Iestyn Davies countertenor; Oliver Wass harp

Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice left an indelible impression on the musical life of Vienna following its world première at the imperial city’s Burgtheater in 1762. Iestyn Davies and Oliver Wass have created a dramatic cantata from the opera’s best-known music, preserving the original’s special eloquence and power. Their ‘Vienna Evening’ also includes songs by Haydn, who conducted a performance of Orfeo ed Euridice in the 1770s, and Adelaide, an impassioned expression of romantic love from Beethoven’s first years in Vienna.