Silete venti is a naturalistic motet in five parts for a soprano voice. It was probably inspired by Handel's return to Italy in 1729. Recognised as one of the composer's most vocally demanding compositions, it is situated between the profane evocation of the 'furious winds' and religious passion, in a text that blurs the distinctions […]
Splendid, ambitious, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's Harmonia artificiosa is a work that delivers all the talents of its author and marks the budding virtuosity of the violin. It is a tour de force and is defined as the culmination of technical and stylistic research. With it, the violin takes on a new place in the […]
During the Parisian musical evenings of the Concert spirituel in 1750, one could hear a few pages by the great Lully, then by the innovative Rameau, and a few notes of sacred music alternating with the latest fashionable cantata. This was called the 'Fragments', the idea being to retain only the best, or rather what […]
