In Baroque music, emotions are depicted with meticulousness comparable to the use of chiaroscuro techniques in the paintings of that era. Affects permeated the instrumental repertoire from vocal works, where expression was at the service of the words, and the singer conveyed them with their entire being. What does early music sound like when created with such intense commitment? The musicians of Il Giardino Armonico, with Giovanni Antonini on the recorder, will answer this question, visiting Nysa.

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, and Venice held the highest position among them. Italian culture radiated to the countries north of the Alps. Genres crucial to the emergence of classical forms like the sonata and the concerto were then slowly emerging. Explaining how they evolved from various types of canzonas and ricercars could be a topic for a separate workshop, and this concert could serve as an introduction.

The programme consists of works by Tarquinio Merula, active in Bergamo and Cremona (and Warsaw!), as well as Giovanni Battista Buonamente, active in Mantua, and Giovanni Legrenzi, associated with Ferrara and Venice. Dario Castello worked for La Serenissima, too. We will also listen to works by Antonio Vivaldi, who composed in the 18th century and deserves the crown of musical doge. We will learn about him from a less obvious perspective as a composer of chamber concertos. The Neapolitan Francesco Mancini, residing at the other end of Italy, composed for the same instrumentation: flute and two violins. An interesting technique can be found in the works of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. This Austrian violin virtuoso experimented extensively with scordatura, or string tunings other than the standard tuning. In this way, he created previously unknown highlights and shadows…