Four Centuries of Great Music February 8, 2026 Baroque Composers With Birthdays in February

FCGM 02-08-26  Baroque Composers born in February

Today on Four Centuries of Great Music we are celebrating the music of Four baroque composers born in the month of February: Pasquale Cafaro, Armand-Louis Couperin, Arcangelo Corelli and George Frideric Handel

We open this first hour with two not so well known composers.  First 
Pasquale Cafaro was born on February 8, 1715 in San Pietro, Galatina, Italy.  Cafaro entered the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini in Naples in December 1735 where he was a pupil of Lorenzo Fago and Leonardo Leo. He remained in Naples for all of  his life, and between 1745 and 1771 established himself as a composer of oratorios, operas, cantatas and church music.  Cafaro taught at the conservatorio from 1759 until 1785.  In August of 1768 he was appointed as a 'maestro di cappella soprannumerario' of the royal chapel in Naples and became  'primo maestro' of the royal chapel in December of 1771 upon the death of his predecessor.  As a composer, the majority of his works were sacred in the lyrical Neapolitan style of the mid-18th century. His output includes eight operas, 15 secular cantatas, six oratorios, three Masses, six Kyries, a Requiem, four motets, 12 Psalms, a litany, a Stabat mater (his best-known work), and three antiphons.  Cafaro died in Naples on October 25, 1787.

Today we will be listening to his most well known work, his Stabat Mater for 4 voices with violin, viola and bass continuo.  This is a performance by Giovanni Acciai conducting the Ars Cantica and Il Viаggio Musicale  with Paola Bսsci (soprano) and Maria Luisa Sanchez Cаrbone (mezzo-soprano) from the album 
Stabat Mater Dolorosa / Salve Regina / Christus factus est
Sarx Records

Next this first hour of Four Centuries of Great Music on which we are celebrating the music of Four baroque composers born in the month of February is Armand-Louis Couperin

Armand-Louis Couperin was born on February 25, 1727 in Paris France and was the last composer of the Couperin family of composers and musicians, of which the most notable were his great-uncle Louis and his father’s cousin François.

He was raised by his father, Nicolas, also a composer and the successor to François Couperin "Le Grand" as organist at St. Gervais Church. Nothing is known of Armand-Louis Couperin's education, though his library at the time of death contained 885 books, unusual for a musician and evidence of scholarly interest.
At age 21, Couperin's father died without leaving a will, making him the sole heir of both his parents. His inheritance included Nicolas's post at St. Gervais. In 1752, Couperin married Elisabeth-Antoinette Blanchet, a professional musician and the daughter of the best harpsichord maker in France, François-Etienne Blanchet. They had four children, three of whom became musicians.
Couperin and his wife taught harpsichord lessons and she was the organist at the abbey of Montmartre.  He served as organist at a number of churches in Paris in addition to role at St. Gervais.

Couperin died at age 61 on February 2, 1789 in a traffic accident in Paris while hurrying from Vespers at Sainte Chapelle to St. Gervais.

His reputation is as one of the two best organists of the era, but only one piece for organ of his exists today.   Couperin did not publish his church music and he refused to write for the theatre, so his only surviving works are almost exclusively for the keyboard, or keyboard and small chamber ensemble.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Couperin remained attached stylistically to la grande tradition française, and his pieces have been criticized for their lack of modernity. However, musicologist David Fuller cites his experimental impulse and urge to explore the possibilities of instruments, particularly keyboard instruments of the time. An example is his Simphonie de clavecins, the only work in existence that requires two harpsichords with knee-levers that allowed diminuendos or as more commonly performed for harpsichord with knee-levers and pianoforte. And it is this latter configuration that we will be listening to it today.  It is in 3 movements Allegro moderato, Andante and Presto.

Armand-Louis Couperin:  Simphonie de Clavecins in D Major -  I. Allegro moderato
Armand-Louis Couperin:  Simphonie de Clavecins in D Major -  II. Andante
Armand-Louis Couperin:  Simphonie de Clavecins in D Major -  III. Presto
Pierre Goy & Nicole Hostettler
Lyrinx Strumenti (2008): Armand-Louis Couperin & les claviers expressifs de Pascal Taskin / Harpsichord by Ruckers–Taskin (1646–1780) / Pianoforte by Taskin (1788)


We will close this first hour of this episode of Four Centuries of Great Music on which we are celebrating the music of Four baroque composers born in the month of February with Arcangelo Corelli: Violin Sonata #12 La Folia which is a theme and variations based upon the tune La Folia for violin, bass viol and harpsichord.


This is a performance by
Rémy Baudet,violin; Jaap Ter Linden, bass viol & Pieter-Jan Belder,  harpsichord

Mike Fentross conductor Musica Amphion
Corelli:  Complete Works
Brilliant Classics

George Frideric Handel: Dixit Dominus, HWV 232
I. Soli & Chorus - Dixit Dominus
II. Chorus - Donec ponam
III. Aria - Virgam virtutis
IV. Aria - Tecum principium
V. Chorus - Juravit Dominus
VI. Chorus - Tu es sacerdos
VII. Chorus - Dominus a dextris tuis
VIII. Chorus - Judicabit in nationibus
IX. Chorus - Conquassabit capita
X. Soli & Chorus  - De torrente in via bibet
XI. Chorus - Gloria Patri

Jordi Savall, Le Concert des Nations, La Capella Reial De Catalunya, Marta Mathéu, Anthony Roth Costanzo & Makoto Sakurada
Vivaldi, Mozart & Handel: Dixit Dominus
Alia Vox Records

George Frideric Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351
I. Overture - Adagio, Allegro - Lentement - Allegro
24 II. Bourrée
25 III. La paix. Largo alla Siciliana
26 IV. La Réjouissance
27 V. Menuet 2, Menuet 1 - VI. Menuet 2 da capo 

B’Rock Orchestra Conducted by Dmitry Sinkovsky 
Handel Water & Fire
Pentatone Records

And we will close this episode of Four Centuries of Great Music on which we are celebrating the music of Four baroque composers born in the month of February with Seong-Jin Cho - performing George Frideric Handel: Sarabande in B flat major HWV 440 from the album THE HANDEL PROJECT

Thank you for joining me today on Four Centuries of Great Music and join me again next Sunday at 3pm.