The night will start with Purcell's most successful music for the stage: The Fairy Queen. The movements from the five-act piece, which also includes popular dances, perfectly reflect the playful atmosphere of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the work that inspired it.
No matter whether he was composing church music or an opera, Handel always found a way to supply his singers with virtuosic parts. The motet Saeviat tellus inter rigores includes four major arias, each with its own character. The lightning-fast leaps of the title movement demand just as much from the singer as the endless coloraturas of the closing Hallelujah segment do. In between, we'll heard the dark Stellae fidei and the lyrical O nox dulcis.
William Boyce dedicated nearly his entire life to remaining in the good graces of the royal family through his works. The three-movement symphony in B-flat major being performed at the concert was written to open the New Year's festivities for 1756. The Water Music is connected to one of the most exciting concerts in music history. Handel, whose enjoyment of the favour of King George I was intermittent, was aiming to make a kind gesture by composing three suites in the monarch's honour in 1717. The pieces were performed from a boat on the Thames positioned near the king's own vessel.

Presented by: Budapest Festival Orchestra, Müpa Budapest