Music of Many Worlds – 18th-c. Vocal Works from Amsterdam’s Sephardic Synagogue

Ensemble aquilo et auster

Shira Miriam Cohen – Soprano
Anna Bachleitner – Mezzo Soprano
Xander Baker – Baroque Cello /Viola da gamba
Riccardo Casamichiela – Cembalo /organ

The program “Music of Many Worlds” explores the almost forgotten music that was composed for the flourishing community of the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam around the 1730s.The program revolves around the holiday Simchat Torah, which occurs in autumn and marks the end of the annual reading cycle of the Torah and the beginning of a new one. The music composed for this occasion in 1738 is a joyfully flowing and jubilant composition by Austrian composer Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti. Together with instrumental pieces from the same period and traditional Sephardic melodies, the program immerses itself in the diverse and colorful world of the Jewish community of Amsterdam in the 18th century.