Mostly Baroque: Six Soloists - Two Triple Concertos

Two orchestral works with three soloists apiece – two triple concertos! – feature in today's concert.

Firstly, the extrovert Concerto in G for Flute, Oboe and Viola GWV.333 (1731) by Christoph Graupner, a contemporary of Handel and Telemann, and one-time rival of JS Bach. The recent revival of Graupner's music has plenty of material to work with from this prolific composer. There are nearly double the number of surviving manuscripts than extant from JS Bach, including 113 sinfonias, 85 suites, 44 concertos, 8 operas, 1,442 cantatas and 123 keyboard works.

Secondly, the imposing first movement from the beautiful Concertante for Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn and Orchestra (1804) by Bernhard Crusell. This Finnish-Swedish conductor, composer and virtuoso clarinetist wrote three clarinet concertos, but is perhaps best known for his Concertante. A little younger than his contemporary Beethoven, Crusell also translated major Italian, French and German operas for Swedish performances, including Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.

'Toccata', a fanfare from the opera Orfeo (1607) by Claudio Monteverdi, opens the programme. Bright and flamboyant qualities of English baroque music are apparent in selections from Henry Purcell's opera The Fairy Queen (1692).