(Above: Members of the OAE from their 2009-10 program -- Oh, the dog? He plays the triangle.)
A couple weekends past, while OC was giddily enchanted by Robin Ticciati & the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment caressing Mozart in their Baroque glow, little did she know that wee hours earlier, the disciplined members of the OAE were pining to revive a makeshift cricket match in Central Park ("using period timp legs for stumps – it has been done!"). They're like the MacGyvers of the orchestra world.
No insider scoops here: The 20-something-year-old OAE, a United Kingdom period instrument orchestra lighthandedly blogs it in a collective journal penned by assorted musicians & administration. Less than a year old, the blog posts all-access photos and anecdotes of working with some of Britain's finest conductors (Sir Simon Rattle & Robin Ticciati) as they travel through Europe & and the USA.
The photos above & below are of the OAE musicians taken from their 2009-2010 catalog [pdf file found here]. It was inspired by the stark, black & white portraits of American rural, working-class families in the 1920s-1940s (like the ones seen on Disfarmer). We've always had a weak spot for Berenice Abbott, Dorothea Lange, & Walker Evans' New Deal projects with FDR's Works Progress Administration, and Southern Gothic seems to translate well to the OAE. Especially the guy with the horn below...
~*~
That horn guy is no joke.
Posted by: EpipHany | August 28, 2009 at 08:02 AM
That lass with the fiddle looks like a sweetie. If I had been around back then, I would have asked her out on a date. But maybe she was going out with or married to the grim-looking horn player.
Anyhow, I wish young women still wore dresses like that. Sheesh, I must be getting hopelessly old-fashioned. I just like the styles better back then, particularly from the '30's and '40's. Men's suits were way better back then, too.
Posted by: Warren | August 28, 2009 at 08:43 AM
Brilliant.
It doesn't take much more to do it up right. One appreciates the choice of name even more just for their ability to visually step out of the box.
Posted by: Crew Mantle | August 28, 2009 at 01:10 PM
I really love these photographs. There are so many more beautiful portraits on that PDF you linked.
Posted by: Harmoonical | August 28, 2009 at 07:03 PM
That's a stirring brochure. I don't think the traditional symphony orchestras could get away with that same idea, but it works well for them. I really like it, especially that first picture.
Posted by: Orlando | August 29, 2009 at 03:55 AM