The Vicentino Singers:

Linnéa Sundfær Casserly, soprano
Sirkku Rintamäki, soprano
Iris Oja, mezzo-soprano
David Hackston, tenor
Martti Anttila, baritone
Riku Laurikka, bass

In the Vicentino Singers' concert, Tapiola Church transforms into an intimate living room surrounding the performers, where you can experience radical, emotional, and at times even violent madrigal music from point-blank range. Unlike the serene spiritual music of the Renaissance, the madrigal was the wildest contemporary music of its time, enchanting Italian composers in early 17th-century courts.

Madrigals were sung by amateurs and professionals alike – after all, the ability to read music and sing was part of the general education of the era's nobility. They were not strictly performed for an audience, but rather sung together straight from sheet music at the end of dinner parties or gatherings as part of sociable, philosophical, and intellectual pastimes. In Italy, private literary and artistic societies, so-called academies, gathered their members to discuss science, art, and philosophy. In these gatherings, madrigals were often performed, as the musical form was closely connected to the ideals of Renaissance humanism and expressive poetry.

The genre's most famous creator is likely Carlo Gesualdo, who has been characterized as a “musician and murderer”. He killed his wife, Maria d’Avalos, and her lover in 1590. The psychotic episodes that followed the murder pushed him deep into his peculiar compositional style, which stretched the boundaries of piercing chromaticism to the extreme. However, he was not the first of his kind.

The six-member The Vicentino Singers is a unique vocal ensemble in the Nordic and Baltic region, focusing on contemporary music as well as 16th- and 17th-century vocal polyphony. It stands out from other groups and choirs by being, above all, a soloist group, where the music is always performed with one singer per part.

You have never experienced a madrigal like this before!

Program:

Nicolà Vicentino (1511–1575): Quattro madrigali enarmonici (1555)
Sebastian Dumitrescu (*1989): Flame and Shadow: Madrigal Fragments (excerpts)
Liina Sumera (*1988): L'infinito (ekS)
As well as a selection from the golden age of the 17th-century madrigal, featuring composers such as Carlo Gesualdo, Michelangelo Rossi, Sigismondo d'India, and Luca Marenzio.

Duration: Approx. 1 h, no intermission

Tickets: 30 / 27 / 15 € + order fees (from 1.50 € + 0.65% of the order via www.lippu.fi)

VocalEspoo: 500 Years of Madrigal History

The event “VocalEspoo: 500 Years of Madrigal History” has ended