Bach, Vivaldi and Handel headline the MSO’s Baroque Festival, opening with a showcase of concertos directed from the harpsichord by Erin Helyard and featuring violinist Tair Khisambeev. Soprano Samantha Clarke then joins Helyard for an evening of arias including Handel’s Lascia ch’io pianga, originally written for Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno and reused in Rinaldo. The festival concludes with a 300th-anniversary performance of Bach’s St John Passion under Stephen Layton, former Music Director at Trinity College Cambridge and founder of Polyphony.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

Superstar soprano Samantha Clarke’s ravishing voice and incredible musicality have taken her from the beaches of Perth to the BBC proms and the international opera stage.

Now, Samantha returns to the MSO with Erin Helyard for a sublime evening of arias, interspersed with instrumental selections by two of the Baroque era’s most prolific composers. From the heartbreaking anguish of Lascia ch’io pianga to the thrilling vocal fireworks of Leggi almeno, this program of dramatic arias from Vivaldi and Handel’s great operas and oratorios is a must-see event.

Featuring MSO musicians as soloists, Vivaldi’s Concerto in D and Handel’s Concerto Grosso in B-flat highlight the stirring emotional capacity of baroque music from these two composers, lauded for their theatrical prowess.