Festival Closing Concert - Songs of Light & Devotion - Life, Death & the Passion of 17th Century Italian Music

Take a deep-dive with ensemble e21 into the rich, evocative music of 17th century Italian composers with Claudio Monteverdi, Luigi Rossi, Giovanni Rigatti and Domenico Mazzocchi. This concert offers a glimpse into the richness of the Italian baroque, the beauty of its music brought to life with instruments and voices. The texts of this music, so important to composers of the time, sought to move listeners with their highly affective poetry, whether through exploring the spiritual reflections of Claudio Monteverdi’s late sacred music, the desperate pangs of the mortal life and the longing for heavenly release in the oratorios of Luigi Rossi, or the ecstatic beauty of Rigatti’s psalm settings. This program will bring together many fine musicians, including Kate Macfarlane, Stella Horvath, Samantha Anderson-Mayes, Timothy Reynolds, Joshua Morton-Galea, Lizzy Welch, Stephanie Eldridge, Linda Kent, Laura Vaughan, Hannah Lane and John Weretka, under the direction of singer-director Stephen Grant.

Artists

e21 – Vocal Ensemble +

Stephen Grant - Bass and director
Stella Horvath and Kate Macfarlane - Sopranos
Sam Anderson-Mayes - Mezzo soprano
Timothy Reynolds, Matthew O’Leary - Tenors

Directed by Stephen Grant, e21 brings together experienced ensemble singers and established soloists in a flexible format that ranges from solo and duo repertoire to small choral forces. The ensemble is known for programs that forge links between diverse musical works and the poetic ideas or emotional currents they share, often in collaboration with artists from other disciplines.
e21 has featured prominently in festivals including the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, the Four Winds Festival, Bermagui, the Castlemaine State Festival, the Melbourne Autumn Music Festival, the Melbourne Early Music Festival and the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival. The ensemble has been recorded by ABC Classic FM and ABC Sunday Live, and has participated in projects with the National Library of Australia and the State Library of Victoria, including the Medieval Imagination exhibition and performances at the Sydney Opera House with Ludovico’s Band.

Stephen Grant – Bass + Director +

Stephen Grant was born in Montreal, Canada. He is a singer, teacher and conductor, and is the director of the vocal ensemble e21. His professional career began in Europe, where he established working relationships with some of Europe's best-known early music ensembles — Sequentia, the Ferrara Ensemble and Ensemble Organum de Paris, with whom he performed and recorded over 30 CD recordings (for BMG, deutsche harmonia mundi, Harmonia Mundi France, Wergo & Arcana). He has also premiered a number of works for voice and chamber ensemble premieres of contemporary works by Saariaho (Paris), Fritsch (Bonn), Staub (Göteborg & Saarbrücken) and Thomson (Hobart). He is the Head of Voice at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne.

Lizzy Welch – Baroque violin

Stephanie Eldridge – Baroque violin

Linda Kent – Harpsichord

John Weretka – Organ

Laura Vaughan – Viola da gamba + Lirone

Hannah Lane – Baroque triple harp

Program

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) – Toccata

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) – Adoramus te, Christe

Luigi Rossi (c.1597-1653) – Mi son fatto nemico (Un peccator pentito)

Domenico Mazzocchi (1592-1665) – Toccata and Fugue in D minorFolle cor (Breve è la vita nostra)

Luigi Rossi – Passacaille del seigneur Luigi

Giovanni Antonio Rigatti (1613-1648) – Nisi Dominus

Claudio Monteverdi – O sia tranquillo il mare

Luigi Rossi – O si quis daret concentum

Tarquinio Merula (1595-1665) – Ciaccona for 2 violins and continuo, Op.12 No. 20

Luigi Rossi – Spargete sospiri

Claudio Monteverdi – Beatus vir