Contemporary: Then and Now
6-7pm - Rush Hour Charity Concert
Fri 4 May 2018

The Foundling Museum 
40 Brunswick Square
Bloomsbury
London
WC1N 1AZ

Programme

Endless Pleasure, from Semele
Lascia ch’io pianga, from Rinaldo
Piangero la sorte mia, from Giulio Cesare
Rejoice greatly, o daughter of Zion, from Messiah
- performed by Guildhall School of Music students: Erika Baikoff - Soprano and Esther Kit Sum Li - Piano

‘Evolutional’ by Eliot Lloyd Short
‘Rituals’ by Maria Moraru (World Premier)
- performed by Modulus Quartet

Every classical music ensemble has the enviable challenge of a selecting from a huge array of classical masterpieces and it can be easy to forget that in their time these works of art were fresh, groundbreaking and often challenging to audiences. They were, once upon a time, contemporary works and not all of them were considered instant successes! Handel himself, despite his grand reputation was no stranger to this phenomenon, his now most famous work, 'The Messiah’, being less than a hit at it's London premiere. 

It is also worth remembering that concerts, such as those performed at The Foundling Hospital Chapel, were major social events and would have cast new classical music in a much more highly anticipated and celebrated light than is common today.

With these thoughts in mind, we thought it would be interesting to curate a programme of works that were contemporary in Handel's time, alongside contemporary compositions of today. Including a premiere of a new string quartet! 

‘Contemporary: Then and Now’ has been curated in association with the The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, The Foundling Museum and with the kind support of Prof Harold Short and Dr Vanessa Davies.