ne family influenced the musical world of the Renaissance like no other: from Venice to London, the Bassanos were instrument makers, musicians and composers.
Fittingly, this concert is carried by the sound of the recorder family. This consort using up to six voices performs music composed and creatively transformed by the Bassanos.
With this tribute, ReRenaissance offers for the first time a programme entirely dedicated to the sound of the recorder family.
The programme will be played on consort recorders based on historic models of the instruments the Bassanos themselves brought to England.
Andreas Böhlen – recorder; direction
Tabea Schwartz – recorder; direction
Amy Power – recorder
Lea Sobbe – recorder
Mira Gloor – recorder
Laura Hanetseder – recorder
Originale Blockflöte mit dem Bassano Stempel, Metropolitan Museum Of Arts
Why I’ll be there!
David Fallows
Well over a hundred woodwind instruments of the sixteenth century have a maker’s mark on them, generally described as a ‘rabbit’s foot’, but looking to me more like two exclamation marks, pointing slightly inwards. For years nobody could guess who it was, but at last scholars are apparently agreed that the mark belongs to the Bassano family, who were mainly active in England. Their real name was Piva (which to me is a kind of dance), but when they came to England they seem to have adopted the name of their home town in the Veneto, Bassano del Grappa (though they dropped the Grappa bit). From the time of Henry VIII and past the end of the century they dominated music on all kinds of wind instruments in England.
Numerous though the Bassanos were among English musicians, they have left very few compositions. So, this concert celebrates wind music in sixteenth-century England, with a certain emphasis on the numerous foreigners who enlivened the scene. Some of my favourite pieces are on this programme, so don’t miss it.
Barfüsserkirche
Historisches Museum Basel
Barfüsserkirche
Historical Museum Basel
Haus zum Kirschgarten
Historisches Museum Basel
Basel, Martinskirche
