Cecilian Odes
Project overview
Restoration London clamoured with music, as the town enjoyed its release from the strictures of the Protectorate and belatedly binged on the latest pleasure-giving styles. The most conspicuous child of this musical emancipation was of course English opera - but another, entirely new genre also came into being: the Cecilian Ode. Our programme opens with probably the first-ever such piece: Henry Purcell's Welcome to all the Pleasures. We then give an outing to a little-known example by the Italian-born Londoner Giovanni Battista Draghi - would he have been proud if he'd known that he was the only Italian ever to set John Dryden? - before concluding with the capital's most famous musical Gastarbeiter, George Frederick Handel.
Project repertoire & personnel
Henry Purcell (1659-1695): Welcome to all the Pleasures
Giovanni Battista Draghi (c.1640-1708): From harmony, from heav'nly harmony
George Frederick Handel (1685-1759): Ode for St Cecilia's Day
5 violins ~ 2 violas ~ 2 celli ~ double bass ~ lute ~ harpsichord ~ chamber organ ~ flute ~ 2 recorders ~ 2 oboes ~ bassoon ~ 2 trumpets ~ timpani
soprano solo ~ CONSORT: 4 sopranos ~ 3 altos ~ 3 tenors ~ 4 basses
Performances
November 2009: Grosvenor Chapel, Mayfair, London (Handel Institute Conference)
Restoration London clamoured with music, as the town enjoyed its release from the strictures of the Protectorate and belatedly binged on the latest pleasure-giving styles. The most conspicuous child of this musical emancipation was of course English opera - but another, entirely new genre also came into being: the Cecilian Ode. Our programme opens with probably the first-ever such piece: Henry Purcell's Welcome to all the Pleasures. We then give an outing to a little-known example by the Italian-born Londoner Giovanni Battista Draghi - would he have been proud if he'd known that he was the only Italian ever to set John Dryden? - before concluding with the capital's most famous musical Gastarbeiter, George Frederick Handel.
Project repertoire & personnel
Henry Purcell (1659-1695): Welcome to all the Pleasures
Giovanni Battista Draghi (c.1640-1708): From harmony, from heav'nly harmony
George Frederick Handel (1685-1759): Ode for St Cecilia's Day
5 violins ~ 2 violas ~ 2 celli ~ double bass ~ lute ~ harpsichord ~ chamber organ ~ flute ~ 2 recorders ~ 2 oboes ~ bassoon ~ 2 trumpets ~ timpani
soprano solo ~ CONSORT: 4 sopranos ~ 3 altos ~ 3 tenors ~ 4 basses
Performances
November 2009: Grosvenor Chapel, Mayfair, London (Handel Institute Conference)
