«Venus, Mars und Amor» von Piero di Cosimo (1462–1521), c1505 Italien © Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
his programme celebrates the 500th anniversary of Palestrina’s birth. It focuses on his 4- and 5-part secular madrigals as they were, or could have been, performed by skilled singers and instrumentalists around 1600. The expressive and virtuoso styles of singing and playing are represented (or inspired) by musicians such as Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, Francesco Rognoni, Alfonso Ferrabosco, Giovanni Bassano and Girolamo dalla Casa. From the purely vocal to the purely instrumental, including many different combinations of these two media, this jubilee concert aims to give a glimpse of the sound landscape in which the madrigal genre was practised at the end of the 16th century.
Johannes Frisch – Renaissance violin
Giovanna Baviera – voice, viola da gamba
Rui Stähelin – lute, voice
Elam Rotem – harpsichord, voice
Ivo Haun – voice, lute; direction
Titelblatt, aus: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Il primo libro di Madrigali a quatro voci, Venedig: Ricciardo Amadino, 1587, Cantus-Stimmbuch
I’ll be there
by DAVID FALLOWS
Like many people, I spent far too much time as a student playing through the diminution manuals of the years around 1600, learning how to embellish lines in the style of the time. But one of the major surprises here was how often the models were motets and madrigals by Palestrina. Also like many people, I spent far too much time as a student learning to compose in the manner of Palestrina, but working entirely from his masses, which always counted as the purest and most perfect music of all time.
So, it is a great pleasure to know that we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of Palestrina’s birth not with his innumerable masses and motets but with his rather fewer madrigals and that so much emphasis is being put on the diminutions of the time. For me, this is the Palestrina who jumps off the page. He remains the most perfect composer, but these works are overbrimming with life. I can’t wait.
Barfüsserkirche
Historisches Museum Basel
Gold-printed paper calendar
