Old Sounds – New Worlds

Baroque dances, an imagined ancient world, and music finding new life beyond its original setting. “Old Sounds – New Worlds” brings together works by Leclair, Boismortier, Villa-Lobos, Debussy and Jolivet, alongside the stories that shaped them. Josu Ferreras Zulueta, flute; Tania García Crespo, bassoon; and Jie Zhou, harp, present this programme as part of the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen’s chamber music series.

Programme notes

The ancient world of Bilitis was invented in the late nineteenth century. Pierre Louÿs presented his own poems as translations of an imaginary Greek poet, and Debussy found in them a source of inspiration to which he would return several times. This story offers a way into “Old Sounds – New Worlds”: imagining the past can also be a way of creating something new.

The concert opens with Leclair and Boismortier, two composers of the French Baroque with different approaches to chamber music. Leclair, whose writing combines French…