Summertime at Springhead

After an absence of five months, the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras returned to live performing with an intimate lakeside concert in the grounds of John Eliot Gardiner’s childhood home, Springhead, on Friday 21 August.

This open-air concert took inspiration from previous performances at Springhead during the 70s and 80s, and showcased music which made a significant impression on John Eliot Gardiner during his adolescence, and led ultimately to the founding of the Monteverdi ensembles.

Members of the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, alongside soloists Lucy Crowe and Julia Doyle, braved strong winds and sporadic downpours to perform music by Handel, Monteverdi, Brahms, Debussy and Purcell beside Springhead’s idyllic lake.

Summertime at Springhead from Stagecast Ltd on Vimeo.

PROGRAMME

Handel
Excerpts from Acis and Galatea HWV 49a:
Chorus ‘Oh the pleasures of the plains’
Aria ‘Must I my Acis still bemoan’
Aria ‘Heart, the seat of soft delight’
Chorus ‘Galatea, dry thy tears’

Monteverdi
Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti
Lamento della Ninfa

Brahms
Vier Gesänge op. 17:
1. Es tönt ein voller Harfenklang
2. Lied von Shakespeare
3. Der Gärtner
4. Gesang aus Fingal

Debussy
Danse sacrée et danse profane

Purcell
Excerpts from acts I and III of Dido and Aeneas Z 626