The American Salon Duet programs for intimate concerts Life before electronic media provided musical devotees an opportunity rarely experienced today. Intimate parlor or salon concerts frequently featured fine concert artists performing in duets. The Victorian Duo offers the following programs for . Music for Walt Whitman The Victorian Duo performs a salon concert as Whitman might have heard it. The program includes, among other works, Stephen Foster's Beautiful Dreamer, Louis Moreau Gottschalk's The Last Hope, Ferranti's Witches Night, Sidney Lanier's Wind Song, and a period transcription from Haydn's symphonic work. Victorian's Secret Victorian's Secret is a program of rarely heard (sometimes delicate, often passionate, ever uplifting, and certainly intimate) gems of the nineteenth century European salon. This repertoire includes Luigi Legnani's Duetto Concertante, Kaspar Mertz's Hungarian Fantaisie, Napoleon Coste's tone poem Le Montagnard, and Jules Demersseman's Grand Fantaisie Original. The Victorian Duo of Peter Bloom, 19th-century flute, and Olav Chris Henriksen, 19th-century guitar, performs the intimate yet brilliant music of the nineteenth century on period instruments. Repertoire includes masterworks heard in the parlors of Biedermeyer Vienna, in the Parisian concert halls of Napoleon III, in Victoria's Crystal Palace, and in the Boston Music Hall of Abraham Linclon's time. Grand Concert in Miniature Even in small venues, opera and theatrical music were the musical pulse of nineteenth century Americans. This program features flutists Peter Bloom and Carol Epple performing thrilling transcriptions of this beloved repertoire on a matched set of simple system flutes by Claire Godfroy, arguably the greatest flutemaker of the nineteenth century. All of this music comes from the collection of an eminent nineteenth century collector, Henry Gassett, who was founder of the Harvard Musical Society. The music was originally purchased in the first half of the nineteenth century at John Ashton's Music Store, 197 Washington Street, Boston. Included in the program are the Grand Duo Aux Artistes, the overture to Fra Diavolo by D.F.E. Auber, and the rousing overture to Zampa by F. Herold. back to top |