Music at the cradle of humanism
Music by Paolo, Donato, Giovanni and Lorenzo da Firenze, Francesco Landini

Ensemble Sollazzo
Perrine Devillers, soprano
Andrew Hallock, countertenor
Victor Sordo, tenor
Franziska Fleischanderl, salterio
Sophia Danilevskaia, viella
Roger Helou, organetto
Anna Danilevskaia, viella and direction

It is said that on a warm morning of the year 1389, in that Florentine garden nicknamed “Il Paradiso”, Franceso degli Organi, famed for his virtuosity, accepted a challenge to silence the birds by the beauty of his organ-playing. This blind composer and multi-instrumentalist was known in the city not only for his musical prowess but also for his rhetorical abilities and philosophical views. A perfect representative of incipient humanism, Francesco, together with fellow composers such as Paolo da Firenze, Andrea Stefani and Giovanni da Firenze, was to bring the music of their time to its apogee.
Between 1350 and 1400, the city of Florence was the epicenter of a cultural blossoming which has influenced Italian culture until today: architecture and arts were undergoing an aesthetical changeover, the Tuscan dialect was elevated to a language of literature by poets like Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, and the population of Florence became exceptionally cultivated and well-educated. The production of manuscripts, notably musical ones, increased suddenly, creating not only professionally crafted luxurious, highly ornate copies, but also so-called zibaldoni – personal notebooks, through which we can gain an intimate glance at the intellectual life in Florence at that time.

Tickets: Full price € 18 / reduced ticket € 12

Programme
PAOLO DA FIRENZE (ca. 1355-1436)   Godi Firençe
DONATO DA FIRENZE (ca. 1350-1370) Come ‘l potes’ tu far (strumentale)
ANDREA DA FIRENZE (?-1415)   Non più doglia ebbe Dido
FRANCESCO DEGLI ORGANI (Landini) (1325?-1397)   Que cosa è quest’amor (strumentale)
ANONIMO   Già la sperança
FRANCESCO DEGLI ORGANI   O fanciulla Giulia
ANONIMO    Lauda novela sia cantata
ANONIMO    Peccatrice nominate
FRANCESCO DEGLI ORGANI    Creata fusti o vergine Maria (cantasi come Questa fanciulla amor)
ANONIMO   Benedicamus domino (cantasi come Ja Falla)
ANONIMO    Già la sperança
NICCOLÒ DEL PROPOSTO (ca. 1350-1400)   Nel meço già del mar la navicella
GIOVANNI DA FIRENZE (‘da Cascia’) (ca. 1340-50)   Quando la stella
JOHANNES DE FLORENTIA  (ca. 1360-14.5.1426)   Quand’amor
ANONIMO   Poi che veder non posso (strumentale)
FRANCESCO DEGLI ORGANI (Landini)   Conviens’ a fede
LORENZO DA FIRENZE  (?-1372/73)  A poste messe