Galileo
To accompany a script by Clare Norburn, MSB team up with the Marian Consort and director Nicholas Renton to present a unique theatrical piece in which Galileo, near death, reflects on the significant moments in his life and work, framed with music he would have known as performer (he was a talented lutenist) or listener. Galileo's scientific genius needs no introduction: in this work we also draw on his literary and musical interests to gain insight into the great man's mind. The work was premiered at the Brighton Early Music Festival in October 2016, and we are delighted to bring it to Baroque at the Edge in January 2020.
To accompany a script by Clare Norburn, MSB team up with the Marian Consort and director Nicholas Renton to present a unique theatrical piece in which Galileo, near death, reflects on the significant moments in his life and work, framed with music he would have known as performer (he was a talented lutenist) or listener. Galileo's scientific genius needs no introduction: in this work we also draw on his literary and musical interests to gain insight into the great man's mind. The work was premiered at the Brighton Early Music Festival in October 2016, and we are delighted to bring it to Baroque at the Edge in January 2020.
War of Words
In this reimagining of a 17th century theatrical production, MSB collaborates with stage director Karolina Sofulak to revisit the memorable Venetian Carnival evening in 1624 at the Palazzo Mocenigo, where Monteverdi's virtuosic hybrid of madrigal and opera was first performed, moving the audience to tears.
The evening begins with a selection of madrigals and instrumental items, punctuated with topical readings of contemporary poetry; the Combattimento performers then appear suddenly (as Monteverdi instructs us) and the theatrical part of the evening begins...
This programme is also available as a concert performance.
In this reimagining of a 17th century theatrical production, MSB collaborates with stage director Karolina Sofulak to revisit the memorable Venetian Carnival evening in 1624 at the Palazzo Mocenigo, where Monteverdi's virtuosic hybrid of madrigal and opera was first performed, moving the audience to tears.
The evening begins with a selection of madrigals and instrumental items, punctuated with topical readings of contemporary poetry; the Combattimento performers then appear suddenly (as Monteverdi instructs us) and the theatrical part of the evening begins...
This programme is also available as a concert performance.
The Maestro and the Fugitive
In a sparkling Venetian programme devised especially for Martin Randall Travel, we explore the thrilling textures of chamber sonatas for multiple strings of two great figures of late 17th century Venice: Johann Rosenmüller and Giovanni Legrenzi. They arrived in Venice via contrasting routes: the former escaping prison after a scandal in his home town of Leipzig, and the latter taking the more conventional and respectable route of a series of Maestro di Capella posts. Their string music is intricate, exciting and evocative, and in this programme we range from trios to a full 5-part texture.
The Madrigal Transformed - running order, programme notes, readings & translationsAn exploration of some of Monteverdi's most innovative madrigals from his 4th, 5th, and 6th books, interspersed with virtuoso diminutions and contemporary readings from the literary, scientific and cultural elite. This programme explores Monteverdi's growing use of the "seconda prattica" which goes so far beyond mere word-painting (and is therefore ideally suited to the "soave arcata" of the string band), and the improvisational brilliance of his contemporaries who took older madrigals and chansons and wove intricate webs of virtuosity around their simpler charms.
Here's a moment from the first performance in Sardinia, 2014: |
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