From Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s “Sturm und Drang”

Alternative Stage Founding Donor

Major Sponsor of the Greek National Opera

The successful Baroque Music Festival is returning to the Greek National Opera Alternative Stage at the SNFCC, with the theme The Age of Transitions, on 16, 20, 21, and 22 November 2025. This year’s programme, curated by versatile and highly prolific artist Dimos Goudaroulis, focuses on the captivating music of the 18th century. It highlights the significant and constant shifts in style that mark this particularly fertile period, from the late Baroque era to the full bloom of Classicism. The Festival is realized in collaboration with the Thessaloniki Concert Hall.

The Festival features four concerts that cover the entire 18th century through a diverse programme. It begins with Antonio Vivaldi’s famous Four Seasons, a piece that was released exactly three hundred years ago, in 1725; it then explores the galant style of Georg Philipp Telemann and Louis-Gabriel Guillemain’s music; next, it revisits the “Sturm und Drang” music by Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, along with the preclassical style of Johann Christian Bach; afterward, it dives into Classicism with sophisticated works by Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; and finally, it reaches the late 18th century, showcasing Opus No. 1 by the young Ludwig van Beethoven, which heralds the dawning of a new era.

The 2025 Baroque Music Festival welcomes the Festival’s Baroque Orchestra, featuring prominent musicians from the Greek Baroque scene; the internationally acclaimed Spanish violinist Lina Tur Bonet, one of the most expressive and versatile violinists of the modern era and one of the most important and influential artists of our time; and the French cellist, gambist, and maestro Christophe Coin, who boasts a decades-long international career with a significant impact in the field of Early Music.

From Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s “Sturm und Drang”

The distinguished international artist, Spanish Lina Tur Bonet, along with the Festival’s Baroque Orchestra, which consists of some of the most important and active musicians of the Greek Baroque Scene, present a two-part programme, including a musical dialogue between Antonio Vivaldi’s fiery Italian world and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s expressive tension and innovation.

In the first part of the concert, featuring soloist Lina Tur Bonet, we encounter one of the most famous pieces in music history, Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which was released exactly three hundred years ago, in 1725, as part of a set of twelve concertos for violin, strings, and basso continuo, titled Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention), Op. 8 (1725).

The second part is dedicated to the highly original and emotionally charged music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, which aligns with the aesthetic of the German literary movement “Sturm und Drang,” and has had a profound impact on composers such as Haydn and Mozart, who considered Carl Philipp Emanuel as their spiritual father, serving as a precursor to the Romantic era.

Brief biographical notes 

Lina Tur Bonet
Spanish violinist and conductor. Her career, simultaneously versatile and highly personal, combines technical mastery with the passion and imagination of interpretation. Her love for music and insatiable curiosity allow her to perform and explore a repertoire spanning over four hundred years of musical history, from Monteverdi to Kurtág, always on period instruments. From a very young age, she collaborated with distinguished artists in Baroque, Romantic, and contemporary music. As a soloist, she has dedicated herself to performing and recording both iconic works and unknown or unpublished compositions, establishing her name as a reference on the international stage. She has been invited worldwide, both as a soloist and as a conductor of world-class ensembles. Among many honours and scholarships, she has also been awarded at the Bonporti International Competition on Period Instruments. Her recording of Corelli’s op. 5, featuring her own ornamentation, was highlighted as a “recommended top edition” by BBC Radio 3, while her recording of Biber’s Rosary Sonatas, was described as “benchmark” by Gramophone, France Musique and Scherzo. She has received the Joker Award from Crescendo magazine for the album La bellezza, two GEMA Awards (2015, 2018) for Best Recording, a 10/10 rating from Luister magazine for her recording dedicated to Ravel, two Diapason d’Or awards (for the albums La bellezza and Biber Sonatas 1681), the “Best Chamber Music Album of 2022” award from Record Geijutsu magazine, as well as the CHOC award from Classica magazine for her recording of Bach’s Violin Concertos.

Dimos Goudaroulis
Cellist specialising in modern and baroque cello, as well as in the four- or five-string violoncello piccolo. During his 30-year musical career, he has participated in countless concerts, tours and recordings, playing with leading musicians and ensembles of classical and baroque music, as well as jazz, improvised and folk music around the world. He was born in 1970 in Larissa and grew up in Thessaloniki, where he studied cello with George Manolas, Ivan Bianchi, Roussi Dragnev. In 1988, he moved to Paris, where he continued his studies with Philippe Muller and Reine Flachot, and began playing jazz and improvisational music. In 1996, he moved to Brazil. For a decade, he was cello professor at the São Paulo State University – UNICAMP. In 2003, he won the prestigious Carlos Gomes Award as the best soloist of the year and, in 2008, his recording of Bach’s solo cello suites received the Prêmio Bravo de Cultura Award as the best classical music album of the year. In 2015, he returned to Greece. He is professor of cello at the Thessaloniki State Conservatory and artistic director of the Thessaloniki Concert Hall Baroque Music Festival. He performs regularly throughout Europe, Latin America, the USA and Canada. His discography includes about 40 albums.

The production “Baroque Music Festival: The Age of Transitions” is part of the GNO Alternative Stage’s unit of programming titled “CYCLE OF THEMATIC CONCERTS”, which falls under the ACT “FESTIVAL EVENTS OF THE GNO ALTERNATIVE STAGE 2024-2025” » (MIS 6002467) with code 2024ΕΠ08570049 (Priority: “Fostering regional social cohesion through the enhancement of mechanisms and infrastructure to support employment, education, health care and socioeconomic inclusion” of the programme “Attica 2021-2027) and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and National Resources.