Handel, Oboe Concerto in G Minor Agesto Steffani, Stabat Mater with NYS Baroque Choral Soloists Join us for a splendid reception to follow both concerts. T ime is of the essence.
Nothing exists except in time.
Rome represents a convergence of many aspects of the measurement of time which inspires this program. The measurement of time by the movements of celestial orbs, including ours, bespeaks a harmony or divine ordering which is reasonable and relates to the marking of musical time as well. By 1619 Johannes Kepler had devoted much of his live to showing how proportions in music were derived from the same proportions in the movements of the planets. Cold reasoning mingled with various passions to produce lesser and greater expressions of social attitudes. On a more dolorous note, the text of the Stabat Mater , a medieval sequence or hymn, is a devotion to the Virgin Mary as she keeps her station at the foot of the cross.