Soloindue 

In this programme, Giovanna Baviera offers the audience a very personal approach to reviving the historical practice of singing to the viol. The programme combines historical repertoire such as English music for voice and lyra viol, polyphonic chansons by P. Sandrin and J. Arcadelt and Italian monodies by G. Caccini —with contemporary works written for her and for this special combination of viol and voice, by Simon MacHale and the Austrian composer and performer Eva Reiter.

With just the viol and the voice, Giovanna Baviera plays many roles in this concert—singer, viol player, accompanist—assimilating them into one, fluidly changing performance in order to bring this vivid and nuanced art back to life.

Cast: Giovanna Baviera, viol and voice

Photo Credit: Stefan Schweiger, 2021

Mirate gli atti- A tribute to Tarquinia Molza

It was not an exaggeration: the epithet ‘l’Unica’ was indeed true, when in 1600 the poet, intellectual and musician Tarquinia Molza was granted honorary citizenship of Rome. Apart from her extensive literary production, now mainly lost, she was famous for her abilities as a singer, viol player, and, perhaps most of all, for her unrivalled skill in accompanying her own singing on the viola da gamba.

Tarquinia Molza’s own texts form the core of the programme, with musical settings of her works by Palestrina and Ingegneri, among others, alongside madrigals by composers such as Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Giaches de Wert, Orazio Vecchi and others. Combining voices and a variety of instruments at the same time, the musicians create a programme of rich variety and scope as a tribute to this wonderfully rich and inspiring female historical figure. 

Cast: Giovanna Baviera: viol, voice, artistic direction; Alberto Allegrezza: voice, recorder, lira da braccio; Michele Vannelli: cembalo