Zelenka & Handel with Collegium 1704

Jan Dismas Zelenka was a Czech Baroque composer and musician whose works are renowned for their inventive counterpoint and harmonic ingenuity. He spent most of his career in Dresden, where he worked as a double bass player and later as a composer for the court orchestra. Zelenka set the text of the Mass Ordinary some twenty times in total, and the solemn Missa Circumcisionis from 1728 is one of Zelenka’s most extensive and richly scored compositions of this kind. Handel’s Dixit Dominus, one of the most impressive settings of Psalm 110, concludes the program.

Václav Luks leads Collegium 1704, Collegium Vocale 1704, and vocal soloists in this program celebrating Collegium 1704’s 20th anniversary, recorded live in concert October 9, 2025 in Dvořák Hall in Prague’s Rudolfinum. Thanks to WFMT’s association with the European Broadcasting Union, we’re able to offer toight’s program as a stream for thirty days following the broadcast. Listen on demand by show at wfmt.com/listen/.