Schwetzingen SWR Festival: Siren Songs and Flute Sounds

Resident artist Dorothee Oberlinger and her Ensemble 1700 present recorder concertos and other works from the Baroque period. We do not know how beautiful the voices of the ancient sirens sounded. We only know that those who heard them met their demise. And that is why Odysseus and his companions plugged their ears with wax as they sailed past the singers. Out of anger and sorrow over this, the sirens subsequently took their own lives. It’s over, it’s done! The audience does not have to fear for their lives when they now open their ears to enchanting sounds that originated near the mythological event. The Schwetzingen resident artist Dorothee Oberlinger and her Ensemble 1700 present as seductive as operatic songs for recorder and orchestra from a Neapolitan manuscript. Additionally, there is a trio sonata by the great Baroque melodist Georg Friedrich Handel. And there is a riddle. Is the Concerto a quattro in D minor for recorder, violin, cello, and basso continuo a composition by the young Telemann, from which Handel later borrowed some ideas, or is it a collaborative work by both? Those without wax in their ears may form their own opinion. Or they can sing along loudly to the defining bass melody in the Largo until the police car arrives outside with sirens blaring.