The English Concert and Artistic Director Harry Bicket return to the Wigmore Hall on 29 May for a concert with mezzo-soprano Alice Coote. The following day, on 30 May, they perform a celebration of the 18th-century Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens at The Foundling Museum.

Acclaimed mezzo Alice Coote, who made her debut with Bicket and The English Concert in concerts opening the 2010-11 season in the United States, returns to the orchestra with a programme featuring two composers who are at the core of the ensemble's repertoire - Handel and Purcell. In works that range from acts of heroism to flights of fantasy, tragedy to comedy, Purcell is represented by suites from his semi-operas The Fairy Queen and Dioclesian, and Handel by selections from his operas Ariodante and Hercules. There could be a no more ideal soloist to join The English Concert than Coote, "such a distinctive performer - the bittersweet tang and tragic weight in the tone, the dark and forthright chest voice, the emotional candor in her phrasing," commented The Washington Post, reviewing her performance at the Library of Congress with Bicket and The English Concert in October 2010.

Bicket and The English Concert are seasoned performers of this repertoire. In October 2011 they treated American audiences to excerpts from Purcell's Fairy Queen during a coast-to-coast tour with countertenor Andreas Scholl, with the orchestra playing like "virtuosi ... A beautiful evening of music-making," according to ClassicsToday.com. In the spring of 2011, Bicket presided over a star-studded Hercules at Lyric Opera of Chicago, one of the Chicago Sun Times' "Top Classical Events of 2011". Coote has previously worked with Bicket at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in Handel's Orlando, which was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production. The English Concert has made no fewer than fifteen Handel recordings and nine of Purcell including Dioclesian under founding Artistic Director Trevor Pinnock.

Whilst Purcell and Handel were impressing the gentry with their stage works, in the summer of 1732 the Spring Gardens at Vauxhall were opened to the public for informal musical entertainment, with the main attractions being the orchestral concerts. On 30 May, The English Concert presents a programme coinciding with The Foundling
Museum's summer exhibition devoted to Vauxhall Gardens, including music from the garden's 18th-century heyday. The popular style of the music by composers such as Arne and Boyce as well as Handel (who was a governor and benefactor of the Foundling Hospital) reflects the informality and social diversity of the Garden's clientele. This was a place where anyone who could afford the entrance price of one shilling could feel, for an evening at least, on an equal footing with royalty and the wealthy.

Highlights of The English Concert's 2011-12 season have included collaborations with tenor Ian Bostridge, mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager, and soprano Elizabeth Watts at the Wigmore Hall; Heinrich Schütz's great choral work Christmas Story at St. John's Smith Square; a North American tour with countertenor Andreas Scholl; and performances in Antwerp, Bremen, Calais, Gröningen and Hannover.

The English Concert was founded in 1973 by Trevor Pinnock and is among the world's finest chamber orchestras, combining sheer joy in music-making with technical brilliance that makes their performances and recordings benchmarks of excellence. The orchestra began a new era in 2007 with the appointment of Harry Bicket, a conductor of exceptional range and broad musical sympathies.

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For further information, interview and image requests, please contact Melanne Mueller, MusicCo International Ltd., melanne@musiccointernational.com, 020 8542 4866

CONCERT INFORMATION
Tuesday, May 29 - 7:30 pm
Wigmore Hall
Harry Bicket director/harpsichord
Alice Coote mezzo-soprano
Purcell Suite from Dioclesian
Handel Overture, Sinfonia and 3 scenes from Hercules
Purcell Suite from Fairy Queen
Handel Ballet Music and 3 arias from Ariodante

Wednesday, 30 May 2012 - 7:00 pm
The Foundling Museum
Harry Bicket harpsichord/director
Julia Doyle soprano
Katharina Spreckelsen oboe
"An Evening at Vauxhall"
Handel Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No.5
Arne Cantata 'The Morning'
Boyce Symphony No. 8 in D minor
Two Vauxhall songs:
J C Bach 'Cease awhile ye winds'
Chilcot 'Orpheus with his lute'
Handel Concerto in G minor for oboe and strings
Arne Cantata 'The Lover's Recantation'