The Franciscan monastery of Santo Toribio, located in the Cantabrian region of Liébana, in the foothills of the Picos de Europa, is one of the main holy places of Catholicism along with Rome, Santiago, Caravaca and Assisi and, like them, is an important centre of pilgrimage. The lignum crucis it houses is considered by the Church to be the largest surviving fragment of the cross of Jesus Christ. The monastery also houses works by Beatus of Liébana, author of the famous illuminated manuscripts of the Commentary on the Apocalypse. Every seven years, when the feast of Santo Toribio falls on a Sunday, as was the case in 2017, the Lebaniego Jubilee Year is celebrated, which includes a multitude of cultural initiatives. One of these was this special concert in celebration of the Jubilee Year which was held on 13 July of that year with the sponsorship of Viesgo.
The concert was performed by the Camerata Viesgo under the direction of Maestro Péter Csaba. The programme consisted of a journey through the instrumental music of the 18th century. The second of Arcangelo Corelli's Concertos op. 6 was played, which became the birth certificate of a key musical form of the baroque period: the concerto grosso. By Georg Philipp Telemann, one of the many concertos he wrote in this form was performed. By Georg Friedrich Händel, an example of another of the most important musical forms of that period was included: the trio sonata. A sonata by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was also programmed, which already looks to a new time, the same one to which Father Antonio Soler opened the doors of the monastery of El Escorial in Madrid. One of Soler's masterpieces was heard: the Fandango for harpsichord. An interesting detail of this concert is that the works are arranged in reverse chronological order, starting with the post-baroque Soler and ending with the pioneering Corelli.
Conductor | Péter Csaba
Carlos Araújo, flute
William Ball, oboe
Ángel Luis Sánchez Moreno, oboe
Erney Vargas Barboza, bassoon
Camille Joubert, violin
Eva Rabchevska, violin
Jovana Raljic, violin
Cheuk-Nam Tse, violin
Otto Antikainen, violin
Camille Joubert, violin
Áaron Petrus-Bölöni, cello
Orlando Bass, harpsichord
Camerata Viesgo del Encuentro de Música de Santander
Program
Antonio Soler
Fandango for harpsichord solo in D minor, R. 146
Georg Philipp Telemann
Concerto for four violins in G major, TWV 40: 201-204
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Flute Sonata in A minor, H. 562
Georg Friedrich Händel
Sonata for oboe, violin and harpsichord No. 6 in D major HWV 385 - Version for two oboes and basso continuo
Arcangelo Corelli
Concerto grosso in F major, op. 6, no. 2