The concert will take place on 11 September 2023 (Monday) at 7:00 p.m., at the Bolesławiec Marian Basilica at 3 Kościelna Street in Bolesławiec. Admission is free..
Concert duration: 70 minutes.
Performers:
Enrico Onofri – conductor
Carlotta Colombo – soprano
Jone Martínez – soprano
Margherita Maria Sala – contralto
NFM Girls’ Choir
Małgorzata Podzielny – artistic director of the NFM Girls’ Choir
European Union Baroque Orchestra
Mario Martinoli – artistic director of the European Union Baroque Orchestra.
Programme:
Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto in D minor for strings “Madrigalesco” RV 129
Magnificat in G minor RV 611
Beatus vir RV 598
Concerto in D minor for strings RV 127
Gloria RV 589.
The concert by the European Union Baroque Orchestra, featuring the NFM Girls’ Choir and conducted by Enrico Onofri, will be devoted entirely to the works of Antonio Vivaldi. Five compositions by the “Red Priest,” who spent thirty-five years as a teacher at the Ospedale della Pietà girls’ orphanage, will be performed. These works are connected with the festival’s theme in a way that is almost à rebours—they were once sung by orphaned children.
Vivaldi went down in history as an exceptionally prolific composer of instrumental concertos. The European Union Baroque Orchestra’s programme includes two works of this type, both very short, written for strings and in the key of D minor. The Madrigalesco Concerto RV 129 is reflective and serious in tone, distinguishing it from the dynamic and light Concerto RV 127. However, the most interesting items on the programme will be the sacred vocal-instrumental compositions. The G minor Magnificat RV 611 is a work that exists in several versions. The last of them was created specifically for the Ospedale della Pietà and was performed by its pupils. In this version, Vivaldi replaced some choral sections with solos, allowing the young singers to demonstrate their abilities. It is a joyful thanksgiving song, though not without reflective nuances, with a text taken from the Gospel of St Luke. The Virgin Mary speaks it during her meeting with Saint Elizabeth shortly after the Annunciation. The text of the short Beatus vir RV 598, meanwhile, comes from the Book of Psalms, specifically Psalm 112. It is one of the wisdom psalms, describing a life pleasing to God and the blessings experienced as a result of following divine laws.
The final work of the concert will be Vivaldi’s Gloria in D major RV 589, his most popular sacred composition. The music’s catchy character perfectly suits the text, which is a well-known passage from the ordinarium missae. Vivaldi wrote the Magnificat and the Gloria for a four-part choir, but the performance at the Wratislavia Cantans Festival will take place without tenors and basses. The bass part will instead be sung by children an octave higher, accompanied by instruments playing the notes written in the original. The performers’ aim is to approach the sound Vivaldi might have achieved during his concerts at the Ospedale della Pietà.
(Header photo: archive).