The Sonatas 4-6 by Nicola Porpora, which will be performed in this programme, are part of the XII Sonatae per violino e basso continuo, which the composer had printed in Vienna in 1754. In 2021, as part of the concert series Baroque Violin Unentdeckt, the Sonatas 1-3 from this cycle have already been presented.
The Porpora had already reached the peak of his work in 1754, but those years of his second stay in Vienna were also the final years of the brilliant career of the opera composer (who had resisted Handel), the final years of the great composer’s spiritual music, the undisputed singing teacher or the teacher of the young Haydn.
The excellent, although today misunderstood and little consulted collection of the XII Sonatas leaves little room for the then widespread opera taste. Porpora renounces the simple and fluid cantabile character so dear to music theatre, in order to explore much more the technical and tonal possibilities of the violin, always drawing on the strictness of the archaic forms of counterpoint.
In the short preface of the work, Porpora speaks of “vivace e Capricciosa mistura d’antico e di moderno, d’italiano e di francese” (living and imaginative blend of the old and the modern of Italian and French), thus joining the cosmopolitan line of the many Italian composers who emigrated abroad, a series that reflects the attempt of synonyms. different musical tastes.
The programme will also include two more pieces of music, for cello and harpsichord solo, composed by Geminiani and Scarlatti, which perfectly reflect the spirit of the era.

The performance includes the most spectacular music of the 18th century by Nicola Porpora, who was internationally active Italian composer of the Baroque period. He wrote twelve sonatas for violin, which were published in Vienna in 1754. These works are kept in a gallant style fashionable at the time. In the concert, humorous notes of a Hungarian or Dacian Simplicissimus from 1683 are read between the pieces, which thrillingly reflect the zeitgeist.

During the break we welcome the audience with wine and bread.