CHORAGE® #3: From Harmony to Harmony the King's Music

A new beginning and, at the same time, a return to old splendor: King Charles II's accession to the throne in 1660 ended the short-lived Puritan regency with the restoration of the monarchy in the British Isles. "It also meant a revival of the arts," says Howard Arman: "Theaters reopened after a long period of closure, and Charles, who had stayed several times in exile at the court of his cousin Louis XIV, took the opportunity to establish at home the French taste he had developed there." The king had his favorite musicians study in Europe and, conversely, attracted artists from France. "The increased French influences on the English style, together with the new artistic atmosphere of the Restoration, brought about a unique flowering of compositional energy and daring. This program traces those developments and includes music from France and England, from before and after the Restoration by Lully, Pelham Humfrey, Purcell and Croft."

 

Of course, energy and daring were also necessary in 1983, when Howard Arman was the first conductor to step in front of the Bach Choir Salzburg: Albert Hartinger had founded it at that time as an ensemble of the Salzburg Bach Society - for the cultivation of older music history in particular. Arman realized this in exemplary fashion during his 17-year tenure: extensive research resulted in exquisite programs, for which he often wrote his own editions. With Arman's return to the conductor's podium, the Bach Choir proudly continues this past.