Repicco

Repicco is an Imaginative baroque chamber ensemble showing that many colours and expressions can be achieved with few instruments.

‘Repicco’ was formed by Kinga Ujszászi & Jadran Duncumb. They try to show that many colours & expressions can also be achieved with few instruments.

Assasini, assassinati

 17th century Italy was a lively place in many ways. While compositional and instrumental styles and techniques were changing at arguably the fastest rate in western classical music’s history, wars were raging between the various city states, plagues were sweeping across at regular intervals, and [some] musicians were murdering one another...

Disclaimer: The title sounds cool and applies to the composers, but has nothing to do with the music in the programme, which consists of amazing examples of the innovative and wild music of the 17th-century.

(Recorded for Ambronay Editions)

Music by Albertini, Pandolfi Mealli, Stradella, Castaldi

 

Biber Mystery Sonatas

Heinrich Biber’s fifteen sonatas and passacaglia, commonly referred to as the Mystery or Rosary Sonatas – famous for their use of scordatura, are some of the most remarkable pieces from the mid-baroque. Split into three parts; the Joyful Mysteries chart events in Jesus’ early life, the Sorrowful Mysteries the events leading to the Cruxifiction, and the Glorious Mysteries the Resurrection up to the Coronation of the Virgin. Repicco’s intimate instrumentation is in keeping with the meditative nature of these sonatas which were intended to accompany prayer.

Rome: The Orpheus and the Hunchback

Rome was the centre of the musical world in the 17th century, even before Corelli. Our programme features the"più valori proffesori di Roma"; lutenist Lelio Colista - known as the "Orpheus of Rome" and violinist Carlo Lonati - the "Hunchback of the Queen" - whose twelve violin sonatas match the virtuosity and beauty of the later Corelli's. Of course no Roman programme is complete without the latter, while no programme with theorbo is complete without a bit of Kapsberger!

Music by Lonati, Corelli, Kapsberger, Colista, Stradella

Verso le Stelle

Music by Pandolfi Mealli, Uccellini, H.I.F. Biber, Corbetta, Marini, etc.

 

LES MUSICIENS DU ROI-SOLEIL

Music by François Couperin, Robert de Visée, Louis-Gabriel Guillemain

Appena chiudo gl'occhi

Secular cantatas and chamber pieces by Handel and colleagues connected to the Accademia degli Arcadi in Rome  by Scarlatti, Corelli  and Handel

Music by Handel, Corelli, Lonati, Stradella and Scarlatti