Event listing

The Parley of Instruments

​Lully’s La Boutade (caprice or mischief) begins this fascinating musical journey from the royal bedchamber at Versailles, where Louis XIV was entertained by chamber music played by court wind and string players, to the bustling streets and the popular theatres of eighteenth-century Paris, where Michel Corrette’s concertos comiques on popular tunes were played and Joseph Bodin de Boismortier wrote his remarkable balets de village evoking rustic music-making. Along the way we encounter music by Marin Marais, Anne-Danican Philidor, Antoine Dornel and Jacques-Christophe Naudot (who contributes another remarkable caprice) for varied combinations of recorders, oboe, violins, bass viol, violoncello and harpsichord.