Wednesday 9 March 2022
West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
Exile, elegance and adventure: Laurence Cummings and the AAM follow Joseph Haydn to 18th century London, in a concert of thrilling emotional extremes.
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When Haydn arrived in London in 1791, he triggered a full-scale Georgian media frenzy –
and responded with some of his most enduring and imaginative music. This new world
offered him fortune as well as fame, and today Laurence Cummings demonstrates why, in a
concert that explores the full, glorious range of one of music’s first global superstars.
That means a tempestuous overture from an opera set on a desert island, and a rare
performance of the Sinfonia Concertante, in which four of the AAM’s own stars take the
spotlight in a witty quadruple concerto, written to delight a fashionable crowd. And at the
heart of it all, two extraordinary, impassioned mini-operas. Abandoned and alone, the
heartbroken Ariadne cries to the heavens. Berenice contemplates the death of her beloved
– and resolves to share his fate. These two cantatas were enormous hits with the London
audience, and today you’ll hear why.
Haydn Overture from L’isola disabitata
Haydn arr. Hogwood Arianna a Naxos
Haydn Sinfonia Concertante in B-flat major
Haydn Scena di Berenice
Ann Hallenberg mezzo-soprano
Academy of Ancient Music
Laurence Cummings conductor
Event type:
Running time:
Approx. 2h