Handel’s Dixit Dominus And Vivaldi’s Gloria by Vivaldi, Händel, wo. 06 dec 2023, Van (2023/2023), Dirigent Ivor Setterfield, Cadogan Hall, Londen, Verenigd Koninkrijk

Barts Choir presents three Baroque masterpieces. Alongside Vivaldi’s evergreen Gloria is the less familiar Magnificat which, in its 15 minutes, contains some of his most original vocal writing. Both works – as many of his instrumental and choral works – were written for the talented pupils of the Pietà orphanage in Venice and feature the virtuoso writing for strings for which he was famous. In the early 1700s, the 22-year-old Handel was in Rome, and Dixit Dominus has all the hallmarks of a young man in a hurry, with elaborate contrapuntal writing for strings and voices to rival Corelli and Vivaldi, illustrating the different verses of this Vespers psalm.