Command Performance: Music for an Empress

Agnesi: Licenza from Sofonisba
Haydn: Symphony No. 48 in C major 'Maria Theresa'
Martinez: 'Berenice, che fai' from Scena di Berenice
Hasse: Sinfonia from Ruggiero
Martinez: Keyboard Concerto
Gluck: 'Non vi turbate' from Alceste
Mozart: Symphony No. 7 in D major
Agnesi: 'Rapido turbin vedo' from Sofonisba

Academy of Ancient Music travels to the Vienna of Empress Maria Theresa – where genius paid court, and music flourished in magnificent (and unexpected) new ways.

They called her the ‘mother-in-law of Europe’, but as monarch, war-leader, diplomat and patron of the arts, the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria was one or the most extraordinary rulers in European history. Tonight, the Academy of Ancient Music pays homage: recreating an era of splendour, innovation and music without limits.

Some of the names need no introduction – and Gluck, Haydn and the young Mozart were just some of the stars who shone around Maria Theresa’s throne. But just as the Empress herself defied convention, so the Academy of Ancient Music will explore some more neglected names too: Maria Theresa Agnesi and Marianna Martinez are composers of striking originality and inspiration who flourished during the reign of a truly exceptional woman.