Il Sacro Convito Musicale di Ercole Porta, 1620

A Sacred Banquet “comprised of different

and varied spiritual courses”

5 singers, 2 cornetti, 2 violins, 4 trombones, organ, theorbo

The basilica of San Petronio has always occupied a special place in the civic and liturgical life of the city of Bologna. By the beginning of the 17th century, with the addition of a spendid second organ by Baldassare Malamini of Cento and the appointment of Girolamo Giacobbi as Maestro di cappella, the musical chapel began to take on an importance which went far beyond the confines of the city, indeed far beyond the boundaries of Italy itself. Particularly in the area of concerted polychoral music, combining multiple choirs of voices and instruments, Bologna became an influential international center. One of the most skillful composers in this circle was Ercole Porta. The centerpiece of our program is his Missa secundi toni, a early masterpiece of concerted church music, combining florid and expressive vocal writing with an innovative use of instrumental timbres. The Mass will be heard surrounded by other examples of concerted vocal music by Porta and Bolognese con-temporaries Ascanio Trombetti, Ottavio Vernizzi and Giacobbi.

Pietas Austriaca: Sacred Music of the Hapsburg Courts

This program of sacred music at the Hapsburg courts in Vienna and Innsbruck focuses on two unjustly forgotten composers, Johann Stadlmayr and Christoph Strauss. Both were highly respected in their day and wrote brilliant music in the modern Gabrieli style. The program culminates in the 12-voice Missa supra Bone Iesu, based on the motet of the same name by Alessandro Grandi, and also includes newly reconstructed instrumental canzonas of the Viennese Hofkapellmeister Giovanni Valentini, the only Venetian among the Gabrieli disciples on this program.

Fair Lady, Sweet Lord:

17th-Century Sacred Songs from Italy and Germany

    Johannete Zomer, soprano

    cornetto, violin, trombone, violoncello, organ

Music of Maurizio Cazzati, Tarquinio Merula, Johann Hermann Schein, Heinrich Schütz, and others.

Fair Lady, Sweet Lord: Under this title, we have brought together a panorama of small-scale sacred songs of praise and devotion — songs from both sides of the Alps and spanning the first seven decades of the seventeenth century, from the Venice of Giovanni Gabrieli to the Dresden of Heinrich Schütz and the Bologna of Maurizio Cazzati. In the first half we explore Catholic songs of praise to the Virgin Mary, and in the second, Protestant songs in praise of Jesus. We invite you to join us on this musical tour of the spiritual landscape of 17th-century. It is music which brings the emotional directness of early Baroque singing to the expression of spiritual devotion and delight.

De Profundis:

Sacred Music for Bass and Wind Instruments, ca. 1580 - 1650

Harry van der Kamp, bass

2 cornetti, 4 trombones, organ, theorbo

Music of Francesco Usper, Simon Vesi, Tarquinio Merula, Heinrich Schütz, Andreas Hammerschmidt, Johann Rudolf Ahle, Thomas Selle, and others.

“De profundis - out of the depths”: We have given this title to a program featuring concerted solo music for bass voice and wind ensemble. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries the bass register was especially favored for virtuoso singing, and some of the greatest soloists of the new expressive Baroque style were basses. Though basses were cautioned to be prudent in the use of ornaments (since their part was the “foundation of all music”) these solo pieces often defy such admonitions, indulging in exuberant passage-work while at the same time showing great subtlety of expression.

No contemporary bass singer has more experience in singing this music, and none has more ability to express its pathos. This concert is a celebration of over 20 years of collaboration between Harry van der Kamp and Concerto Palatino.

Musiche Frescobaldiane

8 male voices, cornetto, violin,

6 trombones, organ, theorbo, violone

Despite long years of service as organist in a variety of Roman churches, including the Cappella Giulia at St. Peter’s, Frescobaldi left no polychoral sacred music of unquestionable authenticity, though a surprising number of works with attributions of varying credibility circulated during the composer’s lifetime. Our program entitled Musiche Frescobaldiane features some of the most appealing examples of this music combined with motets by Palestrina, intended to underline the importance of Frescobaldi’s nearly lifelong relationship to the Cappella Giulia at St. Peter’s, where Palestrina had worked in the previous century. When Frescobaldi first came to the Cappella in 1608, its musical director, Francesco Soriano, was a former pupil of Palestrina. Handwritten copies of Palestrina’s music from the 17th century make it clear that his music continued to form an important part of the repertoire during Frescobaldi’s tenure, though the manner of its performance would surely have changed over time. Instrumentalists from the Campidoglio, violins, cornetti, and trombones, are known to have doubled vocal lines, and instrumentalists would surely have played divisions, since no motets were more popular as models in division manuals than those of Palestrina. Our program also features divisions by Bruce Dickey on Palestrina’s motet, Nigra sum sed formosa à 5.

Watch our live stream of this concert live from the Early Music Festival in Utrecht on YouTube:

Part I

Part II

Or watch an excerpt here.