BAROQUE SOIRÉES

AUTUMN SERIES 2025

JUBILEMUS!

The opening concert of the autumn series of Baroque Soirées, titled after Francesco Geminiani’s composition of the same name, The Enchanted Forest, opens the door to a world of musical fantasies inspired by mysterious nature and court festivities. The first part of the concert will feature suites from operas by Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel, complemented by compositions by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The second part will present Geminiani’s concerto grosso La foresta incantata, originally composed as an accompaniment to a pantomime performance.

The chamber-style programme of two November soirées will give us a keyhole view into the chambers of the Sun King, Louis XIV. The concert will feature works by court musicians Jacques-Martin Hotteterre, Marin Marais, and Robert de Visée, three famous virtuosos who advanced the limits of their instruments towards greater technical complexity and solo performance. Their works also form an essential repertoire for modern players of the transverse flute, viola da gamba, and lute-family instruments. The programme will be enriched by excerpts from the letters of the Marquise de Sévigné, read by Barbora Munzarová.

The Christmas concert will focus on music from Prague churches and palaces and will present works by Czech masters with pastoral themes inspired by Italian compositions. The concert will feature Christmas songs by Adam Michna of Otradovice and Václav Karel Holan Rovenský, as well as Christmas motets and pastorals by Jan Dismas Zelenka, Antonín Reichenauer, and Josef Antonín Sehling, maestro di cappella of St Vitus Cathedral, who was an important figure in Prague’s musical life. Thanks to his work in Count Morzin’s orchestra, he had the opportunity to become personally acquainted with the work of Antonio Vivaldi, whose instrumental compositions will also feature in this concert.

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