A Festival of Music in Venice

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice

Martin Randall Travel, the leading cultural holiday specialists, are offering a sumptuous 6 day package holiday in Venice from 13th to 18th March 2011, to include seven private concerts in some of the most spectacular concert venues in the Serenissima, performed by internationally acclaimed ensembles. Admission to the concerts is exclusive to those who take the package which includes a choice of eight different four- or five-star hotels, flights from the UK, talks about the music, receptions and dinners. There are also several optional walks and visits led by art historians to choose from.

Concert programme:

1. Imago Virginis

performed by Odhecaton

directed by Paolo da Col

This programme of Franco-Flemish composers is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and includes music by Josquin Des Prés, Johannes Ockeghem, Jean Mouton and Nicolas Gombert.

Venue: Santa Maria dei Miracoli (houses works by Tullio Lombardo, Alessandro Vittoria, Vincenzo dalle Destre, Lattanzio da Rimini, etc.)

Interior, Santa Maria dei Miracoli

2. Songs of Venice

performed by Christopher Maltman with Malcolm Martineau

This selection of songs about or inspired by Venice provides a radical change of sound world to the rest of the festival with songs by Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Fauré and Hahn.

Venue: Palazzo Pisani Moretta (works by Giambattista Tiepolo, Gaspare Diziani, Giuseppe Angeli, etc.)

Sala del Guarana, Palazzo Pisani Moretta

3. Monteverdi: L’Incoronazione di Poppea (highlights)

performed by La Venexiana

Soloists: Roberta Mameli, Martina Belli, Valentina Coladonato, Claudio Cavina, Alberto Allegrezza

A concert performance of highlights from Monteverdi's operatic masterpiece first performed in Venice in 1643

Venue: Ateneo Veneto (works by Tintoretto, Veronese, Palma il Giovane, Pietro Longhi etc.)

Aula Magna, Ateneo Veneto

4. From Venice to Naples

performed by I Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca

directed by Giorgio Fava

This programme of sonatas and concertos traces a musical route through the Italian late Baroque from Venice to Naples and includes works by Vivaldi, Giovanni Reali, Francesco Mancini, Francesco Durante and Domenico Sarri.

Venue: Palazzo Zenobio (works by Tiepolo, Dorigny, Lazzarini, etc.)

Hall of Mirrors, Palazzo Zenobio

5. Music for the orphanages

performed by Iestyn Davies - countertenor

with Accademia Bizantina

directed by Ottavio Dantone

A concert of sacred music including Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus (RV608) and Porpora’s Salve Regina.

Venue: Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari (works by Titian, Giovanni Bellini, Donatello, Tullio Lombardo, Jacopo Sansovino, Paolo Veneziano,Vivarini, etc.)

High Altar with Titian's Assumption of the Virgin
Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

6. Vivaldi: Catone in Utica

performed by La Serenissima

directed by Adrian Chandler

Soloists to include Mhairi Lawson, Sally Bruce-Payne and Hilary Summers

A concert performance of Vivaldi's opera Catone in Utica (RV 705), first performed at the Teatro Filarmonico, Verona, in 1737.

Venue: Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista (works by Tintoretto, Tiepolo, etc.)

Interior, Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista

7. Music for San Rocco

performed by The Gabrieli Consort & Players

directed by Paul McCreesh

A spectacular reconstruction of a concert given at the Scuola di San Rocco, on 16th August 1608 to celebrate the feastday of its patron saint with canzonas, motets and sonatas by the confraternity’s Maestro di Capella, Giovanni Gabrieli.

Venue: Scuola Grande di San Rocco (works by Tintoretto, Titian, Palma il Giovane, etc.)

Sala Superiore, Scuola Grande di San Rocco

Full details of the package including concerts, venues, accommodation options and optional extras on the Martin Randall website

Podcast (MP3) by Roderick Swanston and Martin Randall previewing the festival

Thomas Coryat's description of a concert in San Rocco as mentioned by Roderick Swanston was featured in this earlier post