Our March concert celebrates three towering Baroque composers whose music helped define one of Western music's most expressive and influential eras. Opening and closing the evening are two notable sacred works of the 1600-1750 time period: Antonio Vivaldi's energetic Gloria RV. 589 and George Frideric Handel's exuberant Utrecht Jubilate HWV. 279, with Claudio Monteverdi's concerted madrigal Hor che'l ciel e la terra SV. 147 appears between them as a unique, contrasting centerpiece. Presented with a 16-piece chamber orchestra in the gorgeous acoustic of St. Francis Catholic Church, these masterworks invite audiences into a world of splendor and celebration — where heaven and earth rejoice.

Though Vivaldi is often celebrated as a revolutionary orchestral composer and virtuoso violinist, the Gloria RV. 589 has become one of the most beloved and enduring choral-orchestral works in the repertoire. Usually sung as an SATB work, in this performance by the CA Treble Singers, the Gloria returns to something closer to its original 1715 sound world through the use of only treble voices, reflecting the celebrated figlie di coro of Venice — the highly trained young women who sang at liturgies and renowned concerts at the city's four ospedali, charitable institutions that cared for orphans and the infirm. Hidden behind curtains in keeping with expectations of modesty in Venetian society, these all-female ensembles became internationally famous for their astonishing musical artistry.

To open the second half, we present Monteverdi's 1638 Hor che’l ciel e la terra, a compact masterpiece of early Baroque innovation. In only twelve minutes, Monteverdi demonstrates the expressive freedom, emotional intensity, and daring harmonic language that helped usher Western music out of the Renaissance and into a new artistic age.

The concert concludes with Handel's Utrecht Jubilate, composed in 1713 for a grand thanksgiving celebration marking the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended years of European conflict. Best known today for masterpieces like Messiah, Handel here displays the same knack for ceremonial grandeur, dramatic pacing, and joyful choral writing in a work that remains a hidden treasure of the Baroque.