I BASSIFONDI IN CONCERT

The ‘Istituto Italiano di Cultura’ in collaboration with Camerata Tinta Barocca present Italian ensemble I Bassifondi. A brainchild of Simone Vallerotonda, I Bassifondi is a period ensemble performing music for lute, archlute, theorbo and baroque guitar with continuo.

Most 17th-18th-century music for lute, guitar, theorbo and archlute was devised and written down to be played in consort with different instruments. Such authors as Kapsberger, Corbetta, Piccinini, de Visée, Granata, Weiss and many others either composed their solo pieces with an added continuo accompaniment or arranged them from the original tablatures into regular multi-part scores. Moreover, in some more explicit instances they wrote directly for a consort of lutes, or for lute and sundry instruments. Several period chronicles witness on how such multi-instrumental music used to be performed. Guitarists were typically expected to be accompanied by theorboes, colasciones, lutes – and vice versa. Relying on written testimonies as well as on musical and iconographic sources, the ensemble I Bassifondi founded and handpicked by Simone Vallerotonda, aims at rediscovering and offering the audience that repertoire in chamber format.

The programme for this concert evokes the musical life of seventeenth century Rome in all its aspects: from the street, where the storytellers improvised simple dances, to the oratorio, where people gathered to hear the sacrae historiae, to the refined performances at the Palazzo Barberini. Music by Kapsberger (1580-1651), Tommaso Marchetti romano (?-XVII), Ferdinando Valdambrini romano (?- XVII), Giovanni Paolo Foscarini (1600-1647), Arcangelo Lori (1611-1679) and Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680).

With: Gabriele Miracle (percussion), Stefano Todarello (colascione, battente guitar, sordellina) and Simone Vallerotonda (archlute, baroque guitar and direction). Local soprano Elsabé Richter will make a guest appearance.

Date: Wednesday 20 November 2019
Time: 20.00
Venue: St. Andrew’s Presbytarian Church, De Waterkant

Tickets: R160 and R140 (concessions). Tickets can be purchased online via Webtickets, in-store at any Pick n Pay supermarket or cash at the door. Click here to purchase tickets online.
Enquiries: Email [email protected].