Overture to La Dame Blanche, Francois Adrien Boieldieu. The Memling Ensemble

Overture to "La Dame Blanche"
Francois-Adrien Boieldieu (1775-1834)
Arranged by Carl Burchard (1818-1896)

The Memling Ensemble
Vincent Lionti, artistic director

Maron Khoury, flute
Ashley Horne, violin
Vincent Lionti, viola
David Calhoun, violoncello
David Romano, contrabasso
Alex Ruvinstein, piano

Downtown Music at Grace
White Plains, New York
January 18, 2017

La dame blanche was first performed on 10 December 1825 by the Opéra-Comique at the Théâtre Feydeau in Paris. It was a major success and became a standby of the 19th century operatic repertory in France and Germany. By 1862, the Opéra-Comique had given more than 1,000 performances of La dame blanche. The Metropolitan Opera has given only three performances of the complete opera in its history: two in 1885 (on tour in Chicago and Boston) and once in 1904 at the old Metropolitan Opera House in New York City (conducted by Felix Mottl) using sets from their productions of "Lucia di Lammermoor" and "Tannhauser". The Overture, which was put together by Boieldieu's student Adolph Adam, made occassional appearances in the concert hall. A quick check of the Boston Symphony Orchestra archives reveals 35 performances (33 by the Boston Pops) of the overture between 1881 and 1932, while the New York Philharmonic lists a 1901 performance on tour in Philadelphia and a 1923 private concert performance at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, conducted by Willem Mengelberg. This Carl Burchard arrangement is part of a group of 25 popular overtures that were published by Johann Andre, circa 1881, for home or salon use.

The Memling Ensemble, named for the Flemish painter Hans Memling (c.1430-1494), is a musical partnership among friends and colleagues that has been concertizing for close to twenty years at various locations in different configurations, performing the great duos, trios, quartets, quintets and sextets of the chamber music literature. The first public Memling Ensemble concert took place on Wednesday, January 21, 1998 at Steinway Hall, 57th Street, New York City

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The Memling Ensemble has an extensive repertoire to its credit from the Baroque Era to the current day, and has undertaken residencies at Klavierhaus and Beethoven Pianos in New York City and the Ardsley Country Club in Ardsley-on-Hudson, New York. Recent appearances include performances at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, the New York City Bar Association, The Browning School in New York City, Christ Church in Sparkill, NY, and in Stockbridge, Massachusetts for the New Marlborough Village Association Winter House Concerts series.