Seaton Music’s 76th Classical Season Concert

A Thousand Flexible Ways

Dialogues from the age of meraviglia for voice, violin and lute
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• 3 performers: Hannah Ely, Oliver Webber and Toby Carr
• Composers including Monteverdi, Caccini, Merula, Sances, and the mysterious Carlo G

The early decades of the Italian seicento were astonishingly fruitful for the arts, and for music in particular: the emergence and refinement of Monteverdi’s ‘seconda pratica’ opened up a new realm of expressive possibilities, which composers were quick to take advantage of. The elegance and proportion of the previous century began to be coloured by a new zest for meraviglia (‘wonder, astonishment’), from which instrumentalists and singers alike benefited.

We explore this territory with voice, violin, and lute. Inspired by the perennial advice for instrumentalists to model their playing on the execution of good singers, the violin takes the role of a second voice in several works, including Monteverdi’s iconic ciaccona ‘Zefiro torna’. The emerging instrumental styles are showcased in works by Marini and Kapsberger, and the solo voice runs the gamut of expressive styles, with Merula’s heart-rending lullaby to the infant Christ, painfully cognizant of his destiny, as one of the highlights.

Programme:

• Monteverdi: Zefiro torna, Ohimè ch’io cado
• Caccini: Queste lagrime amare
• Merula: Canzonetta spirituale
• Marini: Sonata variata, La Orlandina
• Rore: Anchor che col partire
• Palestrina: Vestiva i colli
• Sances: O Domine Jesu
• Carlo G: Mater Jerusalem

Tickets: £25
Free for under 19s and full-time students.
Season Tickets available.