10 May, 5 pm
Venice, Palazzo Grimani

Inauguration of the 2013 Early Music Seminars organised by Pedro Memelsdorff
in collaboration with the Special Superintendency for the Historical, Artistic and Ethno-Anthropological Heritage and for the Museums of the City of Venice and of Towns on the Lagoon Belt

Introductory lecture  by Alfonso de Vicente on the motets composed by Tomás Luis de Victoria in Rome and Madrid.

Print invitation

13 May,  9.30 am – 6.30 pm
Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
International study day: Tomás Luis de Victoria in Rome and Madrid

15 May  18

Venice, Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore
Concert in collaboration with the Abbacy of San Giorgio Maggiore

Free admission

This seminar in the new series of Early Music Seminars at the Giorgio Cini Foundation, directed by Pedro Memelsdorff, is dedicated to the repertoire of motets, psalms and antiphonals devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary composed by Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611). There will be a special focus on various interpretive traditions, principally Italian and Spanish. One of the most important composers of sacred music in late 16thcentury Europe, Tomás Luis de Victoria combined the infl uence of the best Spanish polyphonic composers who had preceded him at Avila – Espinar, Ribera, Navarro and Cabezón – with the Italian composers whom he had come across in his twenty-year stay in Rome, where he may even have studied with Palestrina. In addition to the historically accurate reconstruction and stylistic analyses of Victoria’s
motets, there will also be a focus on performances and performing history. Of particular interest is the comparison between Italian and Spanish traditions as regards the make-up of the groups of singers and the instrumental accompaniment for liturgical polyphonic singing, a practice well documented in early 17th-century Spain. For this purpose, two ensembles of scholarship holders (chosen through the usual call for applications) and an organ accompanist will be invited to take part. These young talented musicians will be mainly conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini (from Concerto Italiano) and Josep Borràs (an organologist, bassoon player and director of the Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya). They will be fl anked by other international experts on 17th-century Spanish liturgical music. The seminar will be opened by an introductory lecture at the Palazzo Grimani in collaboration with the Special Superintendency for the Historical, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Heritage and for the Museum Centre of the City of Venice and Lagoon Settlements. On 15 May the seminar will end with the traditional concert open to the public. The early music seminars are held with the support of the Veneto Region.