
Programme and Performers
Programme
Arcangelo Corelli Concerto Grosso No 1 in D major, Op 6
Maria Grimani Sinfonia to Pallade e Marte
Arcangelo Corelli Concerto Grosso No 2 in F major, Op 6
Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons
Performers
Academy of Ancient Music
Richard Egarr director & harpsichord
Rachel Podger violin
Ken Chalmers surtitles
Vivaldi's Four Seasons sonnets
Spring has arrived merrily
the birds hail her with happy song
and, meanwhile, at the breath of the Zephyrs,
the streams flow with a sweet murmur:
thunder and lightning, chosen to proclaim her,
come covering the sky with a black mantle,
and then, when these fall silent, the little birds
return once more to their melodious incantation:
and so, on the pleasant, flowery meadow,
to the welcome murmuring of fronds and trees,
the goatherd sleeps with his trusty dog beside him.
To the festive sound of a shepherd’s bagpipe,
nymphs and shepherds dance beneath the beloved roof
at the joyful appearance of spring.
Artist biographies
'Rachel Podger, the unsurpassed British glory of the baroque violin' (The Times) has established herself as a leading interpreter of the Baroque and Classical. She was the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Prize in October 2015, Gramophone Artist of the Year 2018, and the Ambassador for REMA’s Early Music Day 2020. A creative programmer, Rachel is the founder and Artistic Director of Brecon Baroque Festival and her ensemble Brecon Baroque. Rachel is Patron for The Continuo Foundation.
Following an exciting and innovative collaboration, A Guardian Angel, with the ‘impeccable’ (Gramophone) vocal ensemble VOCES8, Rachel was thrilled to be one of the Artists in Residence at the renowned Wigmore Hall in 2019/2020. Alongside this, Rachel and Christopher Glynn released the world premiere of three previously unfinished Mozart sonatas in March 2021 which were completed by Royal Academy of Music Professor Timothy Jones. Rachel featured in The VOCES8 Foundation’s LIVE From London festivals in a new advent version of A Guardian Angel and as guest leader for the Academy of Ancient Music in Bach B Minor Mass. Rachel presented BBC Radio 3’s Inside Music and directed a new arrangement by Chad Kelly, The Goldberg Variations Reimagined.
A dedicated educator, she holds the Micaela Comberti Chair for Baroque Violin (founded in 2008) at the Royal Academy of Music and the Jane Hodge Foundation International Chair in Baroque Violin at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Rachel has a relationship with The Juilliard School in New York where she visits regularly. Rachel Podger is managed worldwide by Percius. www.percius.co.uk