BRATTLEBORO — On Friday, Sept. 21, at 7:30 p.m., In Stile Moderno returns to Brattleboro with their new program, “Curious and Modern Inventions: Novelties, Oddities, and the Birth of the Baroque,” at the Brattleboro Music Center, 72 Blanche Moyse Way.
Following up on their acclaimed performance in January, this group of young early music specialists will showcase their energetic and modern take on 17th-century music. The concert will be the first of three in the ensemble's 2018-19 season, with further performances in February and May in Brattleboro and Cambridge, Mass.
Boston-based ensemble In Stile Moderno is dedicated to music of the 17th century, and combines fidelity to historical performance practice with a drive to make early music accessible and relevant to modern audiences.
Founded in 2012 in Basel, Switzerland, by Brattleboro native Nathaniel Cox and British-American soprano Agnes Coakley, the ensemble has gained a reputation for engaging performances and musicianship on the highest level.
Curious and Modern Inventions explores the more eccentric compositions of early 17th-century Italy, when composers were breaking with the old style of music of the renaissance and experimenting with new and expressive harmonies and forms.
The violinist Biagio Marini (1594-1663) pushed his instrument to the limits, writing the first music with double and triple stops and even demanding the violin to be retuned in the middle of the piece.
Imitation was a new and important compositional tool: One piece has the voice imitating the varied songs of the nightingale, and another has the violin imitating everything from trumpets, drums, and flutes to dogs and cats.
In Stile Moderno will once again be joined by virtuoso lutenist Simon Martyn-Ellis, who performed in Brattleboro in January. The concert will showcase the violinist Karina Schmitz, principal violist of Boston's Handel and Haydn Society. Also featured will be violin opus 894 by Brattleboro violin-maker Douglas Cox, based on a 1590s original by Gasparo da Salo.