Proms Saturday Matinee 1 - 2.08.14: Armonia Atenea, Margariti / Karaianni / Petrou

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Saturday, 2 August
3.00 p.m. – c. 4.30 p.m.
Cadogan Hall

Greek ensemble Armonia Atenea and George Petrou, live at the BBC Proms with music from Baroque operas with appropriately classical storylines.

Handel: Alessandro - overture
Handel: Arianna in Creta - 'Se nel bosco'
Hasse: Artemisia - sinfonia
Paisiello: Olimpiade - 'E mi lasci così?' ...'Ne' giorni tuoi felici'
Lully: Phaeton - suite
Vivaldi: Giustino - 'Vedrò con mio diletto'
Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice - Dance of the Blessed Spirits; Dance of the Furies
Gluck: Iphigénie en Aulide - 'Ma fille, Jupiter'
Paisiello: Olimpiade - 'Sciogli, oh Dio! le sue catene'

Myrsini Margariti (soprano)
Irini Karaianni (mezzo soprano)
Armonia Atenea
George Petrou (conductor)

The first Greek orchestra ever to appear at the Proms, Armonia Atenea is joined by its Artistic Director George Petrou to present a programme with an appropriately classical flavour. Greek myths form the thread through a Baroque labyrinth of arias and overtures from French, German and Italian operas, including Gluck's Orphée, Handel's Arianna in Creta and Lully's Phaeton. Furies rage, sons defy their fathers and heroines bewail their fate in what promises to be a concert of high drama.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oh dear. I think of Saturday Matinee concerts as being a bit more challenging, rather than the safe CFM group of excerpts offered here.

[doversoul1]

3.00pm today

Armonia Atenea is no mere novelty ensemble as part of this ‘International’ Proms season.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Decca/4784699#video

…and

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/advsearch.php?composer=&work=&performer=Armonia+Atenea+&medium=all&label=&cat

[doversoul1]

A tremendously enjoyable (almost all) Baroque feast. Very well planned programme and an excellent performance. Here’s the link if anybody is interested.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04cb63f

Mind you, the schedule page is a complete mess. It even tells us that the music played was Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber. Thanks.

[Historian]

Mind you, the schedule page is a complete mess. It even tells us that the music played was Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber. Thanks.

In fairness, there was a performance of the Hindemith in the intervening space between this prom and the subsequent scheduled programme.

[aeolium]

A tremendously enjoyable (almost all) Baroque feast. Very well planned programme and an excellent performance. Here’s the link if anybody is interested.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04cb63f

Mind you, the schedule page is a complete mess. It even tells us that the music played was Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber. Thanks.

Tried to listen on i-player but what comes out is Jazz Record Requests (see what happens when you play the link provided above). I'll see if they have sorted out the programme link later.

[David-G]

Oh dear. I think of Saturday Matinee concerts as being a bit more challenging, rather than the safe CFM group of excerpts offered here.

I am not familiar with CFM; but would I really find Hasse, Paisiello and Gluck there?

[doversoul1]

Tried to listen on i-player but what comes out is Jazz Record Requests (see what happens when you play the link provided above). I'll see if they have sorted out the programme link later.

19.10. It's still the same. I hope they'll correct it.

Originally Posted by Eine Alpensinfonie

Oh dear. I think of Saturday Matinee concerts as being a bit more challenging, rather than the safe CFM group of excerpts offered here

I think there was one Handel's work that might come in Your Top Ten Handel (I can't be more precise as the actual programme did not correspond with the playlist) but the rest were all very much less often played, if at all, works. It wasn't exactly a deeply profound programme, but this is after all a Saturday Matinee, and for that, I thought it was an excellent programme.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I am not familiar with CFM; but would I really find Hasse, Paisiello and Gluck there?

I was referring more to the bittiness of the programme, but since you ask, yes I would expect Gluck"s Dance of the Blessed Spirits on CFM.

[doversoul1]

I was referring more to the bittiness of the programme, but since you ask, yes I would expect Gluck"s Dance of the Blessed Spirits on CFM.

Ah, yes, I’ve remembered now. That was the only work that was well known in the entire concert (call me ignorant…)

And as the works were played in groups, it did not give the impression of being bitty (call me uncultivated…)

[doversoul1]

The programme is now back on iPlayer.

[aeolium]

Thanks to those who made representations to get the i-player link sorted. Like doversoul, I thought this was an enjoyable and well-devised programme and find incomprehensible the representation of the concert as a "safe CFM group of excerpts". Only one of the pieces, the Gluck "Dances of the Blessed Spirits" from Orfeo ed Eurydice, would normally have been found on CFM (I imagine). As to the "bittiness", how else could a representative selection of different styles of Baroque music associated with classical myths be programmed in a 90-minute concert? I was glad of the chance of hearing orchestral music and arias by Hasse and Paisiello, composers who rarely get broadcast even on R3.

[bluestateprommer]

A tremendously enjoyable (almost all) Baroque feast. Very well planned programme and an excellent performance....

Indeed, totally agree, well done all around from Armonia Atenea, Myrsini Margariti and Irini Karaianni, and George Petrou directing the proceedings. Armonia Atenea is more than a match for any full time baroque ensemble out there in the UK or on the continent, with plenty of style and finesse. CB-H as the "hostess with the mostest" also did fine, even with her repetitive tic of mentioning that the orchestra will tune before the next selection (but that's just her way), definitely in a much better situation that the distinctively uncomfortable situation last year with Camerata Nordica, where the leader was very uncomfortable in the mini-interview part. No such worries here from George Petrou, who's quite comfortable doing the mini-interview thing and is a charmer. If you like your baroque, don't miss this one while it's still there.