Christmas Concert: ‘Per il Santissimo Natale’ [For the Most Holy Christmas]

Traductor de Google:

Baroque music. A concert featuring Baroque works by Antonio Vivaldi, Giuseppe Torelli, Alessandro Marcello and Georg Friedrich Handel.

During the Baroque period, Christmas inspired a number of instrumental works that combined devotion with the concertante style of the time. Italy especially, this tradition produced concertos explicitly dedicated to the Santissimo Natale, expressing sacred themes through pastoral textures and serene lyricism.

Antonio Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in E major Il riposo, per il Santissimo Natale RV 270 reflects this restrained spirituality, while Giuseppe Torelli's Concerto grosso op. 8 no. 6 Per il Santissimo Natale exemplifies the formal richness of the Bolognese school.

Alessandro Marcello's oboe concerto in D minor provides a moment of intense melodic expressiveness.

Two organ concertos by George Frideric Handel, written to be performed during the intermissions of his London oratorios, complete the programme as spaces for brilliance and contrapuntal invention.

Actors: Vespres d'Arnadí: Dani Espasa, organ and direction; Pere Saragossa, oboe; Farran Sylvan James, solo violin; Maria Roca, Elisabet Bataller, Cati Reus, Ricart Renart, Oriol Algueró, violins; Natan Paruzel, Anna Aldomà, viola; Oriol Aymat, Oleguer Aymamí, cellos; Mario Lisarde, double bass.