The beginning of 1740 in London was marked by an exceptionally severe winter. The River Thames froze over completely, the cold delayed food supplies, and organisers of cultural events were forced to postpone or cancel their programmes. Despite the freezing weather, George Frideric Handel threw himself into work on another piece for one of London’s theatres. He quickly embraced a suggestion put forward by a group of his literary friends: to set to music two poems by the much-admired English poet John Milton – L'Allegro and Il Penseroso. The former is a hymn to merriment and the bustling life of the city; the latter praises focus, contemplation, and solitude. To reconcile such contrasting outlooks, a third allegorical figure was needed, in keeping with the Enlightenment ideal of the golden mean: Il Moderato, absent from Milton's original. The new text was written by Handel's collaborator, the poet Charles Jennens, who drew, among other sources, on Shakespeare's The Tempest.

The result was a work of almost philosophical character, defying easy classification and rich in graceful arias and the choruses for which Handel is so greatly admired. Throughout the work, the composer drew freely on English traditions, vividly depicting the sounds of the countryside and of nature, while at the same time endowing it with humour.

The soloists and the ensembles of the Warsaw Philharmonic will be led by Nicholas McGegan, one of the world's foremost authorities on Handel’s music. The conductor is exceptionally familiar with L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato: he has conducted the work on numerous occasions and regards his collaboration with the Mark Morris Dance Group on its renowned choreographic interpretation as one of the most important artistic experiences of his career.

Bartłomiej Gembicki