Splendors of the Doge’s Chapel: Ceremonial Music at St. Mark’s, 1580 – 1620

6 singers, 2 violins, 2 cornetti, 6 trombones, 2 organs, theorbo, violone

On feast days of particular political importance to the Venetian Republic, festivities often extended to Mass or Vespers in state at St. Mark’s, with the Doge, the Signory, and visiting guests attending. On such occasions, the Doge sat on an impressive throne right in front of the main altar, his guests at his side and the Venetian nobility arranged nearby. Thus seated, they would have been superbly placed to hear the musicians and singers deployed in the choir lofts above and in an array of little balconies and structures nearby. In the period 1580 to 1620 they would often have been treated to concerti in the new style with multiple choirs written by the famous organist Andrea Gabrieli, or his nephew Giovanni. In this program we attempt to evoke such an occasion with canzonas and ceremonial motets of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, including the Mass by Andrea, thought to have been written for a visit to Venice of five Japanese princes in 1585.

Pietas Austriaca: Sacred Music of the Hapsburg Courts

6 singers, 2 cornetti, 4 trombones, organ, theorbo, violone

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.

Il Sacro convito musicale of Ercole Porta, 1620

5 singers, 2 cornetti, 3 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 contemporaries Ascanio Trombetti, Ottavio Vernizzi and Giacobbi.

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.