programmes season 2020-2021
The most beautiful arias
Mille affetti - a thousand emotions - from love and fidelity to grief, rage and desperation set the tone for this programme, in which Concerto d’Amsterdam and soloist Luciana Mancini give their (and your) emotions free rein.
Nowhere in the Baroque did passions run hotter than on the opera stage and especially in Italy, the ultimate opera country. Italy so dominated the world of opera that even an international composer like Handel wrote operas that are one hundred percent Italian, both in text and in musical language.
Mezzo-soprano Luciana Mancini is the ideal proponent of this repertoire, with her warm and expressive voice that can also be raw and heart-rending. You will hear arias from Veracini’s Adriano in Siria and Handel’s Orlando and Ariodante. Baroque orchestra Concerto d’Amsterdam frames her beautiful arias with instrumental music from the same source: a few of the remarkable compositions of Charles Avison, based on, and perhaps even more beautiful than, the music of Domenico Scarlatti. Concertmaster and musical director Stefano Rossi is an expert in this repertoire and will steer the ensemble safely through the tempest of love, grief, hope and despair.
Hans Lub will enliven the programme with stories about the music and the era in which it was composed. Informative and humorous anecdotes about the composers, the music and life in the eighteenth century give this programme an extra dimension.
Programme
Arcangelo Corelli (1653 – 1713) Concerto n.1 in D
Francesco Maria Veracini (1690 – 1768) Già presso al termine uit: Adriano in Siria
Charles Avison (1709 – 1770) Concerto nr. 3 in d-klein (naar Scarlatti)
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685 – 1759) Scherza infida uit: Ariodante, HWV 33
Charles Avison Concerto nr. 5 in d-klein (naar Scarlatti)
Georg Friedrich Händel Ah! Stigie larve uit: Orlando, HWV 31
Georg Friedrich Händel Crude furie uit: Serse, HWV 40
Performers
Luciana Mancini, mezzo soprano
Stefano Rossi, violin and artistic director
Concerto d’Amsterdam
Soli and Tutti
The word concerto is derived from the Latin verb concertare, to fight or compete. Although in Vivaldi’s time only the highly educated would still have known the original meaning of the word, it is nevertheless most appropriate for our programme ‘Solo and Tutti’. In their battle against the orchestra for the attention of the listener, the soloists pull out all the stops, resorting to fireworks and explosions. Even between the soloists a competition rages. Flautist Marion Moonen and violinist Stefano Rossi each perform a virtuoso concerto, only to battle each other in Telemann’s double concerto for flute and violin. To add insult to injury, the violin steals one of Bach’s most famous pieces for flute, the Suite in B minor, playing it a tone lower in a version for violin and orchestra. Oboe and violin finally reach a truce in Bach’s Double Concerto in D minor. The bassoonist Wouter Verschuren chooses discretion as the better part of valour and sleeps through all the skirmishes, albeit after some unsettling dreams in Vivaldi’s ‘la Notte’ (the Night), a piece as evocative as his Four Seasons.
Programme
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Concert voor fluit, strijkers en B.C. in a-klein RV 440
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Vioolconcert “Il piacere” in C op.8 n.6 RV180 uit “Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione”
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Fagotconcert in Bes RV 501
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) Concert voor fluit en viool in e-klein 52:e3
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Orkestsuite nr.2 BWV1067 (viool-versie in a-klein)
Performers
Marion Moonen, traverso
Hanna Lindeijer, oboe
Wouter Verschuren, bassoon
Stefano Rossi, violin and artistic director
Concerto d’Amsterdam
Chamber Concerti
Words continually evolve in meaning: not only did the word concerto lose its association with fighting and competing, but Concerto da Camera became a pars pro toto for all chamber concerti, instead of distinguishing between those concerti composed for the salon (da camera) and those for the church (da chiesa). Concerto d’Amsterdam invites you into the intimacy of the salon, where a select and continually varying group of Concerto members will delight you with the beautiful colours of this little-performed repertoire. Unlike in the ‘Solo and Tutti’ programme, the players perform together in perfect harmony.
Programme
Antonio Vivaldi Concerto da camera in D RV 94 (blokfluit, hobo, fagot, 2 violen, continuo)
Georg Philipp Telemann Concerto di camera in g-klein, TWV43:g3 (blokfluit, 2 violen en continuo)
Antonio Vivaldi Concerto da camera in C, RV801 (hobo, viool, fagot, continuo)
Antonio Vivaldi Concerto da camera in g-klein, RV107 (blokfluit, hobo, viool, fagot, continuo)
Performers
Stefano Rossi, artistic director
Concerto d’Amsterdam
Violoncello alla Napoletana - Albert Brüggen
For this programme Concerto d’Amsterdam follows the Utrecht Early Music Festival to the far south of Italy. Naples was an important metropolis in the eighteenth century. The musical travel journalist Charles Burney wrote, ‘The entrance into Naples is through a fine fauxbourg of which the streets are very wide, well built and paved with lava. It is amazingly populous and has the air of bustle and business beyond even London or Paris’. This liveliness and entrepreneurs’ spirit can be heard in the music of the Neapolitan baroque. The cello, at the time a brand-new instrument, quickly rose to importance in opera and on the concert stage. Cellist Albert Brüggen performs two concerti by the Neapolitan composers Leonardo Leo and Nicola Porpora, framed by concerti by the Rome-born London composer Castrucci, who was for many years concertmaster of Handel’s orchestra.
Programme
Pietro Castrucci (1679-1752) Concerto grosso in g-klein op.3 nr.11
Leonardo Leo (1694-1744) Celloconcert nr.4 in A
Pietro Castrucci (1679-1752) Concerto grosso in a-klein op.3 nr.4
Nicola Porpora (1686-1768) Celloconcert in G
Performers
Albert Brüggen, cello
Stefano Rossi, artistic director
Concerto d’Amsterdam
For more information about our projects please contact:
Concerto d'Amsterdam
Jasper Berben, business manager
Wittelaan 4, 3743 CP Baarn
jasper@concertodamsterdam.nl
+31 (0)6 14 665 882