Masters of Classics

The finale for our tenth season contrasts one of the earliest works of Baroque master George Friederich Handel and one of the late masterpieces of Classical genius Franz Joseph Haydn. The de Angelis singers will present these works accompanied by a period-instrument orchestra. Handel was a well-traveled young man who worked in an international style developed through his exposure to many artistic contemporaries. Dixit Dominus, composed under the patronage of Cardinal Carlo Colonna from Santa Maria de Monte Santo, is one of the brilliant works of the Baroque. Haydn spent a great deal of his professional life working for the Esterházy court in relative artistic isolation in Hungary where he composed music for opera, plays, even puppet shows. When he finally began traveling and performing abroad, he gained a huge international audience and it is in this late period he wrote the Lord Nelson Mass, a broad, beautiful capstone to his creative life.

GEORGE FRIEDERICH HANDEL Dixit Dominus

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN Lord Nelson Mass [Missa in Angustiis]