Fireworks from Bach and Handel
Leonardo García Alarcón conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra
Leonardo García Alarcón returns to the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducting Handel’s festive Music for the Royal Fireworks and masterpieces by Johann Sebastian Bach
Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 is still very popular to this day, particularly for its well-loved second movement – the peaceful Air for strings. Pure bliss!
Concert programme
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Suite No. 3, BWV 1068
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Arias from the cantata ‘Zerreisset, zersprenget, zertrümmert die Gruft’, BWV 205
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Sinfonia from the cantata 'Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats', BWV 42
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George Frideric Handel
Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Arias from the cantata ‘Geschwinde, ihr wirbelnden Winde’, BWV 201
Performers
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Leonardo García Alarcón
conductor
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Andreas Wolf
bass
About this concert
The Concertgebouw Orchestra takes flight in Baroque music when Leonardo García Alarcón is conducting. After his impressive first appearance in 2022, the charismatic Argentine conductor returns, weaving works by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks into a festive whole, just as Bach himself would do on Friday evenings at Leipzig’s Café Zimmermann. Andreas Wolf’s rich, round bass is heard in a number of phenomenal arias from the secular cantatas (chamber operas) which Bach wrote in the same period.
To celebrate the signing of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, King George II organised a massive fireworks display. Despite it all going up in flames and the crowds fleeing, Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, written for the occasion, was an instant success and even saved the monarch’s reputation. Still very popular to this day, particularly for its well-loved second movement – the peaceful Air for strings – is Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3. Pure bliss!
Dates and tickets
About this concert
The Concertgebouw Orchestra takes flight in Baroque music when Leonardo García Alarcón is conducting. After his impressive first appearance in 2022, the charismatic Argentine conductor returns, weaving works by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks into a festive whole, just as Bach himself would do on Friday evenings at Leipzig’s Café Zimmermann. Andreas Wolf’s rich, round bass is heard in a number of phenomenal arias from the secular cantatas (chamber operas) which Bach wrote in the same period.
To celebrate the signing of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, King George II organised a massive fireworks display. Despite it all going up in flames and the crowds fleeing, Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, written for the occasion, was an instant success and even saved the monarch’s reputation. Still very popular to this day, particularly for its well-loved second movement – the peaceful Air for strings – is Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3. Pure bliss!