PROGRAMMES
The Swedish Virtuoso in London
Georgian London was a cosmopolitan paradise for lucky artists and young Swedish musician Johan Helmich Roman was no exception. Seen with his eyes, London must have seemed like the very centre of the world!
With a royal warrant, Roman came to absorb and bring back the latest musical trends to Sweden. Arriving London in 1715, he encountered and learned from the very finest masters such as Pepusch and Geminiani. The young artist also worked in Handel’s orchestra, where he earned the nickname “the Swedish Virtuoso.”
Join us for this musical feast set in the elegant Georgian London, including a sneaky visit to the coffee house!
The French Style United
The splendid French court of Versailles had an enormous influence on all aspects of European cultural life. From delicate ornamentations to extravagant ballets scenes, the French style prevailed musical life far beyond the French borders. At the same time, artists and musicians coming together with ambassadors also brought in other styles and fashions into this glamorous melting pot of urban Paris and the court of Versailles.
In this programme, Flauguissimo celebrate not only the ostentatious French music in its original form, but also follow the trail towards an international style in which the grand French dances meet a flaming Italian virtuosity!
A Salon Opera
During the 18th century, highly popular operas were often reproduced and performed at domestic settings. Fair ladies and gentlemen performed together for entertainment as well as a part of courtship, with the similar theatrical elements of love and death in the intimate salons.
Flauguissimo Duo presents flute and plucked string music of court dances and opera scenes from the eighteenth and nineteenth century, from the enchanting flute solo from Gluck’s famous opera Orphée et Eurydice to the sentimental songs of Franz Schubert.
The French and British Gardens
Nature has long been a great inspiration for composers, especially since the age of the Enlightenment, when the vogue of birdsongs and portraits of flowers are at their height.
Flauguissimo Duo presents a selection of flute and theorbo music by French and English composers from the Baroque period, including pieces by Oswald, Basanti, Hotteterre, de Visee and Couperin.
The Marriage of the Northern Star
In 1744, the wedding of Swedish Crown Prince Adolf Frederick and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia at Drottningholm Palace was the most splendid celebration of the royal couple and the grand opening to the Age of Enlightenment in Scandinavia.
As the centre of northern Europe, the Swedish court at Stockholm welcomed musicians and artists, such as Roman and Kraus, from all around Scandinavia and the continental Europe with open arms. At the same time, folk music and dance prevailed alongside the both gentle and raucous ballads and poems by the famous troubadour Bellman. The cosmopolitan golden era gradually died away when their son, King Gostav III, was assassinated at a masked ball in 1792.
In ‘The Marriage of the Northern Star’, Flauguissimo reinvents Scandinavian and continental festive music from the age of the enlightenment into a splendid wedding party. Together with masked musicians and dancers, the celebration begins with the famous Swedish royal wedding banquet music by Roman, follows by Bellman’s love songs, Kraus’s idyllic soprano solo cantata ‘La Pesca’, Gluck’s ‘Dance of the Blessed Spirits’ and finally finishes with Boccherini’s passionate Spanish dance 'Fandango' as string quartet with guitar.
*This programme can be performed in either orchestra or chamber music setting.
The Forest of Mythical Breezes
In the forest of the Arcadian Mountains, Pan, in his pine needle garland, stumbles enchanted by the sight of Syrinx, the water nymph. Her chaste beauty overwhelms him like a blessed mythical breeze, accompanied by the forest’s own plaintive birdsong. Suddenly, ancient legends come to life and to the sweet sounds of the sylvan pipe, nature herself awakens: Let the celebration of love and life commence!
Flauguissimo brings new life to the mythical creatures of antiquity through a mini opera of French baroque repertoire. From Diana’s bath in Acteon and the chase of Pan and Syrinx to the Grande Entrée of Apollo himself, we finally unite, gods and humans alike, in the Dionysian fervor of Les Indes galantes!
The Queen without a Realm
The young Christina was raised to be an enlightened queen in a brutal age of war and conquest. With her great interest in religion, philosophy, mathematics and alchemy, she attracted leading thinkers to Stockholm in her quest to make it the "Athens of the North".
As a woman far ahead of her time, Queen Christina’s decisions not to marry and to convert to Catholicism both caused great scandal and even a constitutional crisis in the 17th-century Protestant Sweden. She abdicated her throne and went into exile. In 1655, to celebrate her official conversion in Innsbruck, the opera L'Argia was composed for her by the celebrated composer Antonio Cesti. The opera was performed twice during the week-long lavish party which almost bankrupted the Archduke of Austria!
During her visits to France, Christina was an honoured guest of the young Louis XIV and his mother as well as Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, one of Lully’s early patrons. Later, Christina was warmly welcomed by the Pope and settled in Rome where she founded the Academy of Arcadia in 1656. She was a great patron to many poets, artists and musicians, including L. Colista, A. Stradella and A. Scarlatti. Even the great violinist and composer Corelli was taken under her wings and he dedicated his first work, Sonata da chiesa opus 1, to Christina.
With Christina’s lavish events and parties reimagined, we invite you back in time to enjoy a dazzling musical evening!