Im Auftrag der Zarin

Closing concert with the
participants of the Musikfest Atelier »Katharinas Hofmusik«
Kammerchor der Stadtkantorei Jever (director: Klaus Wedel)
Alfredo Bernardini and Alessandro Quarta directors

Programme:
Music by Baldassare Galuppi, Giovanni Paisiello, Vincenzo Manfredini, Domenico Cimarosa, Giuseppe Millico and Niccolò Piccinni
Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 55 in E flat major Hob. I:55 (»The Schoolmaster«)

In 1793, Tsarina Catherine II became the official sovereign of the dominion of Jever as the closest living relative of the extinct Anhalt-Zerbst line. In distant St. Petersburg, where she had reigned as an enlightened despot since 1762, she promoted the arts to ensure that her relatively new residence would rival the European capitals Music played a key role in staging court life in the Western style. For Catherine the Great, only the best were good enough. In 1765, she relieved Baldassare Galuppi from his prestigious contract with St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, and later attracted other renowned composers, including Giovanni Paisiello and Domenico Cimarosa, to her court. Building on last year’s programme, Alfredo Bernardini, Alessandro Quarta and other tutors will work with the Atelier participants and the chamber choir of the Stadtkantorei Jever on a new selection of arias, duets and choral music by these composers and others, how the Tsarina used Italian opera to establish the city on the Neva as a cultural centre of European significance.

supported by NORDMETALL, the Barthel Stiftung and the Steinbrecher Gruppe
in cooperation with the district of Friesland