London 1740, Cantatas in the garden of pleasures
Radio France Occitanie Montpellier Festival
24/07/2022 20 h 45
London circa 1740 is the third part of a series of 4 discs on the history of instrumental music in England in the 18th century. The 1740s were dominated by the instrumental vogue of the traverso, which came from Germany, and the opening of cultural venues to the greatest number of people, with the birth of new cultural concert spaces such as public gardens. And finally, after the overwhelming domination of London, the progressive rise of the territories, of which one of the strong symbols is the trend of "traditional" Scottish music which echoes the debate on nature dear to the 18th century.
At a time when we are questioning the future of Europe and the recent Brexit, on the debates between territories and capital and on the reception of foreigners, the history of London in the mid-eighteenth century is the example of a city governed by a "foreigner", George II, a German sovereign and who knew how to draw an interesting experience from its opening to Europe, to relay the ideological and artistic debates that agitate the old continent and to show its modernity.
Eugénie Lefebvre, soprano
Olivier Riehl, traverso
Florence Bolton, viola da gamba
Benjamin Perrot, theorbo