Blighted love and the melancholy it breeds are a hugely popular topic and have always interested writhers and musicians. When writing – probably between 1616 and 1619 – the tragicomedy The Mad Lover, John Fletcher did not blaze a literary trail. But he created a work that in turn inspired the composer John Eccles, Fletcher’s contemporary. Eccles’s incidental music is the springboard for a programme prepared by two acclaimed artists – violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and lutenist Thomas Dunford. They recorded The Mad Lover album with this repertoire, released by Harmonia Mundi in 2020. 

In the Romantic Salon in the Pan Tadeusz Museum you will listen to works by five composers. The concert will begin with the wistful, expressive Aire V from The Mad Lover Suite by John Eccles. He was born in London into a family with musical traditions. Active at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, he gained popularity especially thanks to the incidental music he wrote, among others, for the plays staged in Drury Lane. For thirty-five years, he also enjoyed the very prestigious title of Master of the King’s Music. From The Mad Lover Suite, the performers have also chosen the light Aire III.

Researchers have not yet been able to determine what kind of family relationship connected Daniel and Henry Purcell – according to some they were brothers, others claim they were cousins. The only thing that is beyond doubt is that both were well-educated and talented musicians. Daniel’s work will be presented in the form of three excerpts from Sonata No. 6 in F minor: we will hear two expressive, slow movements and one Allegro. As for the works of Henry, de Swarte will perform the short, melancholic Prelude in G minor.

Nicola Matteis was an Italian violinist and composer, born most probably in Naples but active in London. He enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime, creating undisputed masterpieces. One of them was La folia, which we will hear tonight. This term referred to a Baroque genre in which each variation was more difficult than the preceding one, hence the title meaning madness. In addition, we will listen to the tender, delicate Sarabanda amorosa from the Suite in A minor and the brilliant Diverse bizzarie sopra la Vecchia Sarabanda o pur Ciaccona from Suite in C major from Ayres for the Violin, The first Part. 

Matteis’s son, Nicola Jr, followed in his father's footsteps – for many years he worked in Vienna, but later returned to England and settled in Shrewsbury, where he was involved in teaching. The concert programme includes his spectacular Fantasy in A minor. Dunford will play the short but impressive Calata by Milanese lutenist Joan Ambrosio Dalza. The artists will also present compositions by Henry Eccles: two movements of the Sonata in G minor – the slow Grave and the lively Courante, a stylisation of a French court dance, as well as the lively and witty A new division upon the ground bass of “John Come and Kiss Me Now”, based on John Eccles’s work.