Current Work

Claudio Monteverdi – Vespro della Beata Vergine

ENG Monteverdi vespers have been subject of intense interest among early music performers for many years. The dedication to Pope Paul V, the grand dimensions, the vocal and instrumental virtuosity, the musical colour and extraordinary variety displayed in the collection… Read more »

Passages

Schütz/Buxtehude/Bach/Beethoven ENG Primitive instruments with embouchures made from animal horns were traditionally used by hunters and shepherds for summoning and signalling. In cultures and traditions throughout the world, their distinctive sound is often associated with ritual, rites of passage –… Read more »

Enchanted forests – Guédron/Praetorius/Monteverdi

In Italy prior to the invention of opera, composers conceived of musical interludes mixing song, dance and theatre around large mythological frescos. In France, court ballets also married poetry, vocal and instrumental music, choreography and scenography. From the beginning of… Read more »

Musica ex Machina

Composers and theorists of the Renaissance cultivated a strong fascination with the internal mechanisms of music. Counterpoint was conceptualized as a perpetual reflection of the universe’s divine organisation: intervals, time signatures and proportions could be perfect or imperfect. InAlto performs… Read more »