Carlo Farina

The spirit of the Baroque, which arose in Italy at the very end of the 16th century, was in the span of but a few decades to transform Western music and arts profoundly. Musically, the Renaissance had presided over the triumph of vocal polyphony. However, taking advantage of the freedom afforded by the newfound accompanied monody and the basso continuo, the Italians wished to confer on music an essentially expressive role while teasing with virtuosity. They broke with the balanced contrapuntal structures and created at the outset of the 18th century—alongside opera and cantata—the first true instrumental music, whose sudden appearance and speedy development seem today quite prodigious. The freedom and virtuosity of these melodic lines over a basso continuo are the musical fruits offered by the versatile and moving flutist Francis Colpron, with cellist Susie Napper, and harpsichordist and organist Alex Weimann.

Compositions descriptive of battles form a minor but distinctive category of music from the 16th to the early 19th centuries. Battle music in the Baroque period was appreciated for its expressive and dramatic potential. It often used fragments of real military music, as well as the obvious trumpet fanfares and rallying cries. The potent and acclaimed cornetto ensemble Concerto Palatino team up with some of Montreal's finest early music performers to whip up a storm in these Baroque battle scenes.