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Baroque. Contrasted: Daily Trivia

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Next week sees the start of our mini-festival at Kings Place, Baroque. Contrasted.

We kick off on 6 April with 5 days of concerts, talks, demonstrations and two chances to join the OAE.  Most of the composers we’ll be featuring should be pretty familiar- Vivaldi, Purcell, Bach-  but we’re also showcasing some of the lesser-known but equally brilliant artists of the time.

Ahead of the opening night, we thought we’d give you a bit of daily trivia on some of these mysterious musicians…

Gottfried Finger (1660-1730) left London in a hurry in 1701 after allegedly being Baroque Contrastedunjustly passed over for a composition prize. He financed his departure with the sale of a set of trio sonatas, of which Op 5 No.10 (which we play on 7 April) is unusually scored for recorder, cello (or bassoon) and continuo.

Alessandro Stradella (1639-1682) was murdered in Genoa just months after penning the wedding cantata Il Barcheggio, probably after an unwitting controversy over a woman (who preferred him to another man – the likely murderer).

Dario Castello (1590-?) has no biographical information at all; even his birth and death dates are unknown, although it is thought he may have died during the great plague of 1630. He was probably associated with St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, where Claudio Monteverdi was maestro di capella.

For more info on the festival, including a free flippable brochure and details of how to book, visit oae.co.uk/kingsplace

Next time…find out why composer Merula got into trouble…

Baroque. Contrasted. Staff picks

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On 6 April our next mini-festival at Kings Place, Baroque. Contrasted. kicks off with 5 days of concerts, talks, demonstrations and even singing-along showcasing the depth and variety of Baroque Music. We asked around the office to see what people here are most looking forward to:

I’m really looking forward to Steven Devine’s Sing Baroque event on 9 April.  It’s been a while since I’ve been able to stretch my vocal chords and being able to sing choruses from the beautiful Dido & Aeneas is a pretty decent way to spend a Saturday lunchtime :-)

Natasha Stehr, Marketing and Press Officer

It’s hard to chose, because there’s lots of fab music. I’m going to chose two events. First, Baroque Strings on 7 April, because it includes Vivaldi’s La Folia variations. It’s what the German’s call an ‘earworm’ – i.e. a tune you can’t get out of your head which just goes round and round on repeat…My second pick would be Sunday’s coffee concert. Not only is it just really lovely to start your Sunday with a coffee and great music, but it’s always fantastic seeing the students on our Apprenticeship scheme play. Plus the concert includes Purcell’s Abdelazar, which reminds me of playing it in my school orchestra – though I suspect this performance will be considerably better…

William Norris, Communications Director

The Sing Baroque event, because the OAE hasn’t done anything quite like this before and it will be a great opportunity to learn to sing some Purcell in an authentically OAE way from Steven Devine.   I’d also like to prove to my colleagues in the office that the regular singing (or more like wailing) that I do on a regular basis in the office is merely scratching the surface of my raw talent…

Ceri Jones, Projects Officer

Having had a sneak preview of the concert on Friday 8 April at 6.45pm (The Sprightly Hautboy and the Soft Complaining Flute) when it was performed at the Garrick Club in February, I can speak from experience when I say that this event will be entertaining and illuminating.  I was captivated by this repertoire, both familiar and less-familiar, and look forward to hearing these fabulous instruments being brought to life again (by the equally fabulous players) in this spring concert at Kings Place.

Stephen Carpenter, Chief Executive

You can view our online brochure for the festival here, or if you feel motivated to book you can do that here