The inauguration of Wrocław Baroque Orchestra’s new season of will be a meeting with the works of George Frideric Handel, with the solo parts performed by the Japanese artist Mari Fukumoto under the baton of Jarosław Thiel.

The collection of six concerti grossi now known as Op. 3 was published in 1734 in the John Walsh publishing house. Interestingly, they were created at different times and were not written with the intention of joint publication, of which the composer neither knew nor agreed to. Virtually each of them consists of a non-standard number of movements, and there are no clear divisions between the tutti episodes, in which the entire ensemble plays, and the solo fragments. The five-movement Concerto grosso in B flat major contains a beautiful oboe solo in the lyrical slow movement, while the gavotte crowning it refers to the anthem The King Shall Rejoice. The Concerto grosso in F major is the only work in the collection consisting of the “prescribed” four movements. It is based on themes from the opera Amadigi di Gaula.

Handel’s organ concertos are among the most famous of his works and for many years served as a model for the next generations of composers. They were created as instrumental interludes that were played between parts of his oratorios staged at Covent Garden. Like the concerts in question Handel’s oratorios are compositions with a cheerful mood, full of grace, elegance and energy.