Opening concert: Baroque ensemble Brák and choir Cantoque Ensemble
Welcome to the opening concert of the Reykjavík Early Music Festival 2026. The baroque ensemble Brák and the choir Cantoque Ensemble join forces once again to perform works by Avison and Handel, interwoven with Icelandic folk songs.
The concert opens with a Concerto grosso by the English composer Charles Avison (1709–1770), which he based on a keyboard sonata by Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757). This is followed by variations on Icelandic folk songs, marrying turf houses and toccatas. The final work on the program is George Frideric Handel’s (1685–1759) setting of Psalm 110, Dixit Dominus, which he composed in his early twenties while staying in Italy, where he became so wildly popular for his works that he was dubbed il caro Sassone — “the dear Saxon.”
