Categories: concerts
Date: 15 September 2006 14:21:13
But Handel's harmony affects the soul,
To sooth by sweetness, or by force controul;
And with like sounds as tune the rolling spheres,
so tunes the mind, that ev'ry sense has ears.Anonymous, after hearing L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato, from The Gentlemen's Magazine, May 1740
The guest soprano, Canada's Hélène Guilmette, was indeed the star of the night: words cannot describe her voice: absolutely heaven. So very talented, and someone who brought great joy to the evening. As did Marshall McGuire who played a baroque harp and Melissa Farrow who provided the flute solo for the First and chief ... Sweet Bird from L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato. The harp was played in Concerto in B flat major for baroque harp, Op 4 No 6. I think those two pieces were my favourites for the evening: hearing the harp played was bliss, and First and chief ... Sweet Bird is a lovely piece with the soprano voice and flute taking turns in imitating a nightingale in a wondrous duet -- but the entire concert was pure bliss and pure heaven.
I also managed to get there a bit earlier than usual, so I was able to attend the pre-concert talk which gave some wonderful background information on Handel, the pieces played and also on the opera and classical musical scene of Handel's time: it was interesting to hear that opera performances could be quite rowdy affairs with aristocrats jumping on stage or eating and playing cards in their boxes, audience members fighting over their favourite prima donna: or even the prima donnas fighting on stage! Certainly a different atmosphere to that in our time.
My next Brandenburg experience will be via their Ensemble performing works by Boccherini, Mozart and Rossini at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music: I'm greatly looking forward to that night.