Un'alma innamorata
Händel's Italian cantatas
Händel – A. Scarlatti – D. Scarlatti
Carolyn Sampson, soprano
FiBO Players:
Pauliina Fred, traverso and recorder
Anthony Marini, violin
Dora Asterstad, violin
Jussi Seppänen, cello
Louna Hosia, viola da gamba
Marianna Henriksson, harpsichord
Eero Palviainen, theorbo
Hanna Haapamäki, recorder and traverso
PROGRAMME (in Finnish and Swedish)
The soprano Carolyn Sampson has been a fixed star on the Baroque music sky for a long time. In the concerts in the Helsinki Old Church and in Järvenpää Church, we will hear cantatas that Händel composed while he was in Italy as well as charming instrumental music by a father-and-son team, Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti. FiBO and Sampson will also perform the same programme in the legendary Wigmore Hall in London.
“Giorgio Federico Hendel” (1685-1759) arrived in Rome from Hamburg in the year 1707. During his three years in Italy, the young musician charmed his audience, and in Venice he for instance was called “il caro Sassone”, the dear German.
In Rome, Händel found important patrons in the marquis Ruspoli and the cardinal Pamphili. Among Ruspoli’s sopranos was the virtuoso Margherita Durastanti, and Pamphili commissioned music to his librettos. Utilizing the myth of Icarus and Daedalus, Tra le fiamme (around 1708) with text by Pamphili tells a tale about how you shouldn’t follow every flare of the heart. The work demands a certain panache of the soprano, and the colourful instrumentation allows the gamba player to shine. In Alpestre monte (around 1707), a lover forsaken by a nymph finds solace only in death and in the powerful harmonies of the music.
In Rome during Händel’s time, Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) was considered the master of the cantata. He got a lot less commissions for instrumental music, which on the basis of the sonata for flute and violins and the flute concerto is something of a conundrum. Alessandro’s son Domenico (1685-1757) and Händel got along very well. In Rome, they also took part in a contest between keyboard virtuosos, arranged by the cardinal Ottoboni. The sonata by Domenico, here performed as an intermezzo, presents a musician with a profound fantasy.
The Järvenpää concert is organized in co-operation between FiBO, Järvenpää's cultural and event services and Järvenpää parish.
Duration: 1 h 45 min (incl. intermission)