
Songs of Love | Songs of Pain
Madrigals
Ensemble Sprezzatura
Sunday, August 8 | 2:00 pm
Hennepin Church
Cléa Galhano, recorders
Tom Walker, Jr., lute
Mary Burke, gambas
Donald Livingston, keyboards, harp
and Sarah Jackson, soprano
Sprezzatura looks at love and pain through the madrigals of the 16th century. Thomas Walker, Jr., lutes; Mary Burke, viols; Cléa Galhano, recorders; and Donald Livingston, harp & virginal.
Sprezzatura is an Italian term originating from Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, where it is defined by the author as "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it". It is the ability of the courtier to display "an easy facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them."
Ensemble Sprezzatura is a tongue-in-cheek name for three friends who acquired somewhat quirky, difficult instruments who decided to show them off.