Lufthansa Festival for Baroque Music: Gives Peace a Chance
This year's edition of the Lufthansa Festival for Baroque Music will be based around a theme which seems refreshingly different not only from those of other comparable events but also from the turbulences in the world around us: The Triumph of Peace. On seven consecutive days from 15th May - 21st May, London will be transformed into a giant concert hall with some of the finest classical artists and ensembles presenting a program whose titles („Knock'd on the Head“, „A la Battaglia!“) are as colourful as its locations are diverse (from Manoukian Music Centre to the grand finale at Westminster Abbey). On the occasion of the Lufthansa Festival for Baroque Music, artists like local soprano Carolyn Sampson (her most recent record „Victorious Love“ was our album of the month in October of 2007) as well as the renowned Collegium Vocale Ghent under Philippe Herreweghe will exemplify the motive of peace in the works of Handel (arias from his oratorio L’Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato and from his “semi-opera”, Alceste are on Sampson's agenda) as well as Bach, including the Easter and Ascension oratorios and the Cantata 173, Erhötes Fleisch und Blu’ (by Herreweghe and company). „This year’s Lufthansa Festival for Baroque Music celebrates those precious moments in history when peace has prevailed“, director Lindsay Kemp said, „when kings and commoners have put aside arms for music and dancing, and when composers have found themselves turning their talents to joyful operas, carefree cantatas and euphoric Te Deums.“
Other highlights of the Lufthansa Festival for Baroque Music: A concert by Argentine-born soprano Maria Cristina Kiehr in conjunction with Concerto Soave under its director Jean-Marc Aymes , entitled „Et in terra pax“, which will predominantly be based on motets and instrumental music by Monteverdi, Mazzocchi, Frescobaldi and Legrenzi. A performance of battle music by Heinrich Biber, Johannes Schmelzer and others at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster.And finally, of course, the culmination of the one-week event at Westminster Abbey. On the last night, the Abbey’s choir will team up with St James’s Baroque under the direction of Organist James O’Donnell and dive headlong into John Blow’s anthems I was glad, Praise the Lord, O my soul and God spake sometime in visions. On top of that, there will be music from Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, written, like Rameau’s Nais, to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1749, as well as his Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate, a joyous celebration of the Peace of Utrecht which ended the War of Spanish Succession and hostilities between England and France in 1713.
The Lufthansa Festival for Baroque Music has established itself as one of the foremost classical festivities of its kind in Europe over past , with a mix which Lindsay Kemp describes as „continuing our tradition of recognising the best in Baroque talent from home and abroad.“
Homepage: Lufthansa Festival for Baroque Music
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