The art of diminution in Renaissance madrigals

Music by Jacques Arcadelt, Diego Ortiz, Cipriano de Rore, Antonio de Cabezon, Riccardo Rognoni

Anna Lodone, treble viol
Giorgos Kakitsis, lute

Tickets € 5

The program explores one of the pinnacles of 16th- and 17th-century performance practice: the art of diminution. In an era when the distinction between composer and performer was fluid, musicians were called upon to “embellish” the melodic lines of madrigals and songs with virtuosic flourishes, called “diminutions” or “passages,” transforming famous vocal compositions into new instrumental masterpieces. The core of the concert lies in the fruitful cultural exchange between the Iberian Peninsula and Italy. Among the composers in this program is Diego Ortiz, active at the court of the Viceroy of Naples, who blended the solemnity of court dances, such as the “passamezzo,” with the richness of the Italian vocal tradition. Alongside him, the genius of Antonio de Cabezón reveals how the Spanish tradition absorbed and reworked European models with exceptional mastery. The musical journey touches upon the cornerstones of the period’s vocal repertoire, such as Cipriano de Rore’s celebrated madrigal Ancor che col partire and Palestrina’s Vestiva i colli, reinterpreted through the spectacular flourishes of great Milanese “passeggiatori” such as Riccardo and Francesco Rognoni. From the Flemish polyphonies of Arcadelt to popular melodies such as Une jeune fillette, the duo Lodone-Kakitsis preserves the freshness of a repertoire where formal rigor meets the freedom of improvisation, offering the audience an experience of intimate listening and, at the same time, lively performance eloquence.