The weekend after Easter, we visited the London Handel Festival for this tasty Baroque concert by the (then) fairly new Southbank Sinfonia.
We heard:
- Handel’s Overture to Giustino HWV37
- Rameau’s Grand Motet: In Convertendo Dominus
- Vivaldi’s Concerto Con Molti Istromenti RV 576
- Lully’s Suite from “Isis”
- Handel’s Te Deum for the Peace of Utrecht
Janie couldn’t complain that it was cold this time – we were having a bit of an April heatwave in London. But still she felt that St George’s was austere as a venue…
…”it’s bum-aching, like sitting in Church”…
…”it IS a Church”…
…so she reiterated her strong preference for the Wigmore Hall.
We both agreed that the music was lovely, though.
Below is a delightful later performance by the very same orchestra (under Julian Perkins) of the Giustino:
Below is a beautiful video of the Rameau In Convertendo with William Christie conducting but no identification of the orchestra ( Les Arts Florissants presumably) nor the wonderful soloists – perhaps some of the Early Music Group aficionados can help with the identification of those:
If you click through this link instead, you can then also hear the other parts in YouTube.
I have the whole festival programme, but here is the one-pager with most of the relevant information about that particular, excellent gig.
