Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists

About the Event

Hear the sounds of Rome in Handel’s motet Dixit Dominus, which was written in the city in 1707. Contrasting Italian styles with the echoes of German chorales, Handel depicted the text of Psalm 109 in an almost graphic manner. Repeated, broken notes underline the the word “conquassabit” (“he will shatter”), and contrast starkly with the sweet fluidity of vocal harmonies illustrating “de torrente in via bibet” (“on the road he will drink from the stream”).

Then share in the emotive power of the sorrow so poignantly captured by Scarlatti in his Stabat Mater. A cantata composed by Bach in 1714, for the eleventh Sunday after the Trinity, will follow. Mein Herz schwimmt in Blut was inspired by the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, each of whom is powerfully represented by a very different musical source: the chorale Wo soll ich fliehen hin by Johann Heermann and a secular song by Jacob Regnart.