Sunday, December 17, 3.00PM
Wednesday, December 20, 8.00PM
NEC's Jordan Hall
CLICK HERE for directions to NEC's Jordan Hall
Ring in the holidays in high style when the Handel and Haydn Society's engaging Associate Conductor John Finney joins members of the Chorus and Orchestra for a program of sublime Christmas music from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France. The program also includes Corelli's wonderful "Christmas Concerto" and two works by Charpentier: Midnight Mass for Christmas and his In nativitatem Domini canticum.
John Finney, conductor
Charpentier: Midnight Mass for Christmas
Charpentier: Magnificat
Charpentier: In nativitatem Domini canticum
Corelli: "Christmas" Concerto
Corelli's concertos were regarded as the model inspirations for subsequent composers; his personality was the type to elicit respect but not envy from other musicians. Opus 6, no. 8, the most famous of Corelli's twelve concerti grossi, was especially associated with Midnight Mass on Christmas eve. The French Charpentier was a pupil of Carissimi and therefore well grounded in the Italian style: Indeed, he upheld in France the Italian as opposed to the French style of Lully. His superb melodic invention surpassed Lully. He became Molière's musical collaborator, but most importantly, established the oratorio, in both Latin and French, in France.
For further information:
www.baroquemusic.org/bqxcorelli.html
(Short biography of Corelli.)
www.hoasm.org/VIIIA/Corelli.html
(Short biography of Corelli with paintings of him.)
www.charpentier.culture.fr/
(Charpentier site with sound files, in French.)
http://www.hoasm.org/VIIB/Charpentier.html
(A short biography and partial discography of Charpentier.)
http://dmoz.org/Arts/Music/Composition/Composers/C/Charpentier,_Marc-Antoine/
(Lists numerous websites on Charpentier.)
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