In March 1742, a some­what shad­owy fig­ure known as ​‘Mr Charles the Hungarian’ trav­els to Dublin, where Handel mania is rag­ing. Mr Charles – an entre­pre­neur in heart and soul – sees this as a great opportu­ nity and organ­is­es a con­cert in the Smock Alley Theatre with a pro­ gramme that main­ly con­sists of Handel’s music. During the clos­ing con­cert of the MA Festival, Peter Whelan and his Irish Baroque Orchestra recon­struct this evening. Performing var­i­ous colour­ful solos – some for instru­ments that were new to Ireland at the time – they bring the bohemi­an atmos­phere to Bruges. 

With music by Georg Friedrich Händel (1685­-1759), Georg Philipp Telemann (1681­-1767), Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-­?)