Early music concert "In Amoroso Foco"

On March 20th at 16:00 in Bauska Castle and on March 22th at 18:00 in Raudondvaris Manor an early music concert “In Amoroso Foco” will take place.

In a concert you will hear:

Filippo Azzaiolo (ca. 1530/40 – ?), Quando la sera

Orazio Vecchi (1550 – 1605), Mi vorrei trasformare

Giovanni Domenico da Nola (ca.1510/20 – 1592), Amor m’ha fatto deventar fenice

Antonio Scandello (1517 – 1580), Haveva na gallina capelluta

Adrian Willaert (1490 – 1562), Madonna mia fame bona of erta

Orazio Vecchi, Il cocodrillo geme

Baldassarre Donato (ca. 1525/30 – 1603), No pulice m’entrato nell’orecchia

Filippo Azzaiolo, Sentomi la formicula

Giaches de Wert (ca. 1535 – 1596), Cara nemica mia

Costanzo Festa (ca. 1485/90 – 1545), Si liet’alcun giamai ne l’amoroso foco

Orlando di Lasso (1532 – 1594), O occhi manza mia

Philippe Verdelot (ca. 1485 – ca. 1535), Ognor per voi sospiro

Francesco Corteccia (1502 – 1571), Madonna io t’aggi amat’ed amo assai

Orlando di Lasso, Matona mia cara

Love, in all his forms, has always been the absolute protagonist of music and poetry, and so it is for Italian Renaissance. In the refined and courtly style of madrigals, Love takes the godlike form of Cupid, and here the child tyrant is often represented as an invincible spirit that dominates the will of harmless mortals, pushing them to move constantly towards the desired object in an endless tournament; a jousting among opposite affetti, such as hope and disappointment, enthusiasm and dejection, joy and sorrow.

But in other musical genres of more rustic origins, such as the villanella, villotta and canzonetta, Love is the protagonist of a rather realistic and ironic representation of everyday life. In his most carnal and earthly appearance – that is the erotic desire – Love directly affects social relationships and conventions, and it has even the power to ridicule his victims or expose them to all sorts of hilarious misfortunes.

Nevertheless Love remains the source of the sweetest things that life can offer, and his ultimately positive nature is also highly celebrated and represented in Renaissance music, both in madrigals and other secular works. This program is dedicated to the contradictory depiction of Love and desire, so richly and imaginatively explored in the Italian Renaissance music, where even animals are metaphorically represented as either servants or victims of Love’s dominance.

PassiSparsi ensemble:
Martha Rook, soprano
Elisabetta Vuocolo, contralto
Neri Landi, tenore
Lorenzo Tosi, basso

PassiSparsi ensemble was created in August 2019 by four young singers, Martha Rook, Cora Mariani, Neri Landi, and Lorenzo Tosi, all studying at the Conservatoire L. Cherubini in Florence. Although they come from different academic backgrounds, they all have experience as soloists and madrigalists in Renaissance-Baroque repertoire, and decide to join together to explore the Renaissance polyphonic repertoire. Since 2020 the ensemble collaborated with contralto Elisabetta Vuocolo.

Audience is required to wear respirators or medicine masks during the concert. Concert is free.

The event is organized by the project Historic Road: Raudondvaris-Bauska (LLI-498), which seeks to attract more tourists to Kaunas district and Bauska regions during the cold season by creating new artistic and cultural activities. This is already the fifth concert from the early music concert series organized by Bauska Castle Museum in cooperation with Raudondvaris Manor. Concerts take place in both project partners venues and are for free.

• Project duration: 2021-01-01–2022-12-31
• This project is funded by the European Union. Official EU website: europa.eu
• Total projects size is 785 875.00 EUR. Out of them co-funding of European Regional Development Fund is 667 993.75 EUR
• The Interreg V-A Latvia – Lithuania Cross Border Cooperation Program 2014-2020 aims to contribute to the sustainable and cohesive socio-economic development of the Program regions by helping to make them competitive and attractive for living, working and visiting. Program website: latlit.eu
• The contents of this information are the sole responsibility of Bauska Castle Museum and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.