In this intimate format, Concerto Copenhagen presents a concert program filled with elegance, drama and musical playfulness.
Baroque music is anything but monotonous. In this concert program, Concerto Copenhagen unfolds the rich stylistic and emotional range that characterizes the period - from the solemn, elegant and graceful to the exuberant, virtuosic and refined to the downright bizarre and experimental.
The solemn and elegant is represented by the German-English G.F. Handel. He combined Italian clarity, German counterpoint, French elegance and English solemnity in his own unique musical language - and the sonata HWV 399 is an excellent example of this.
Exuberance and virtuosity are never far away with Venetian Antonio Vivaldi. His overture to the opera L'Olimpiade - which, as the title suggests, takes place during the Olympic Games in ancient Greece - clearly foreshadows the theatrical drama that follows.
The musical chameleon of the Baroque was the German G.P. Telemann, who could masterfully take on any of the stylistic features of the time - and often played and experimented with them too. In the suite Les Nations, Europe's cultural diversity is portrayed in musical form. Through stylized dances and character pieces, we get portraits of different "nations" - with refined French splendor, exuberant Italian energy and robust German heaviness, all delivered with a twinkle in the eye. In the suite La Bizarre, on the other hand, Telemann plays with the conventions of music, exploring - and challenging - both its framework and our expectations, with both humor and finesse.
A concert with equal parts grandeur, emotion and curious musicality.