Baroque in the Present Day (SOLD OUT)

Concerto Copenhagen and Mikkel Bogh bring Baroque music into the present day with Vivaldi and lectures

The National Gallery of Denmark presents an evening of Baroque in the Present, where Vivaldi's famous Four Seasons, in an updated "staging" by Danish composer Karl Aage Rasmussen, alternates with three "mini-lectures" entitled "The Seasons, the Elements, and the Baroque Now" by professor of art history Mikkel Bogh.

Le quattro Stagioni, the four violin concertos depicting the year in Italy, are without comparison Vivaldi’s most famous and most played work. Many can hum along without necessarily knowing what it is they are humming to – and to even more people it is almost the definition of what classical music is.

Vivaldi's melodies remain recognizable in the hands of composer Karl Aage Rasmussen and Concerto Copenhagen. However, the audience is surprised and kept in constant suspense as the music breaks up, melodic pieces are accentuated, and the melodies pour out, at once recognizable and yet surprisingly new. All this to create the illusion that we are hearing the familiar music for the first time, and so that it can re-emerge as current, relevant, and contemporary for us listeners in 2022.

"The music swings as freshly as it did in 1725, when it was first performed. Virtuoso, super cool, and totally captivating," wrote Politiken reviewer Thomas Michelsen in September 2019 about Rasmussen's Vivaldi, performed by Concerto Copenhagen.

The soloist in the famous violin concertos is Concerto Copenhagen's concertmaster Fredrik From, and the concert is conducted by Magnus Fryklund.