Work: Royal Fireworks Music, HWV 351

There was a celebratory atmosphere to launch the 2022 festival, including royal fireworks and coronation anthems, but it was Ukrainian mezzo Anna Starushkevych who provided the evening's most moving moment. 

This concert of Purcell and Handel was as theatrically engaging as anything you'd find in an opera house.

Guest conductor Harry Bicket transformed the chameleon-like Cleveland Orchestra for this program of Handel, Rameau, and Purcell.

Nicholas Kraemer led the Chicago Symphony in a spirited program of Handel that included some rarely heard vocal works with the chorus and soprano Amanda Forsythe.

Finghin Collins and Rosanne van Sandwijk shine as soloists while the Orchestra of the 18th Century was as authoritative as ever under the baton of Kenneth Montgomery.