Handel's Concerto Grosso In F, Op. 6, No. 2

A small group of string players fight with a larger group of string players. Does this mean they fight against each other? Or do they fight alongside each other?

Such is the confusion surrounding the word concertare that would become the Italian concerto, a musical piece where musical material is passed between the larger group and a smaller group or soloist. Do our musicians “contend against” each other in the older Latin sense of the word, or do they “bring into agreement”, as the medieval Italian word conveyed?

Perhaps it was all a big misunderstanding, and some influential barbarian insinuating himself on the Italian peninsula erroneously used the antagonistic concertus whenever he meant the more agreeable consertus, which comes from the Latin word meaning “to unite”. The two words are very similar, so to be fair, it could happen to anyone.

But to settle this argument, it may agreed that George Frideric Handel knew how to pit two groups of musicians against each other, because together they work to perform some of the greatest music composed in the Baroque era. We are gratified to bring you Handel’s Concerto Grosso in F, Op. 6, No. 2, conducted by Dr. Daniel Sommerville and performed by the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra Chamber Strings. Kelsey Klopfenstein, Alexa Garza, and Michael Pecherek are featured in the concertino.

This concert is brought to you by the Starved Rock Country Community Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts.