We invite you to a concert of the 15th anniversary season of Wrocław Baroque Orchestra! The eponym of this event will be the famous Italian composer of the Baroque era, Arcangelo Corelli. However, it is not his works that will appear in the programme. Instead, the compositions by the artists associated with him will sound.
The first piece will be the Sonata in G minor, a work by Georg Muffat, from the Armonico tributo collection. This French composer and organist was educated in Paris, and later worked, among others in Prague, Vienna and Italy, where he met Corelli, whose works he greatly appreciated. His sonata is an elegiac and expressive work.
We will also hear the music of Pietro Castrucci, who was educated in Rome with Corelli and later emigrated to London, where he became one of the most famous violinists of his era. For almost twenty years, he served as concertmaster of George Frideric Handel’s opera orchestra. His oeuvre is not big, and one of his best-known works is the collection of twelve concerti grossi op. 3. The second of these concertos will be performed under the baton of Jarosław Thiel, in the bright key of E flat major.
Also Giuseppe Valentini, a true Renaissance man, was a student of Corelli, and in 1710 he took his position as a kapellmeister in the Roman church of San Luigi dei Francesi. In addition to writing music, he also played the violin and wrote poetry. Although his work has not gained such publicity as the works of his teacher or Antonio Vivaldi, music historians and performers greatly appreciate his instrumental compositions. Among them is a collection concerti grossi, published in Rome in 1710, containing the Concerto in A minor, full of lively energy, with expressive and strongly accentuated rhythms. The last piece will be a work by another of Corelli’s students, Francesco Geminiani – based on the famous Sonata op. 5 no. 12 by Corelli, the dramatic Concerto grosso in D minor op. 1 no. 12, H. 143 “La follia”.