Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico band will tell the story of the Bassano family with sounds. It was a family of Venetian Jews, painters, musicians and instrument builders, who moved from Venice to England in the 16th century.

No compositions by artists belonging to the first generation of the Bassano family have survived to our times. We only know works written by representatives of later generations. The family lived in Venice, but when the publicity about their craftsmanship reached England, King Henry VIII, a great lover of music, decided to bring them to his court. The Doge of Venice, who did not want to lose such excellent artists, protested their decision to move out, but the conditions proposed by the British monarch were so good that Bassano moved.

The aim of Giovanni Antonini and the musicians of Il Giardino Armonico is to try to recreate the repertoire performed by members of the Bassano family and revive the art of improvisation for which they were famous. We will hear masterpieces of Flemish music, including one of the works of Josquin Desprez, described as “the prince of musicians”, as well as much later works by English composers active in the times of William Shakespeare. The programme also includes two works by representatives of the Bassano family – the Galiardo composed by Augustine and Diminuzioni su Introduxit me rex by Giovanni. For Giovanni Antonini, the inspiration for starting work on this project was the treatise La Fontegara (1535) by the Venetian Silvester Ganassi. This musician and theorist described in detail the rules governing improvisation, especially those concerning rhythm. His work was also based on the observations of members of the Bassano family. These materials are also extremely inspiring for contemporary performers, and Antonini even compares them to… jazz!