Barokorkest B'Rock & Vocalconsort Berlin olv. Gary Cooper

Energy, drive and a high of degree of rock, these are the key words to describe the young ensemble B'Rock. In less than a year they have broken into the world of the baroque orchestra. Together with their kindred spirits, the fantastic Vocal Consort Berlin, they convinced Gary Cooper, the rising star of the British baroque world, to conduct this Purcell and Handel programme. In the first part of this concert they present anthems by Henry Purcell (1659-1695). The term 'anthem' was already in use in the early eleventh century and was defined as a 'sung prayer'. It was only in the beginning of the seventeenth century that the term started to be understood to mean a composition based on an English text from the Bible, a book of prayer, or from any other religious or moral text. Purcell's anthems are deemed to be the pinnacle and transcending synthesis of all subsequent forms of the genre. For a better-known piece, Handel (1685-1759) dominates the evening with his impressive motet 'Dixit Dominus'. He wrote the motet in 1707 in Rome, where he stayed to perfect his knowledge of Italian music. It is a sparkling musical setting of Psalm 110, vocally virtuosic and energetic. A piece of Handel that sounds very much like Vivaldi.