ensemble Co-Production
On the Program
Timo Andres: Upstate ObscuraWorld Premiere. Commissioned by Inbal Segev for Metropolis Ensemble and MetLiveArts. Timo Andres’ new work for cello solo (Inbal Segev) and chamber orchestra explores vignettes, mirrors, and representations of Europe from the American point of view. The work is inspired by a giant 360-degree panoramic scene by artist John Vanderlyn, depicting the palace and gardens of Versailles, on permanent display in The Met’s American Wing.
—Caroline Shaw: ClockworkWorld Premiere. Commissioned by Metropolis Ensemble with generous funding provided by Paul and Elizabeth DeRosa. In a colorful twist, Pulitzer-Prize winning composer Caroline Shaw’s new work combines voices with both period and modern instruments. The work uses texts from 17th-century travel diaries of visitors to France, exploring the world of Versailles, with its constant flow of people, legendary opulence, and rigorous clockwork scheduling of daily life for the king.
—Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Les Plaisirs de VersaillesThe 17th-century French composer’s delightful comedy divertissement (short opera) was presented in 1682 in the apartments of King Louis XIV and commissioned by the king’s son, Louis le Grand Dauphin.
Meet the Composers
Timo Andres
Timo Andres (b. 1985, Palo Alto, CA) is a composer and pianist who grew up in rural Connecticut and lives in Brooklyn, NY. A Nonesuch Records artist, his album of orchestral works, Home Stretch, has been hailed for its “playful intelligence and individuality,” (The Guardian) and of his 2010 debut album for two pianos Shy and Mighty (performed by himself and duo partner David Kaplan), Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker that “it achieves an unhurried grandeur that has rarely been felt in American music since John Adams came on the scene… more mighty than shy, [Andres] sounds like himself.” More »
Caroline Shaw
Caroline Shaw is a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed. She is the recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, several Grammy awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. She has worked with a range of artists including Rosalía, Renée Fleming, and Yo Yo Ma, and she has contributed music to films and tv series including Fleishman is in Trouble, Bombshell, Yellowjackets, Maid, Dark, and Beyonce’s Homecoming. Her favorite color is yellow, and her favorite smell is rosemary. More »
Featured Artists
About the Exhibition
On view at The Met, April 16-July 29, 2018“Visitors to Versailles (1682–1789)” brings together works from The Met, the Château de Versailles, and over fifty lenders, this exhibition highlights the experiences of travelers from 1682, when Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles, to 1789, when the royal family was forced to leave the palace and return to Paris.
Through paintings, portraits, furniture, tapestries, carpets, costumes, porcelain, sculpture, arms and armor, and guidebooks, the exhibition illustrates what visitors encountered at court, what kind of welcome and access to the palace they received, and, most importantly, what impressions, gifts, and souvenirs they took home with them.
Meet the Artists
Metropolis Ensemble
TENET Early Music EnsembleJolle Greenleaf, soprano
Virginia Warnken Kelsey, mezzo-soprano
Marc Molomot, tenor
Jesse Blumberg, baritone
Abigail Lennox-Hanyes, chorus soprano
Elisa Sutherland, chorus mezzo-soprano
Beth Wenstrom, violin
Johanna Novom, violin
Ezra Seltzer, cello
Wen Yang, violone
Hank Heijink, theorbo
Jeff Grossman, harpsichord