15/02/2026
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*Continuous tradition* Handel – Zadok the Priest
Not lost. It has been continuously performed at every British coronation since 1727, so it never left the repertoire — in fact it’s one of the most consistently performed pieces of Baroque music in existence.
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*Forgotten then revived* Monteverdi – Beatus Vir, Cantate Domino, Adoramus Te
Effectively “forgotten” rather than physically lost. After Monteverdi’s death in 1643, changing musical fashions pushed his sacred works out of use, and they sat in libraries for centuries. They were rediscovered and revived in the late 19th and especially 20th century when scholars and early-music performers began reconstructing the sound of the early Baroque.
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*Rediscovered manuscripts* Vivaldi – Gloria
Part of a dramatic rediscovery. Vivaldi himself was almost completely forgotten after his death in 1741, and much of his music lay unknown in archives until a huge manuscript collection was found in Turin in the 1920s. The Gloria then rapidly became one of the first of his choral works to re-enter the repertoire.
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*Preserved but neglected* Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
Known but ignored for a long time. Bach sent the manuscript in 1721, but it was never performed by the Margrave and lay in a library for over a century. Bach’s instrumental music only became widely appreciated after the 19th-century Bach revival led by Mendelssohn, when the concertos finally entered regular concert life.
