Contrapunctus CD Launch Concert: Harmonies of Devotion

Motets by Monteverdi, Legrenzi, Lotti, Steffani. Bernabei & Colonna

Saturday 13 July 2024, 7.30pm
Chapel of The Queen’s College, High Street, Oxford, OX1 4AW
button book here

Tickets £5 - £15

CD LAUNCH CONCERT
Harmonies of Devotion is both an exploration of the Italian motet repertory of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and a celebration of the devotion to this sacred repertory displayed by English antiquarian collectors of the eighteenth century. Among the works performed are Giovanni Legrenzi’s six-voice masterpiece Intret in conspectu tuo, which survives thanks to a copy made in London by Handel, a five-voice Crucifixus by Legrenzi’s pupil Antonio Lotti, sent to London’s newly formed Academy of Ancient Music, a grand Marian motet written for the Academy by Agostino Steffani, and music by Steffani’s teacher Ercole Bernabei, again collected by members of London’s antiquarian music clubs. The programme reveals lines of influence between teachers and pupils, and traces the lineage of the dramatic seconda prattica motet back to its principal source and pioneer: Monteverdi.

'Seriously, startlingly good' – Gramophone

'Superb singing' – The Observer

'The singers shape each piece lovingly. Impeccable.' – The Sunday Times