Pre-concert talk by Dr Bryan White

The Indian Queen is the last of the series of semi-operas (elaborate musical plays) written by Henry Purcell in the 1690s; it was left unfinished at his death in November 1695 and was completed by his brother Daniel. It includes some of Purcell’s finest and most mature theatre music.

In the seventeenth century England was thought to be the home of making, playing and composing for the viol. This programme explores the rich repertory of virtuosic music for two bass viols and chamber organ, including dances, fantasias and sonatas by John Ward, William Lawes, John Jenkins, William Young, Gottfried Finger and Henry Purcell.

Not Handel’s English masque Acis and Galatea but an entirely different work on the same theme, a dramatic cantata or serenata written for a royal wedding in Naples in 1708.

We mark the 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn’s birth with one of his greatest works, the Octet in E flat major, op. 20, written in 1825 at the age of sixteen. Spohr’s fine double quartet no. 3, op. 87, was written in 1832-3 and uses the same instruments but in a different way, with the first quartet accompanied by the second in the manner of a concerto. Haydn’s unfinished string quartet, op. 103, was his last instrumental work, composed in 1803.

This exploration of the thoughts and dreams of German Mediaeval poet-composers includes songs from Carmina Burana and works by Gottfried von Straßbourg, Niedhart von Reuenthal, and Oswald von Wolkenstein, the last Minnesänger. Themes include the fickleness of fortune, moving declarations of love, solemn prayers, and earthy depictions of village life.

Our second concert marking the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death contrasts one of his finest shorter works, the Ode on St Cecilia’s Day (1739), with two rarely performed orchestral anthems, ‘As Pants the Hart’ and ‘Blessed Are They That Considereth the Poor’.