Orpheus Baroque Ensemble

The Orfeus Barockensemble, founded in 2015, consists of members of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and is an expression of their interest in Baroque music and interpretation. The ensemble plays period instruments under the artistic leadership of first violin Elin Gabrielsson, who is also a member of the Italian Baroque orchestra Europa Galante. Their concerts are usually led by guest directors – in this case Peter Spissky, concert master and leader of the famous ensemble Concerto Copenhagen. 

Music by Antonio Vivaldi, a famous profile of eighteenth-century Venice, will serve as a theme throughout this programme. He was a teacher at a home for orphan girls, but also composed loads of high-intensity music at breakneck speed. With sharp movements, a rapid pace and sudden braking, this music sounds utterly modern – despite being 300 years old! Vivaldi was an incredibly skilled violinist and we will hear Peter Spissky and the Orpheus Baroque Ensemble in a number of Vivaldi’s concertos for strings and solo violin.

Between Vivaldi’s concertos, we will enjoy music by two giants of Baroque: English Purcell, and German Handel, whose Concerti Grossi, Op. 6, is one of the most beautiful and refined pieces written by any composer in the Baroque period. The form, which is called concerto grosso, is based on the interplay between a small group of soloists and the entire ensemble. We will also experience Purcell’s glimmering suite from the opera The Fairy Queen, one of the era’s largest stage productions, based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.