Emi Ferguson | Arthur Haas | Sherezade Panthaki

Emi Ferguson, Principal Flute of the distinguished Handel & Haydn Society and recipient of the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, joins early music specialist Arthur Haas (harpsichord), Philip Setzer (violin) and the MMF Young Artists Strings to open the season with Bach’s lively Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. Music inspired by Shakespeare, Dryden, and Milton shapes the program in songs from Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and Oedipus, as well as Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, featuring the internationally acclaimed soprano Sherezade Panthaki, a radiant phenom for whom “it becomes increasingly difficult to find words that will adequately convey the multifold splendor of her singing” (San Francisco Chronicle). Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings, which owes its literary inspiration to Goethe’s Faust, while also paying homage to Handel, governs the Arkell Hall stage on the second half of the program.

Program:
Bach / Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 (1721)
Purcell / Aria “Fairest Isle”, from King Arthur (1691)
Purcell / Song “The Plaint” (“O let me weep!”) from The Fairy Queen (1692)
Bach / gigue from Partita No. 2, BWV 1004 (1720)
Handel / Song “Sweet Bird” from L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740)
Handel / Aria "Lascia, ch'io pianga" from Rinaldo (1711)
Mendelssohn / Octet for Strings, Op. 20 (1825)

Artists:
Arthur Haas, harpsichord
Emi Ferguson, flute
Sherezade Panthaki, soprano
Philip Setzer, violin
MMF Young Artists Strings

Arthur Haas

Emi Ferguson

Sherezade Panthaki

Philip Setzer