AROUND THE BAROQUE

Over the course of three concerts, all of which will be shared by Casa da Música’s resident ensembles, we’ll travel through great works from the Baroque and Classical periods, but not only. Portuguese music has a special place in this Year of Portugal, starting with Carlos Seixas’ Harpsichord Concertos for the Baroque Orchestra and the prestigious conductor/harpsichordist Andreas Staier, in a programme that also evokes the presence of Domenico Scarlatti at the Portuguese court. Conductor Douglas Boyd returns to conduct João Domingos Bomtempo’s Libera me, which brings together the Symphony Orchestra and the Casa da Música Choir on the same stage, and also a transcription that breathes new life into one of Bach’s most famous concertos for keyboard and orchestra – the soloist is João Barradas, a Portuguese accordionist of international calibre. And because one of the legacies of the Baroque is precisely the concerto genre, which favours dialogue between a soloist and a collective, we return to the future with the Remix Ensemble, directed by Tito Ceccherini, to the sound of contemporary concertos by Luca Francesconi, Phillippe Manoury and Vasco Mendonça.