A colourful, joyful, virtuoso and versatile program in its sweet expression of the English repertoire, showing how the British of the 17th-century version already had their good sense of humour.
From charming popular songs to elegant dance pieces and captivating court compositions, this program presents the musical diversity of the period with works by renowned composers such as John Dowland, Henry Purcell and Matthew Locke.
Beautiful vocal melodies intertwine with instrumental virtuosity in this ‘broken consort’ of voice, recorder, gamba and lute, creating a musical experience that will delight the senses and transport the audience to the rich musical tradition of the time.
Instrumentation: mezzosoprano, recorder, viola da gamba, historical plucked instruments and preferably positive organ. The combination can be adapted to the circumstances.
A musical journey through a world full of contrast, light, colour, and darkness
The Seconda Pratica is an early Baroque style where, unlike in the Renaissance Prima Pratica, more expressive freedom is sought in the form of a solo voice accompanied by a continuous bass. It involves the flourishing of solo instrumental music as a genre, no longer as a support or substitute for vocal music but with its own language and forms of expression.
“As our protagonists indicate, we are facing “a contemplative musical journey through a world of contrasts, light, color and shadows. And also, an “intimate musical journey through the music that sings in our minds, in our hearts, in our souls.” Indeed, what we hear oozes intimacy. And subtlety. It is a true delicatessen.”
Eduardo Torrico, Scherzo, April 2023
With a repertoire that includes a variety of works sung and then performed on the recorder, the different timbres and colors that mix with the accompaniment of the harpsichord and organ create an impressive musical experience. In addition, the combination of sung, narrated and played music makes this concert exciting and full of surprises.
The Celestial Songs
In this special program we delve into the depths of the ecclesiastical works that have served as inspiration for elaborate diminutions and ornamented posthumous versions. The exceptional singer Victoria Cassano will guide us through a world of divine songs, accompanied by the majestic sensitivity and skill of the organist and harpsichordist Jorge López-Escribano and the virtuosity of recorder player Lobke Sprenkeling, who will delight us with fascinating historical diminished versions of several of these vocal works.
It is a rare repertoire nowadays, despite being the ‘hits’ of the time, making this a unique opportunity to discover and appreciate these musical treasures.
A spiritual journey from romantic to transcendent love
In this program we invite the audience to participate in “A Pilgrimes Solace”, named after the song book with instrumental accompaniment by John Dowland, taking them on a journey from the most mundane to total transcendence of the idea of love, and life itself. There is an inner search for the question “What is love?”, especially after the disenchantment of the mundane, which leads the protagonist to search within himself and travel towards the Divine. At the end of this beautiful compilation of little gems this true “pilgrim’s consolation” takes us back to earth: the final pieces of the collection are dramatic melodies, some jovial and others melancholic, possibly for use in celebrations of Masques or entertainment at court instead of music making at home.
They all have gods and allegorical figures in them, with a story set in short verses – between one and three – followed by a “conclusion” that at the end proposes a moral reflection. It is this search, this perpetual wandering of the traveller that makes this collection unique. Musickes Delight performs it with varied instrumentation, sometimes purely instrumental, sometimes vocal, with virtuosic viola da gamba solos and wonderful lute instrumentations. All of these components make this musical proposal a deep, versatile and delightful experience thanks to its musicality and color changes, and the stories it tells through these wonderful melodies and harmonies.
French music is like a caress, a look that we seem to have imagined, a whisper, a gesture, and above all a dance.
Contrary to the Italian Baroque style, outgoing, virtuous, passionate, even extravagant, the French style is characterized by restraint, refinement and exquisiteness.
Spectacularity and virtuosity play a secondary role in France, dominated by good taste – le bon goût – elegance, and by simplicity, surprisingly compatible with the exuberance of ornamentation. Its controlled, subtle and elegant expressiveness is the opposite of the Italian style, which relies more on grand expressive gestures. French ornaments are small ornaments like the trill, which already appears in the air de cour of the first half of the 17th century, the mordant known as battement, the apoggiatura known as port de voix, and other ornaments. French music has fine gestures and light steps, but deep down it is introvert: it cries behind closed doors, it suffers with a smile, it dies with a tiny gesture of supplication. In the intimacy of its silences is where one loves, cries, rejects, gets angry, suffers, enjoys.
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