September Classics
Location: Christchurch
Date: 15-09-2012
Time: 19:30
Venue Details: Christchurch Priory
Works Performed
- Gabrieli : Canzoni for Brass
- Handel : Radamisto Overture
- Corelli : Concerto Grosso Op.6 No.8 in G minor
- J S Bach : Brandenburg Concerto No.5
- Mozart : Symphony No.41 'Jupiter'
Performers
- Conductor : Kirill Karabits
- Soloist: Alistair Young - Harpsichord
Principal Conductor Kirill Karabits is at the helm for an evening of intimate baroque and early classical music in the beautiful setting of Christchurch Priory.
Gabrieli’s Canzoni for Brass were written for plays given in the courtyard of the Doge of Venice and are overtly jolly short ‘songs’ that are full of bounce and vitality. Premiered at the King’s Theatre in London 108 years after Gabrieli’s death, Radamisto was Handel’s first opera for the Royal Academy. Full of dramatic tension from the very beginning, the Overture presents a whirlwind tale of siege, warfare and tyrannical love.
Arcangelo Corelli prepared his Concerto Grosso Op.6 No.8 for publication towards the end of his life, but it is a stylistic offshoot from his earlier sonatas. Also known as the ‘Christmas Concerto’, it showcases a delicate interplay between two violins and concertino. Corelli’s understanding of harmony later proved inspirational to both Telemann and Handel.
Believed to be written in 1719 to highlight a new harpsichord which Bach had brought back from Berlin for the Cöthen court, the Brandenburg Concerto No.5 proves one of the ultimate tests of both the instrument and the virtuosity of its player, in this instance Alistair Young providing dazzling cadenzas.
The evening reaches a climax with Mozart’s final symphony, Jupiter, an exhilarating work from which melodic sparks continuously fly toward the audience. Critics at the time said Mozart had “pushed things a little far”, but what they were actually hearing was a groundbreaking work that ends with an astounding coda in which five separate melodic ideas compete for supremacy.
