A musical performance at the Merton Memory Hub organised by the Musicians' Company for people suffering from Dementia.

Sofia Kirwan-Baez, soprano
Alexia Daphne Eleftheriadou, piano
Emanuele Addis, lute/guitar

At a time when power-hungry individuals are once again making careers for themselves, Handel's ‘Solomon’ is more relevant than ever: a symbol of just rule that also knows compassion. For this work, Handel created one of his most colourful scores with impressive choral parts. A very special sound experience thanks to the early music specialists from London, the Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment.

The Early Opera Company is excited to return to the wonderful Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, this October, where they celebrate the old dynastic and artistic ties between the Netherlands and England with odes by Purcell to Queen Mary and songs by Constantijn Huygens.

Funeral music
Mary Stuart II and her husband (and cousin) William of Orange came to the English throne together after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Henry Purcell wrote the odes Celebrate this Festival and the famous, Come, Ye Sons of Art, Away for Queen Mary’s birthday. When she died at the age of 32, Purcell wrote his haunting Funeral Music , part of which was played at his own funeral six months later.

Huygens writes to Mary
The Dutch connection takes shape in songs by poet, diplomat and composer Constantijn Huygens, of whom three letters to Mary are known. One of them contains a witty poem in which he predicts her greater fame than Queen ‘Elzabet’ (Elisabeth I): ‘Was Elzabet of great renowne, / God bless our Marie with a Crowne, / By two more and one letter / Sh’ll prove an Elzabetter.’

At a time when power-hungry individuals are once again making careers for themselves, Handel's ‘Solomon’ is more relevant than ever: a symbol of just rule that also knows compassion. For this work, Handel created one of his most colourful scores with impressive choral parts. A very special sound experience thanks to the early music specialists from London, the Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment.

Part of the Migros-Culture-Percentage-Classics 180°

Programme:
Clemens– ‘Kyrie’ from Missa Ecce quam bonum
Bach – Wo soll ich fliehen hin (‘Where shall I flee’), BWV 5

The first cantata of the new Bach, the Universe and Everything season sets us on the well-trodden trajectory from forgiveness to hope with ‘Wo soll ich fliehen hin’ (‘Where shall I flee’), plus guest speaker Rachael Hamp on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus.
First performed in Leipzig on 15 October 1724 (the 19th Sunday after Trinity), ‘Wo soll ich fliehen hin’ displays Bach’s fondness for symmetrical structures and also features a rare appearance from the tromba di tirasi – the slide trumpet.

Mirroring the spiritual journey, Rachael Hamp from the Open University takes us to Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus – a place that at first glance seems hostile yet is one of the most likely places in the solar system we’ll find extraterrestrial life.

This season we also shine a light on the music of the Flemish composer Jacobus Clemens (c. 1510 – 1556), beginning with a Kyrie from one of his 15 surviving masses. Clemens was a prolific composer of sacred music and was greatly admired by many of his contemporaries including Orlando Lassus. Curiously, he came to be known as Clemens non Papa, that is Clemens-but-Not-the-Pope – thought to be a reference to Pope Clement VII – there is very little evidence this distinction was necessary leading to speculation it may have been an ‘in joke’!