2026 Minnie Untermyer Series: Sonnambula - Renaissance and Baroque Music

Sunday, August 30, 6:00 - 7:00PM

Twilight in the Walled Garden: Italian and French Masterworks of the Early Baroque

This evening’s program explores the intimate, expressive world of 17th- and 18th-century masterworks for the violin, theorbo, and viola da gamba. We highlight the monumental influence of Arcangelo Corelli, whose Op. 5 sonatas set the gold standard for chamber music across Europe, as well as the imaginative improvisations of Nicola Matteis, whose Ayres for the Violin captivated English audiences with their blend of Italian brilliance and theatrical grace. We will hear three distinct reflections on ground-bass forms tonight, as well: warmth and inventive counterpoint via Samuel Capricornus’s Ciacona, lighthearted dance melodies in Andrea Falconieri’s La Suave Melodia, and the noble majesty of Marin Marais’ Chaconne, demonstrating the refined gravitas of the French court.

Praised as “expressive and stylish” by The Financial Times, Sonnambula is a historically informed ensemble directed by Elizabeth Weinfield that brings to light unknown music for various combinations of early instruments with the lush sound of the viol at the core. While Sonnambula has been presented by the nation’s leading early music presenters (among them Academy of Early Music Ann Arbor, Houston Early Music, Indianapolis Early Music, Madison Early Music Festival, and others), the ensemble has carved out a niche connecting art museums with contemporaneous sound history, as a way of telling interdisciplinary stories about the voices they sound, many of which have been left out of traditional archival sources.