Festival für Alte Musik Knechtsteden - Händel & Scarlatti in Rom

In the organizer's words:

19:00 Introductory talk in the monastery library

At the peak of his mastery, Scarlatti came from Naples to the Tiber in 1703 with the latest musical fashions in his luggage. Although opera performances were forbidden here by Pope Innocent XII, Christian beliefs found new expressiveness in the oratorio with the means of modern musical drama. George Frideric Handel was right in the middle of Scarlatti's Marian oratorio Il Giardino di rose as harpsichordist and was allowed to conclude the 1708 oratorio season with his work La Resurrezione . A year earlier, the psalm setting Dixit Dominus was composed - a masterpiece of Baroque choral music from the pen of the young Handel.

In 1720, Scarlatti was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Acquaviva d'Aragona to compose his eponymous Messa di S. Cecilia for the church of S. Cecilia in Trastevere, which, according to legend, was once built over the house of the patron saint of music. Acquaviva has the church lavishly redesigned and Scarlatti composes another Cecilian Vespers, which is performed by an old acquaintance of Handel's, the English King and Elector of Hanover George I.

Concert with interval. Ends around 22:00.

Program:

Price information:

29/23/19/10* € / reduced 22/18/12/8* € plus booking fee *with restricted view