Mother's Day Concert

Everyone knows 'Eine kleine Nachtmusik' - but how often have you heard this epitome of light classical light music in concert? When a unique team like Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico take it on, you can be sure of a special, even surprising experience. Could it whip the Haydnsaal audience into a mad frenzy? In 1611, a Spanish encyclopaedia explained that the exuberant dance known as the 'Foli' was named after the word for 'crazy' (Spanish folía, French folie, Italian follia), because the dancers would move so quickly that they would appear to have lost their minds. The follia also entered pure instrumental music as a theme for variations - for example with Francesco Geminiani, whose employed it for a fascinating chain of variations on a theme that is twisted and turned in an almost crazy way. The 'Toy Symphony' attributed to Leopold Mozart, with all manner of entertaining, noise-making instruments, also seems crazily amusing. There the sonorous cello tone of Nicolas Altstaedt comes in handy in two respects - for Joseph Haydn's popular C major concerto.