"Passecaille" - The gamba consort Les Escapades on the stringed paths of the 17th century

The four ladies of the Karlsruhe gamba ensemble "Les Escapades," together with lutenist Andrea C. Baur and works by English, French, and Italian composers, transport the audience to the heyday of the gamba in the 17th century. **Gamba Ensemble Les Escapades Takes You on a Journey Down "Early Baroque String Road"** **The Sankt Aurelius concert series continues on Sunday, May 17** Following the Sankt Aurelius concert series’ previous excursion into the late Baroque era, the program for the upcoming concert focuses on the beginning of this period. The works to be performed at the concert on Sunday, May 17, were therefore composed in the early and mid-17th century.  This program focus is largely related to the instruments that will be featured at this May concert. The main performers will be the four ladies of the gamba consort “Les Escapades” from Karlsruhe, well known in Hirsau: Sabine Kreutzberger on the treble gamba, Franziska Finckh on the treble and bass gambas, Adina Scheyhing on the alto gamba, and Barbara Pfeifer on the bass gamba. These four string players are supported by Andrea C. Baur on theorbo and baroque guitar.  Their program for this evening, “Passecaille,” is a double tribute to the viola da gamba, which enjoyed its heyday during the Renaissance and early Baroque periods and was honored by the composers featured in this concert with particularly festive, colorful, and musically captivating works. The viola da gamba, a six-stringed string instrument whose body is supported on or “held” by the player’s legs, is the precursor to the violin family; its second-lowest instrument, the cello, ultimately supplanted the main form of the viola da gamba—and thus the entire viola da gamba family—in the 18th century.  Almost all the works in this concert share the common trait of belonging to the genre of dance music, as it was popular at the courts of the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Originally, however, these dance pieces stem from folk music, from where they found their way into so-called classical music. This origin and significance also becomes clear and tangible in the term “Passecaille.” This word, derived from Spanish, goes back to the phrase “passar una calle”—meaning “to walk through a street or alley”—and was coined by musicians playing in the streets. The passacaglia, however, refers not only to an old Spanish dance style but also to a firmly established compositional form.  Fans of the viola da gamba and the ensemble “Les Escapades,” who have mastered this instrument to perfection, can look forward to “music that dances with verve, strides majestically, and leads along some astonishing, unusual paths, with radiant and heartfelt tones across wooden bridges and golden paths.”  And with works by William Byrd, Juan Cabanilles, Luigi Rossi, Louis Couperin, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Henry Purcell, and other composers, “Les Escapades” and Andrea C. Baur, who accompanies them on theorbo and baroque guitar, will demonstrate on the evening of May 17 that one can truly fall in love with the viola da gamba!  **The concert at Aureliuskirche on May 17 begins, as always, at 7 p.m. Tickets priced at €20 (€10 for school and college students) will be available at the box office starting at 6 p.m.**