La Folia

It’s off to green meadows with a touch of madness in this concert, with the aria “Verdi prati” from Handel’s opera Alcina forming the basis for the first piece. In the aria, the knight Ruggiero realises that the sorceress Alcina’s verdant isle is actually a desert populated by monsters and that for this reason he must leave, even though he admits that both she and her island’s beauty will haunt him for the rest of his life. The Spanish term “La Folía” (or madness) meanwhile, refers to one of the oldest documented European musical themes on record, and many composers have made use of it, not least Vivaldi in his opus 1 no. 12, written in 1705. As for Salieri’s variations on the original theme, it’s worthy of note that the work is one of very few sets of successful orchestral variations written before the late Romantic period.

G. Fr. HANDEL: Largo (orch.: Α. Baltas)
Concerto for oboe d’ amore “Verdi prati”
A. VIVALDI: La Folia
A. SALIERI: La Folia di Spagna

Soloist: Christina Pantelidou (oboe d’amore)
Conductor: Alkis Baltas

Tickets: €12, €7 (young people 18-26 yrs, pensioners), €5 (young people 12-18 yrs), €3 (children under 12)