Baroque ensemble Les Boréades de Montreal will perform at the fourth annual Vernon Proms Classical Music Festival on the first weekend of August.
Making their way back east from Vancouver, Les Boréades are stopping in the Okanagan to perform the complete Brandenburg concertos by J.S. Bach. The six concertos are split between Vernon and Kelowna. Concertos No. 2, 4 and 6 take place Saturday, Aug.3 at 7 p.m. at Vernon’s Trinity United Church. Concertos No. 1, 3 and 5 are on the following night at 7 p.m. at the Mary Irwin Theatre in Kelowna.
Les Boréades was founded by Francis Colpron in 1991, who is still the ensemble’s musical director. Since then the group performed with world-renowned artists and amassed a discography of 24 titles, which are distributed around the world.
“This is a rare opportunity for Okanagan concertgoers to hear the one of the monuments of Baroque instrumental music performed in its entirety by a world-class ensemble on the instruments for which it was written,” a Vernon Proms press release stated.
The Concertos – which date back to at least 1719 – were written for a number of different instruments and styles. Les Boréades de Montreal takes an approach that keeps with the spirit of the original composition by playing on period instruments and sticking to performance practices of the Baroque era.
The concert will feature solos by Les Boréades trumpeter Alexis Basque and violinist Olivier Brault.
The concert is a co-presented by Early Music Vancouver, an organization that promotes historically informed performances like those of Les Boréades.
Concertgoers can arrive 45 minutes early for a pre-concert talk. Ticket prices range from $35-$40 and are available at www.ticketseller.ca, or by calling 250-549-7469 (Vernon concert) and 250-717-5304 (Kelowna concert).
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