Festival: Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music

The title reflecting a countertenor aria from Henry Purcell’s Ode to St Cecilia, “’tis Nature’s Voice” was the overall theme of this year’s Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, which drew to a spectacular close on Saturday.

After Friday’s sublime performance of Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato at the opening concert of 2013 Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, I am puzzled why this ravishing masterpiece doesn’t enjoy wider popularity (although it was performed recently at the London Handel Festival).

It is no surprise that in this Olympic year, various cultural goings-on have taken on, or alluded to, a sporting theme. This year's Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music made no exception, taking as its theme the ethos of the Olympic Games – Contests, Competitions and the Harmony of Nations – and cunningly applying it to incidents in musical history, as well as to music itself.