The Programme
Music in the Veneto, 23–28 June 2014
‘I will carry the memory of the concerts with me for many years to come. I cannot imagine a better combination of music, performers and settings.’ I.K., Alberta, who travelled on an MRT music festival in 2013.
Monteverdi & Gesualdo
to no patron and underlined his status as occupant of Europe’s top musical job. It includes the great madrigal cycle, Incenerite spoglie, written on the death of a soprano friend, and presented works for solo voices and accompaniment in a new musical style.
The pinnacle of the exotic madrigal
Villa Pisani ‘La Rocca’, Lonigo
I Fagiolini, Robert Hollingworth (director)
By contrast, the music by Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa (1566–1613), a Neapolitan aristocrat with connections to the court at Ferrara, stayed firmly in the a capella tradition, but pushed the boundaries of harmonic daring to completely new limits.
With its striking hilltop site, La Rocca (designed 1576) is perhaps the most famous of Italian Palladian villas not by Palladio himself, being the creation of his best pupil and assistant, Vincenzo Scamozzi (1548–1616). Open to the elements through an oculus in the dome and intended only for occasional entertainments, this remarkable building approaches the status of pure architecture, untrammelled by functional compromises. It remains privately owned.
Founded in 1986 while its members were students at Oxford (the name a satirical reference to the Early Music world), I Fagiolini have achieved world-wide fame with performances memorable as much for their drama as for musical excellence. Their repertoire is mainly Renaissance, and mainly Italian, but also encompasses the twentieth century. In addition to 19 CDs they have released three DVDs, L’Amfiparnaso, the sensational The Full Monteverdi and How Like An Angel.
Exactly 400 years ago in 1614, recently arrived in Venice, Monteverdi (1567–1643) published his last book of fivevoice madrigals. Having been increasingly discontent with his employment at the Gonzaga court in Mantua, his book bowed
Singers, 18th-century etching after Guercino.
M A RT I N R A N D A L L T R AV E L
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