Barock+ | The Fairy-Queen

The Fairy-Queen

Rowan Pierce | Soprano
Richard Egarr | Conductor / Harpsichord

Cipriani Potter | Symphony No. 1 in G minor
Georg Friedrich Händel | Concerto grosso in B-flat major op. 6 No. 7 HWV 325
Henry Purcell | Suite from "The Fairy-Queen"

Henry Purcell took the liberty of transforming Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" into a glittering semi-opera - with the emphasis on "liberty", since praises for an Eden transported to China are nowhere to be found in the original. Let no one say the British lacked musical imagination.

It was a charge often repeated: England is a land without music. Purcell was indeed regarded as the orpheus britannicus, and his works, like the famous "Fairy-Queen", sparkle with inventiveness and temperament - but then others had to come, such as Georg Friedrich Händel, to supply London with music of the highest quality.

Conductor and harpsichordist Richard Egarr reveals what can still be discovered beyond the European mainland radar: Cipriani Potter, a fully-fledged classical symphonist. Potter maintained contact with Beethoven and Rossini, wrote nine symphonies like the former and did so with the wit and feeling for charming melodic turns of the latter. He was the first composer of rank on the island to orient himself toward Mozart's dramatic late works and Beethoven's symphonic milestones, creating symphonies that matched the standards of his time.

Concert duration: approximately 100 minutes - including intermission