Academie Concert: Made for Christmas Eve

The “Christmas Concert” was very popular during the Baroque period and has remained so. It combines the realm of secular *musica da camera* with *musica sacra*. Its primary focus is on radiant festive joy. As a typical *concerto grosso*, it features many brilliant solos for various instruments. Arcangelo Corelli’s composition is specifically dedicated to the “Night of the Nativity” and is a prime example of this now-popular form. His compatriot Pietro Antonio Locatelli was also a famous violinist, an imaginative composer, and, moreover, a cosmopolitan polymath. Antonio Vivaldi’s “Grand Mogul” Concerto was not written for an Indian despot, but for an exceptionally virtuosic violinist—and is thus in the best of hands with Elisa Citterio. At the time, the title “Grand Mogul” was also used for prominent figures in cultural life; even Joseph Haydn jokingly called Beethoven by that name. The French maître Leclair, Handel, and Johann Sebastian Bach were undoubtedly “Grand Moguls of Music” as well, and they enrich this festive program with their magnificent instrumental music.