Further events
G. F. Händel / W. A. Mozart: Acis & Galatea
Martinskirche
Martinskirchplatz
4, 4051 Basel
Chor und Orchester der Schola Cantorum Basiliensis | Francesco Corti – Leitung
Event details
With Mozart's arrangement of Handel's Acis and Galatea, we approach musically a multiple historical triangle:
In the action of the Pastoral, Acis, a shepherd, and Polyphemus, a giant, fight for the love of the nymph Galatea in Arcadian climes. The tragic outcome means the death of the loving shepherd at the hands of the unleashed giant.
As for the music, we are dealing with two composers: Handel's pastoral Serenade, written in 1718, was expanded upon by Mozart some 70 years later. The third in this alliance is Baron Gottfried van Swieten, himself an amateur composer as well as a diplomat and physician in imperial service. Through his professional stays in England and Prussia he came into contact with the music of Handel and Bach - and, returning to Vienna, became one of the most important advocates of their music in the second half of the 18th century. He not only commissioned Mozart's arrangement of Acis and Galatea in 1788, for which he himself provided the German text, but also inspired Mozart's intensive engagement with Handel's music in general.
Often referred to as an oratorio, Handel's Acis was one of the most popular pieces in the composer's posthumous performance career. This included several adaptations of the musical text, each of which was used to make adjustments to suit new performance circumstances. Mozart did not change the musical substance, but he adapted the composition to the needs of an orchestra that had grown in the meantime, and thus to the taste of the time, by adding wind parts. He played virtuously with an expansion of the timbre of the piece, which is musically captivating, not least through scenic paintings of the landscape. Following the material from Ovid's Metamorphoses, the moment in which Galatea transforms her grief and allows her dead lover to become the source of a (stream of) tears is the musical climax of the composition.
Drawing entirely on the forces of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the Arcadian sounds will be reinterpreted on this concert evening by soloists, choir and orchestra of the university under the direction of Francesco Corti, professor of historical keyboard instruments.
Christine Fischer
Participants and additional information:
Maria Carla Pino Cury - Soprano
N.N. - tenor
Lisandro Abadie - Bass
Choir and Orchestra of the SCB
Francesco Corti - direction
Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.
In the action of the Pastoral, Acis, a shepherd, and Polyphemus, a giant, fight for the love of the nymph Galatea in Arcadian climes. The tragic outcome means the death of the loving shepherd at the hands of the unleashed giant.
As for the music, we are dealing with two composers: Handel's pastoral Serenade, written in 1718, was expanded upon by Mozart some 70 years later. The third in this alliance is Baron Gottfried van Swieten, himself an amateur composer as well as a diplomat and physician in imperial service. Through his professional stays in England and Prussia he came into contact with the music of Handel and Bach - and, returning to Vienna, became one of the most important advocates of their music in the second half of the 18th century. He not only commissioned Mozart's arrangement of Acis and Galatea in 1788, for which he himself provided the German text, but also inspired Mozart's intensive engagement with Handel's music in general.
Often referred to as an oratorio, Handel's Acis was one of the most popular pieces in the composer's posthumous performance career. This included several adaptations of the musical text, each of which was used to make adjustments to suit new performance circumstances. Mozart did not change the musical substance, but he adapted the composition to the needs of an orchestra that had grown in the meantime, and thus to the taste of the time, by adding wind parts. He played virtuously with an expansion of the timbre of the piece, which is musically captivating, not least through scenic paintings of the landscape. Following the material from Ovid's Metamorphoses, the moment in which Galatea transforms her grief and allows her dead lover to become the source of a (stream of) tears is the musical climax of the composition.
Drawing entirely on the forces of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the Arcadian sounds will be reinterpreted on this concert evening by soloists, choir and orchestra of the university under the direction of Francesco Corti, professor of historical keyboard instruments.
Christine Fischer
Participants and additional information:
Maria Carla Pino Cury - Soprano
N.N. - tenor
Lisandro Abadie - Bass
Choir and Orchestra of the SCB
Francesco Corti - direction
Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.
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