British conductor Jonathan Cohen is bringing his exceptional musical intelligence to the podium of the Budapest Festival Orchestra Baroque Ensemble twice this season - the first time in a "madcap” Spanish atmosphere. The evening will include Geminiani's La Follia - originally a frantically and tumultuous fertility dance, rapid and passionate, the "folly” eventually grew into a genuine bridge between cultures. More than 150 composers have used this motif, which has found its way into the cultures of Spain, Italy, Britain, Germany and even Scandinavia.
The title of Durante's concerto La Pazzia can also be translated as a kind of "madness”. Like Alessandro Scarlatti, who wrote only sacred music, the Italian composer worked in Naples during the Spanish occupation. The piece featured at the concert also dates to this period.
The suite by Telemann is linked to Spanish culture through its protagonist. The incredibly prolific German composer - who yielded more works than Bach and Handel put together - paid tribute to the greatness of Cervantes by composing music to the story of Don Quixote. This burlesque promises humour, merriment and the pinnacle of musical storytelling.
The second half of the concert is full of special treats. Isolated in the Spanish court, the harpsichord virtuoso Domenico Scarlatti composed almost exclusively for that instrument, but had a wonderful sense for how to captivate the audience almost from the opening bars of his music.
Like Scarlatti, Boccherini also chose to make his home in Spain, serving as court composer in Madrid from the age of 26. Although his skill as a cello virtuoso made him an important contributor to the development of the string quartet as a genre, it is one of his symphonies that the Budapest Festival Orchestra Baroque Ensemble will be playing, as a curiosity. In a similar vein, Domenico Sarro is more famous for his operas than for his concertos, making the inclusion in the concert of the - sometimes fabulously atmospheric and other times heart-wrenching - Recorder Concerto in A minor a true rarity.

Presented by: Budapest Festival Orchestra, Müpa Budapest