Soprano (d’Astorga) and Soprano I (Dixit): Ana Beard Fernández 
Soprano II (Dixit): Jessica Wise
Countertenor: Tom Lilburn
Tenor: Nicholas Madden
Bass: Richard Bannan

Orpheus Sinfonia / Quire Voices

Conductor: Sean Bui

Handel’s Dixit Dominus is amongst the composers most famous and vivacious pieces. Written in 1707 when Handel was just twenty-two years old, the piece is both virtuosic and full of energy. A lively and elaborate setting of Psalm 110, its popularity has endured throughout the centuries.

Though considered a relatively obscure composer today, d’Astorga—an Italian Baron—wrote hundreds of compositions during his lifetime, and his music was highly prized and respected by his contemporaries, including Handel. Unfortunately, his music disappeared from public consciousness by the beginning of the twentieth century, and many of his compositions have been lost—his only surviving sacred work being his contemplative and melancholy Stabat Mater, also written c.1707.

This concert will contrast the reflective and expressive Stabat Mater with the dramatic Dixit Dominus—two compositions, crafted in the same year, by two of the period’s foremost composers.