In 2025, Salut! Baroque is proud to celebrate 30 years of presenting Baroque Music at its Best!
Forming a new ensemble in 1995 was an exciting prospect, full of possibilities. Reflecting on our remarkable journey since then, we celebrate sharing our experiences with the 140 fabulous musicians who have performed with us, the diverse music of 280 brilliant composers, and our wonderful supportive audiences.
In this celebratory year, our concerts span the ages, honouring Baroque music as it emerged from the Renaissance, its resplendent peak and its evolution into the Classical period. Our programs pay tribute to the composers and musicians of this rapidly changing era who broke with tradition to become the pioneers of new instrumental techniques and performance styles. It brought forth a musical era based on drama, diversity and creativity, threading together politics, religion and social progress.
A feast of glorious music launches our celebratory year, with compositions spanning 400 years in Music to Celebrate. Creativity bloomed in the baroque period as concerts moved away from the confines of the church and royal courts into the public realm, with different styles becoming the “pop music” of the day. Music became more accessible through printing, creating an independent market for enterprising composers, performers, publishers and promoters alike. Our program will include some of The Four Seasons by Giovanni Guido, written around eight years before Vivaldi’s most famous composition, and Jan Rokyta’s enchanting Balkanology, written 300 years later and inspired by traditional Romanian and Turkish music with its complex rhythms and harmonies.
In April, Baroque Spirit encapsulates the dynamic spirit of the 17th and 18th centuries that goes beyond listening pleasure to reflect the cultural and political upheavals of the period. Drawing inspiration from Ottoman, Romani and Celtic influences, Baroque Spirit explores the rich weave of styles as nations looked beyond their European borders towards new discoveries. Composers sought innovative approaches to embellish their work for a newly popularised music market. This was aided by explorers, traders and missionaries, reflecting their thirst for new horizons and unique perspectives in an ever-expanding world. The result was music that bridged time and place, building on ancient foundations to develop a new spirit of musical exuberance and vitality.
Celebrity culture thrived during the baroque period and our July program, The Entrepreneur, celebrates one of the stars. A prolific composer of over 3,000 compositions that demonstrated an uncanny sense of popular musical trends, Georg Philipp Telemann was the most famous composer in Germany in his day. Being skilled on eleven instruments gave him the ability to understand “each instrument and what suits it best”. He absorbed and incorporated music from throughout Europe, and boasted that he could compose in the “Italian, French, English, Scottish and Polish styles”. Telemann was also at the forefront of printing technology and was a brilliant promoter of his own publications, amassing hundreds of subscribers.
The versatility of the voice has fascinated composers through the ages, from its purest form to its most virtuosic. Our final program for the year, Voice, Rejoice!, presents music of extraordinary variety and exquisite beauty – from the rhythms and colours of Spanish song, the majesty of the German choral tradition, the refinement of French opera, and the passion and theatricality of Italian arias. Through exploration and experimentation, composers harnessed the voice to reflect a spectrum of nuanced emotions such as tenderness, frailty and resentment. Singers became celebrities as they gave voice to emotions ranging from sensuousness and high passion to dark themes of anguish and revenge. Drama was the currency of the day and singers were the “rock stars”!
We look forward to performing with friends old and new, with music by our favourite composers and, as always, sharing new discoveries as we celebrate 30 years of The Best of Baroque!
