The viola da gamba – literally a leg viol – is a period instrument. Today, three hundred years after the peak of its popularity, it is still played by contemporary virtuosos. One of them is Vittorio Ghielmi, founder of the ensemble Il Suonar Parlante, well-known to Wrocław audiences. The soloist and the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, prepared by Jarosław Thiel, will perform a programme of 18th-century music – specifically works by Joseph Haydn.
The gambist Ghielmi hails from Milan. His work in the field of historical performance is twofold. On the one hand, the Italian draws on works by the greatest virtuosos of his instrument, such as Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray, as well as works by other artists of the era. On the other, he collaborates with musicians outside the strict classical world. In addition to his encounters with jazz musicians, led by Uri Cain, the composer of postmodern variations on themes from the European canon, it is worth mentioning the album Gypsy Baroque. It is the result of a search for traces of eighteenth-century Romani music in Transylvania. Ghielmi appeared at the Wratislavia Cantans in 2017 and three years ago as part of the Telemann Academy.
The January evening at the NFM will be filled with concert and orchestral works from various corners of Europe. The programme includes works by two composers from Saxony who have tied their lives to London, members of friendly musical families. Carl Friedrich Abel and Johann Christian Bach even led a series of concerts together. Whereas Johann Gottlieb Graun left Saxony for Berlin, founding an orchestra that became the pride of King Frederick II of Prussia. We will also listen to Italian works. Francesco Durante is particularly well-known to lovers of the Neapolitan style. This composer specialised in sacred music but also left a legacy of string concertos. Francesco Maria Veracini’s Overture is intended for orchestra. The Florentine toured throughout Europe, and in London, he competed with Handel on the operatic market. The programme will conclude with Joseph Hadyn’s Symphony in F minor, “La passione”, an early Classicist work.