Guest post by Benjamin Tassie
On June 3rd IKLECTIK’s performance space, bar and garden will exist between two worlds: that of the baroque dance parties of the 17th and 18th centuries, and the musical world of 21st-century London. The sound of the baroque flute and bass viol, the music of Byrd or Bach, will mix with music from across the centuries for Baroque Remix, the first full-scale incarnation of this new classical club night. Baroque DJs will ‘live remix’ baroque music, sampling Lauryn Hill or 2Pac alongside Pergolesi or Purcell. Combining the best of baroque, hip hop, R&B, and contemporary classical music, Baroque remix will reimagine baroque music with drum loops or through the synth-bach arrangements of Wendy Carlos (‘A Clockwork Orange’ soundtrack).
The evening will feature live sets from period instrumentalists Carla Rees (baroque flute) and Liam Byrne (viola da gamba) playing a mixture of old music and new, showcasing the diversity of these historic instruments. World class performances will present baroque music alongside pop arrangements and works by contemporary classical composers, in a series of small sets throughout the night that reframe these instruments for today’s new-music scene.
Previously performed at nights for the V&A (part of a museum late, opening the new Europe 1600-1815 galleries) and Royal Palaces (for ‘Queen James’, part of #PalacePride at Banqueting House), Baroque Remix on June 3rd will be the first full-scale club night, with IKLECTIK’s bar and garden the perfect informal setting for a night of unique and innovative music making.
Venue Details
IKLECTIK
Old Paradise Yard, SE1 7LG
Nearest Tube: Lambeth North / Westminster
Date and Time
03.06.2017 – 8-11pm
Tickets £10
Book tickets
New Orleans born Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) was one of the most astonishing keyboard virtuosos in 19th-century America. But he was much more than that. He was America’s first important pianist-composer. He was an extraordinary traveler, bringing his virtuosity to Europe, to Central and South America and to the Caribbean, where he lived in Cuba for extended periods. As a composer, his unique style combined his Creole musical heritage with the American, Latin American and Afro-Caribbean influences he absorbed during his travels – all expressed within the boundaries of classical piano writing prevalent in the 19th century. Gottschalk made friends wherever he traveled and these far-reaching connections are the subject of Cuban pianist Antonio Itturioz‘s new project Gottschalk and Cuba, a CD containing a
world premiere recording of the entire Nuit des Tropiques, Symphony Romantique, both movements, on one piano. The programme also features Antonio’s transcription for solo piano of the second movement (Fiesta Criolla) of Gottschalk’s monumental Nuit des Tropiques, (Night in the Tropics), a symphony Gottschalk wrote on the island of Martinique after living several years in Cuba. It is a historic work because it is the first symphony written by an American composer. After Gottschalk’s death, his friend Nicolas Ruiz Espadero published a two-piano version of this symphony which is the basis for Antonio’s transcription. In addition, the CD features piano music by well-known Cuban composers whose works all have connections to Gottschalk in one way or another.
