Torri, Gasparini and Hasse

She sings, she sings, Nuria Rial, like the bird for Twitter, a bluebird! Visitors to the Gstaad Menuhin Festival know this well, just as they are very familiar with the acrobatic talents of virtuoso Maurice Steger, who also is leading the Festival’s very dynamic Baroque Academy. Bring these two artists together with the Basel Chamber Orchestra and you have the makings for a heavenly concert!

It is said that music was invented in order to imitate the sounds of nature. During the 17th and 18th centuries this was still one of the guidelines for opera composition, particularly for the “aria di paragone” [comparable melody]. Expressions of human feelings and emotions were sought after in other living creatures, and these were set to music in similar or contrasting manners (for example, the songs of birds). Since birds seem able to express every emotion with their song, they often served as models in the composition of Baroque vocal music. This concert programme with the Basel Chamber Orchestra and soloists Nuria Rial and Maurice Steger focuses on the emotions that are associated in general with the song of birds: freedom, love, jealousy and pride.