March is Early Music Month! To mark the occasion, Latitude 45 is celebrating the incredible and sometimes surprising diversity that this musical genre offers.
Our agency represents a multitude of artists who present unique and original programmes of early music ranging from the repertoire of women composers and performers (Infusion Baroque), the rediscovery of lost works (Heartstrings), long-lost Jewish vocal music of the Baroque era (Profeti della Quinta), and the musical commemoration of great scientists of the Baroque (Tafelmusik).
Infusion Baroque
Infusion Baroque draws new audiences to early music through a truly captivating concert experience, deftly combining seasoned musicianship with theatrical elements. Playing on historical instruments, the four women of Infusion Baroque enthrall audiences with their creative and interactive programming.
We'd like to highlight two of their unique programmes: Virtuosa, an all-female tour-de-force celebrating the talent and prowess of women composers and performers of early music; and Who Killed Leclair?, an interactive musical investigation of the true story of composer Leclair's murder.
Heartstrings
Heartstrings is a collaboration between the Canadian musicians Hank Knox (harpsichord) and Mark Fewer (violin). Both versatile musicians, they have performed throughout North America and are known for imparting a unique signature to their performances, offering fresh and exciting interpretation of works from the past.
They recently released the first recording by Canadian artists of the Vivaldi Manchester Sonatas. An important collection of sonatas for violin and continuo was discovered by Vivaldi scholar Michael Talbot in 1973 in the Manchester Public Library where they had languished for the better part of two centuries. The collection contains six sonatas unknown from other sources and two sonatas previously known from incomplete sources, adding significantly to our knowledge of Vivaldi’s writing for solo violin. A critical edition appeared in 1976, but the manuscript is remarkably clear and easy to read; there are a few obvious errors, but the overall quality of the manuscript is quite high.
Mark and Hank have chosen to personalize these sonatas, especially the slow movements, by permitting ourselves the freedom to fill in the skeletal melodic lines with improvised ornamentation and variations. They approach each performance with fresh enthusiasm; each performance grows out of the moment.
Profeti della Quinta
Ensemble Profeti della Quinta focuses on the vocal repertoire of the 16th and early 17th centuries. They create vivid and expressive performances for audiences today while considering period performance practices. From its core of five male singers, the ensemble collaborates regularly with instrumentalists and guest singers. Their programmes range from explorations of the Italian madrigal to seldom-heard Jewish sacred music and more.
Their programme Il Mantovano Hebreo highlights the work of Jewish Italian composer Salomone Rossi, showing the variety of his musical output, comprising Italian madrigals and instrumental music as well as unique Hebrew-texted music for the Synagogue. Profeti's work re-discovering the music of Rossi was the subject of a documentary film, HEBREO: The Search for Salomone Rossi.
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
Tafelmusik, Canada’s award-winning orchestra on period instruments founded in 1979, has become an internationally recognized ensemble. At the heart of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra is a group of seventeen remarkably talented, enthusiastic and dynamic permanent members, each of whom is a specialist in historical performance practice.
Their programme The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres explores the fusion of arts, science and culture in the 17th and 18th centuries while commemorating Galileo’s first public demonstration of the telescope. Tafelmusik musicians perform the music by memory to a backdrop of high-definition images from the Hubble telescope and Canadian astronomers. This imaginative concert features poetic narration, choreography, and music by Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel.
Click here to learn about all of our early music artists.