08/05/2026
The music on our programme contains some of the technical experimentation at the heart of the controversy between Artusi abd Monteverdi, but all of the arrogance, ambition, and power with which Monteverdi raced into the future. Much of the sacred music he wrote throughout his life confronted, probed, examined, and almost satirised the clash between old and new that he had identified. His secular music is where his new ideas found their fullest expression. We present both of these kinds of music, using a mass setting composed late in his life entitled simply ‘a mass for four voices’ and appearing on the surface to be a conservative piece but powered by the beating heart of Baroque music, as a scaffold for a programme that contains an early madrigal (Ch’io non t’ami) and a late one (Ohime, il bel viso), some wildly contrasting sacred music (the exquisite pair of Christe, adoramus te and Adoramus te, Christe contrasts so well with the jagged and uncontrolled motets Domine, ne in furore and Laudate pueri), and a focus on the pinnacle of Monteverdi’s a ca****la madrigal output with four selections from his fourth book of madrigals (published right at the middle of the controversy with Artusi). This all leads toward a towering masterpiece, the lengthy and incredibly powerful madrigal Rimanti in pace, claimed by many to be the best he wrote.
Come listen to our next concert "MUSICA MODERNA: Monteverdi Moving Fast and Breaking Things"!
Details of Performances:
Saturday, 9 May, St Michael's Church, Lewes, 7:30pm
Sunday, 10 May, Friends Meeting House, 7:30pm (shorter concert with reduced programme, as part of )
Friday, 15 May, St Mary-de-Haura, Shoreham, 7:30pm
More info, programme and tickets at brightonconsort.org.uk/next-concert
