Haydneum Festival of Sacred Music – CAPELLA DU MONT, SAVARIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA – Caldara, Rathgeber, Brixi, Richter, Bengráf, M. Haydn, Hummel

The sixth concert in the Haydneum Festival of Sacred Music features pieces from the ecclesiastical collection of the Roman Catholic church and place of pilgrimage of the Shrine of the Virgin Mary located in Bodajk, Fejér county. Venetian Antonio Caldara (1670–1736) was a master of Italian Baroque who lived and worked in many parts of Europe – from Mantua to Barcelona, Rome and Vienna – at the turn of the 17^th century, composing both secular and sacred works. German composer, organist and choirmaster Johann Valentin Rathgeber (1682–1750) entered the Benedictine order as a priest thus he mainly worked in sacred genres. The career of Czech classical composer František Xaver Brixi (1732–1771) is linked to Prague, where he was organist for several churches. József Bengráf (1745–1791) was a Hungarian composer of German ancestry. From 1784, he was choirmaster and organist at the Inner City Church, Pest; he mainly composed works of a religious nature. Adriána Kalafszky, Kornélia Bakos, Péter Mészáros and Zoltán Melkovics are well-known on the domestic Early Music concert scene. Capella Du Mont vocal ensemble formed in 2018 and their leader, László Gesztesi-Tóth, is an organist. Flautist and choirmaster Pál Németh is one of the architects of historical Early Music performance in Hungary, founder of Capella Savaria and the artist who has led Savaria Baroque Orchestra since 1999.