The Bach Sinfonia - The Forgotten Baroque: Masterworks from the Seventeenth Century - MODERN PREMIERE! May 17, 2008

The Forgotten Baroque: Masterworks from the Seventeenth Century

JENNIFER ELLIS KAMPANI, soprano
BARBARA HOLLINSHEAD, alto
TONY BOUTTÉ, tenor
SUMNER THOMPSON, bass
DANIEL ABRAHAM, conductor

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: Stabat Mater (modern première)
Salamon Rossi: Motets and Psalms from Hashirim Asher Lish’lomo (“The Songs of Solomon”)
Giacomo Carissimi: Historia di Jephte

In this very special concert, The Bach Sinfonia will present the modern premiere of Biber’s Stabat Mater. Daniel Abraham, Sinfonia’s music and artistic director, has edited the composition from manuscripts that survive in Salzburg where Biber was Kapellmeisterfrom 1684 until his death in 1704. The concert also offers the rare opportunity to hear Rossi’s radiant polyphonic Hebrew motets and psalm settings from Hashirim Asher Lish'omo(1623), his important offering of choral compositions for the standard Jewish liturgy. Carissimi’s beautiful oratorio, one of the first pieces in its genre, depicts the story of Jephte, who pledges to sacrifice his only child as an offering for victory in battle. The dramatic musical imagery of Jephte and his daughter’s plight includes battle scenes, songs of triumph, painful parting, and a final, stirring, mournful chorus filled with anguish and lament.

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