ACRONYM, 5pm:

Amor Temporalia: Music of Bertali, Schmelzer, Valentini, and others
Returning for their fourth consecutive Festival, the always-engaging instrumentalists of ACRONYM open our week of Festival Concerts with music that testifies to a rare taste for extravagance and novelty. The Holy Roman Empire, until its dramatic defeat by Napoleon, represented one of the greatest consolidations of power and wealth in the history of Europe. For nearly a millennium, the Empire’s purse funded some of the most lavish (and strangest!) art, architecture, and music available across Europe, expressions both of its love of—and its grip on—temporal power. This selection of works commissioned by (or dedicated to) the Empire’s nobility offers a soundscape to the machinations of Empire and a 17th-century expression of amor temporalia.

The Tallis Scholars | Peter Phillips, Director
with The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble, 8pm:

Jubilate! Music of Lassus, Palestrina, Gombert, Andrea Gabrieli, and Giovanni Gabrieli
Don’t miss a blockbuster collaboration between two of Early Music’s most celebrated ensembles. Director Peter Phillips has planned a program of music which celebrates the 500th anniversary of Palestrina’s birth, as well as honoring his friendly artistic relations with two of his greatest contemporaries, Orlandus Lassus and Nicolas Gombert. It’s not always clear whether sacred music was accompanied in 16th-century worship, but Lassus had spent time in one of the more likely places to hear voices with instruments: Venice. The distinguished instrumentalists of The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble join the singers of The Tallis Scholars for celebratory bookends by Lassus and his younger colleague Giovanni Gabrieli.

Aaron Sheehan, tenor & Paul O’Dette, lute & theorbo, 10:30pm:

The Excellency of Wine: Songs by Dowland, Guédron, Moulinié, and Henry Lawes
Celebrate love, laughter, and drinking in an intimate and invigorating recital of lute songs featuring GRAMMY winners Aaron Sheehan and Paul O’Dette. Henry Lawes’s song The Excellency of Wine praises the libation that “quenches love’s fires” and “teaches fools how to rule a State.” Indulge in repertoire of positively breathtaking beauty for voice and lute from two world-renowned performers.

Click here to buy tickets