Schwetzingen SWR Festival: A Baroque Celebration

Resident artist Jörg Halubek and his ensemble il Gusto Barocco celebrate the diversity and extremes of music around 1600. Turning points are challenges. They are experimental and colorful. This also applies to one of the most exciting transitional periods in music history, the shift between the Renaissance and Baroque. In their Festa Barocca, the Schwetzingen resident artist Jörg Halubek and his ensemble il Gusto Barocco celebrate the diversity and extremes of music around 1600. One of the prominent figures of that time is Giovanni Gabrieli: he composes not only for instruments but also for spaces, focusing on overwhelming experiences and representation. Alongside his works, there are pieces by Merulo, Biber, Bertali, Pandolfi Mealli, Marini, and Scheidt; polyphonic pieces are included as well as operatic expressiveness. Above the new figured bass of the Baroque period, over the strict formal frameworks of Passacaglia and Ciaccona, liberated, virtuosic singing becomes possible. The music becomes emotional and individual: an expression of humanity and the human experience. Composed sounds turn into a game that we participate in by listening. And in their new autonomy, melody and instrumental accompaniment strive for that harmonic perfection which we call beautiful. If that isn’t a reason to celebrate!