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New Worlds: Exile

Academy of Ancient Music

The shore of a castaway island

Exile, elegance and adventure: Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music follow Joseph Haydn to 18th-century London, in a concert of thrilling emotional extremes.

When Haydn arrived in London in 1791, he triggered a full-scale Georgian media frenzy – and responded with some of his most enduring and imaginative music. This new world offered him fortune as well as fame, and today Laurence Cummings demonstrates why, in a concert that explores the full, glorious range of one of music’s first global superstars.

That means a tempestuous overture from an opera set on a desert island, and a rare performance of the Sinfonia Concertante, in which four of the AAM’s own stars take the spotlight in a witty quadruple concerto, written to delight a fashionable crowd. And at the heart of it all, two extraordinary, impassioned mini-operas. These two cantatas were enormous hits with the London audience, and today you’ll hear why.

The performance ends at approximately 9.30pm, with a 20-minute interval.

Produced by the Academy of Ancient Music

Pre-concert talk

18:30, Milton Court

Musicologist Richard Jones will be speaking about Haydn's career in London.

Milton Court Concert Hall

Location
Milton Court Concert Hall is located within the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and is approximately a 5 minute walk from the Barbican entrance on Silk Street.  

Address
Milton Court
Silk St, London
EC2Y 9BH

Nearby public transport
We are within walking distance from a number of London Underground stations, the closest being Barbican, Old Street, St Paul’s and Moorgate. The nearest train stations are Liverpool Street and Farringdon. Bus Route 153 runs directly past the Barbican along Chiswell Street

Car and bicycle parking
We have free bicycle spaces and paid car parking spaces available