Imago Virginis
Odhecaton, Paolo da Col

Sta Maria dei Miracoli

‘Odhecaton’ was the name given to the first book of entirely polyphonic printed music, produced in Venice in 1501 by Ottavio Petrucci. 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.

The vocal group Odhecaton dedicates itself to music of the Renaissance and pre-Classical period. Their first and prize-winning cd, The Coronation Mass of Charles V, was released in 2000 and has been followed by a steady stream of highly acclaimed recordings and tours. Paolo Da Col leads the ensemble. He is both musician and musicologist and is currently Maestro di Capella di San Petronio (the cathedral) in Bologna.

The little church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli is a masterpiece of the early Renaissance, built, adorned and sculpted by Tullio and Pietro Lombardo and their workshop. The recurring geometry of square and circle, the naive, jewel-box decoration of its coloured marble revetment and its exquisite carvings make it one of the best-loved buildings in Venice.

Songs of Venice
Christopher Maltman, Malcolm Martineau

Palazzo Pisani Moretta

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.

Since winning the Lieder prize at the 1997 Cardiff Singer of the World competition, baritone Christopher Maltman has established himself as one of the UK’s leading performers, equally at home in recital and on the opera stage. He has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious recital halls and is a regular guest at the Wigmore Hall. Recent opera roles include Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival and in Cologne, Papageno at the Metropolitan Opera and Marcello and Ramiro at Covent Garden.

Malcolm Martineau is one of the finest accompanists in the world today, working with many leading vocal and instrumental artists.

The sumptuously decorated Palazzo Pisani Moretta, a Gothic palace on the Grand Canal – still in private ownership – has a grand salon which dates from refurbishment in the 1740s. Retaining the deep, narrow plan of the original hall, the lavish decoration includes a ceiling by Tiepolo. Robert Browning lived in an apartment here.


Monteverdi, L’Incoronazione di Poppea (highlights)
La Venexiana
Soloists: Roberta Mameli, Martina Belli, Valentina Coladonato, Claudio Cavina, Alberto Allegrezza

Ateneo Veneto

First performed in Venice in 1643, Monteverdi’s brilliant but morally troubling tale of the triumph of lust over duty contains some of  the most beautiful music in the operatic repertoire. Although it recounts an historical episode, that of Poppea’s successful seduction of the emporer Nero, it is arguably also a study of the ambiguity of human relations and the unpredictable nature of life itself.

La Venexiana is a leading exponent of early Italian music, particularly the madrigal, and in its ten year history has created a distinctive style based on warmth, colour and finely worked harmony. The ensemble records exclusively for Glossa and their recent release of L’Incoronazione di Poppea has been met with widespread approbation.

The Ateneo Veneto was built in the 1590s under the supervision of Alessandro Vittoria as the Scuola di San Fantin. Since the confraternity’s dissolution in 1806, the building has become the seat of various cultural societies. The main hall is decorated with elaborate woodwork and paintings (artists include Veronese and Palma Il Giovane).


From Venice to Naples
I Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca, Giorgio Fava

Palazzo Zenobio

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.

The ensemble I Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca was founded twenty years ago in Treviso (‘Marca Gioiosa et Amorosa’), a city that had been part of the borderland (marca) of the Venetian Republic since the fifteenth century. It is recognized as one of the leading period instrument ensembles specializing in Venetian music from Monteverdi to Vivaldi.

The Palazzo Zenobio, located off the beaten track in the Dorsoduro, was built at the end of the seventeenth century, and the ballroom is one of the most richly decorated Baroque rooms in Venice.


Music for the orphanages
Iestyn Davies, Accademia Bizantina, Ottavio Dantone

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus (RV608), centrepiece of this concert, is a psalm setting for solo voice which contrasts virtuosic passages with mellifluous melodies. The programme also includes Porpora’s Salve Regina.

Hailed by The Independent as possessing ‘one of the most glorious countertenor voices in the world today’ Iestyn Davies has performed with many of the world’s leading conductors and ensembles, both on the opera stage and the concert platform.

Accademia Bizantina, one of Italy’s most exciting period-performance ensembles, was founded in 1983. It is now directed from the harpsichord by Ottavio Dantone and from the violin by Stefano Montanari.

The great mediaeval church of I Frari, a Franciscan foundation, is one of the largest in Venice. Titian’s spectacular Assumption is among the many paintings and sculptures with which it is endowed.


Vivaldi, Catone in Utica
La Serenissima, Adrian Chandler
Soloists to include Mhairi Lawson, Sally Bruce-Payne and Hilary Summers

Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista

Catone in Utica (RV 705) was written by Vivaldi for performance at the Teatro Filarmonico, Verona, in 1737.  Like his other surviving Veronese operas (Bajazet and La Fida Ninfa), Catone is full of music of the very highest order and the score calls for trumpets and horns in addition to the usual strings and continuo. The text is a revision of a libretto written by Metastasio which was set by Vinci in Rome, 1728.  The action takes place in Utica, a north African fortress where the last Republican soldiers under the command of Catone (M. Porcius Cato) hold out against Cesare (Julius Caesar), though as with so many baroque opera plots the librettist is far less concerned with history than with the intricacies of the love affairs amongst the principal characters.

La Serenissima was founded in 1994 by Adrian Chandler, the principal artistic aim being the performance of music by Vivaldi. Using original instruments and techniques, they have won widespread acclaim for the zest as well as the authenticity they bring to their performances. They have appeared in many festivals and concert halls in the UK and abroad.

La Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista was one of the greatest of the Venetian scuole – charitable, religious and social institutions which provided platforms for much of the city’s cultural life. The Renaissance transformation which began in the 1480s includes a delightful courtyard, one of the earliest grand stairways in Europe and a glorious hall. This was further embellished in the sixteenth century with paintings and, in the eighteenth century, by architectural ornamentation, a marble floor and ceiling paintings.


Music for San Rocco
The Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh

Scuola Grande di San Rocco

Paul McCreesh and his Gabrieli Consort and Players made their name through spectacular recreations of great Venetian ceremonial occasions, and this is one of them, 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.

The Gabrieli Consort and Players, founded by Paul McCreesh in 1982, is one of the world’s leading chamber choirs and chamber orchestras specialising in historically-informed performance. In recent years their repertoire has expanded from Renaissance and Baroque to encompass Classical, Romantic and twentieth-century music. Their conductor and artistic director Paul McCreesh is not only recognised as one of the most authoritative and exciting conductors of the earlier repertoire on the concert platform and in the opera house, but is also much sought after across Europe as a guest conductor for later music.

The grandest of all confraternity premises, San Rocco was constructed 1517–1549 and the halls decorated with a magnificent cycle of dynamic and highly-charged canvasses by Tintoretto which, together with the gilded woodwork, create the most lavish interiors in Venice, and one of the most glorious halls in Europe.

More about the concerts

Exclusive access. The concerts are private, being planned and administered by Martin Randall Travel exclusively for an audience consisting of those who have taken the full festival package.
Seating. Specific seats are not reserved. You sit where you want.

Comfort. Seats in a couple of venues are church pews; consider bringing a cushion. In another couple of venues heating is inadequate; expect to wear coat and gloves during those concerts.

Concert times. Four of the seven venues are too small to accommodate all 300 participants and so these concerts are repeated two or three times. All participants are provided with an individualised programme which ensures they can attend all the concerts and other events for which they have booked.

Changes. Musicians fall ill, venues close for repair, airlines alter schedules: there are many possible unpredictable circumstances which could necessitate changes to the programme. We ask you to be understanding should they occur.