The Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) is delighted to present Harmonies du Soir, a three day chamber music festival celebrating the refined sounds of French music performed by ANAM’s outstanding musicians.
This chamber music festival, marking the close of the ANAM year, is a thoughtful nod to the intricate interplay of tradition and modernity. Expect whispers of elegant, fleeting melodies alongside daring, avant-garde gestures – a journey through the shifts in French musical identity.
The program navigates a spectrum of moods and textures, honouring both the old masters and contemporary voices who have left their mark on the genre, in ways both subtle and bold.
Over three days music lovers and Francophiles can plunge into the passion and artistry of France in concerts and music inspired by iconic works of literature, famous monuments, and historical flash points.
La Querelle des Bouffons is a musical scandal that rattled Paris in the mid-18th century.
The dispute (literally “the quarrel of the comic actors”) pitted the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau against philosopher-musician Jean-Jacques Rousseau. What began as an argument over the merits of French opera versus the lighter, more playful Italian comic style quickly grew into a cultural flashpoint.
Writers, politicians and salon circles took sides. Pamphlets flew. Newspapers fanned the flames, caricatures like the famous Italian Cats engraving teased the uproar. Yet after two feverish years the quarrel fizzled, and the Italian style emerged triumphant, reshaping French taste and paving the way for a new era of comic opera.
