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love: Handel 2021 – A Virtual European Tour
A virtual European tour
All roads lead to Handel – after the 18 months that we all experienced, with live music-making and travel severely disrupted, what better way to mark the easing of restrictions than love: Handel 2021 celebrating Handel, his musical friends and colleagues around Europe, and BSB’s own joy in performing together again. We asked audiences to sit back and relax as The Brook Street Band took them on a virtual tour of Handel’s Europe (including many of the cities we missed visiting) from the comfort of their seats, no passport required!
There were 5 chamber music concerts in the 2021 festival:
1: Travels around Germany
The Brook Street Band celebrates a return to live music-making with the first concert in the love: Handel 2021 festival featuring gorgeous music by Handel, Bach and Telemann, with sumptuous trio sonatas composed in three of our favourite cities, Halle, Leipzig and Hamburg.
2: A Day Trip to London
What could be more fitting for love: Handel 2021 than an entire concert dedicated to the great man’s chamber music. We were thrilled to be joined by special guest, oboist Joel Raymond, showcasing one of Handel’s favourite instruments, including one of his earliest works, written when still a teenager in Halle. We travelled to the vibrant music scene in Handel’s London, via Dresden, a city famed for its stunning violinists and opera stars.
3: Handel’s Musical Pleasure Gardens
The musicians of The Brook Street Band gave a relaxed and family-friendly concert for parents and carers, babies/toddlers/children of all ages with gorgeous baroque music by Handel and his musical colleagues, conjuring up the idyllic pastoral setting of Norwich’s hugely popular musical Pleasure Gardens.
4: An East Anglian Staycation
Handel became naturalised as a British citizen in 1727, consolidating his immoveable position in British musical life, and making London and Brook Street his permanent home. We celebrated some of Handel’s music written for his beloved English audiences, alongside pieces by fellow English composers including Boyce and East Anglian star violinist Joseph Gibbs.
5: European City Breaks
The love:Handel 2021 festival finale comprised a trip to Paris and Venice, evoking the splendid world of French courtly chamber music and a glimpse into the magic of Venice, city of Vivaldi and where Handel worked as a young man.
love:Handel 2021 took place on 9-10 October 2021, at The Chapel, Park Lane, Norwich.