Saturday 28 April 2012 7.30pm
Musical Revolutions: Dawn of the cantata
Early vocal music by Monteverdi and his contemporaries
Event details
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7.30pm.
West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge, UK
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6.30pm
Pre-concert talk with Jonathan Cohen and Sara Mohr-Pietsch
Programme
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B Marini
Passacaglia in G minor (1655)
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Monteverdi
'Zefiro torna' (1614)
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Monteverdi
'Se vittore si belle' (1638)
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Falconieri
Ciaccona in G major (c.1616)
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Castello
Sonata No.15 a 4 (1621)
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B Marini
Passacaglia in G minor (1655)
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Castello
Sonata No.15 a 4 (1621)
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Cavalli
'Restino Imbalsamente' from La Calisto (1651)
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Monteverdi
‘Ardo e scoprir’ (1638)
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Monteverdi
Act 1 Scene 2 of Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria (1640)
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Monteverdi
'Ohime ch'io cado' (1624)
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Zanetti
Saltarello della Battaglia (1645)
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Monteverdi
Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (1624)
Tickets
Phone 01223 503333
About this concert
At the heart of the first Italian cantatas was a new and astonishing emphasis on the voice. This was a revolution built on theory and scholarship, but above all on deeply-felt emotions laid bare through this most human of instruments — whether Monteverdi’s joyous celebration of spring in ‘Zefiro torna’ or Strozzi’s lovelorn lament ‘Udite, amanti’. Instrumental music of thrilling inventiveness intersperses the programme, which culminates in Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. Here love and war collide to startling dramatic and musical effect, and an age-old tale is brought vividly to life through this freshly-minted form.
In context: Never to be repeated?
The circumstances which gave rise to these extraordinary cantatas were unparalleled, then and now: a close intertwining of poetry and music; a culture of patronage which allowed unrivalled artistic grandeur and experimentation; a succession of remarkably inventive composers; and, at the heart of it all, the genius of Monteverdi. His use of new techniques in Il combattimento to evoke passion so shocked his players that they initially refused to perform the work. This was not his only innovation with which the rest of the musical world took generations to catch up.
Concert programme
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