Ohimè! – this cry of profound emotion expresses surprise combined with worry, perhaps fear or regret… In the Baroque aesthetic of affect, music served the words articulated by the singer with their entire being. Il Giardino Armonico, well-known to Wratislavia Cantans audiences, will visit Oleśnica and Bielawa, with Giovanni Antonini playing the recorder. In a meticulous re-creation of the feelings captured in centuries-old scores, the artists will be accompanied by soprano Angelica Antonini.

Northern Italy, during the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods, can be called a true melting pot of musical inspiration. Musicians were scattered across numerous but closely related centres, among which Venice held the highest position. Italian culture radiated to the countries north of the Alps. At that time, genres key to the emergence of classical forms like the sonata and the concerto were slowly germinating. Explaining how they evolved from various types of canzonas and ricercars would be a topic for a separate workshop.

The concert programme consists of works by Tarquinio Merula, active in Bergamo and Cremona (and Warsaw!), as well as Giovanni Battista Buonamente, who worked in Mantua, and Giovanni Legrenzi, associated with Ferrara and Venice. We'll also listen to works by Antonio Vivaldi, who was active in the 18th century and deserves the title of music doge. We’ll get to know him from a less obvious perspective, as a composer of chamber concertos. An interesting technique can be found in the compositions of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. This Austrian violin virtuoso experimented extensively with scordatura, a tuning other than the standard for string instruments.

Among the instrumental pieces will be Baroque arias. The first, composed by Claudio Monteverdi, begins with the word “Ohimè!” It is a reaction to a recurring weakness for a former lover. Despite taking all protective measures, one glance is enough… Barbara Strozzi’s moving aria Che si può fare expresses a helplessness quite similar to that we experience today, though not always due to Cupid’s treachery. Two arias from Antonio Cesti’s opera Orontea will also be performed. Intorno all’idol mio is a lullaby, while Addio Corindo expresses the moment of rekindling the flame of love. The heroine is so deeply moved that, as is ancient custom, she compares love to death.