A baroque performance by Ludovico's Band and Helen Thomson at the Melbourne Recital Centre.
Date: Tuesday 20 March 2018
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, cnr Southbank Boulevard and Sturt Street, Melbourne – view map.
Tickets: Standard $39 ($29 Concession)
Book here
Being a woman in the male-dominated music industry is difficult enough today, so what would it have been like 400 years ago? This concert will enable audiences to catch a glimpse into the world of three Baroque female composers. Melbourne’s renowned Ludovico’s Band will team up with composer and soprano Helen Thomson to perform The Voices of Women. The performance will feature works by composers Isabella Leonarda, Francesca Caccini and Barbara Strozzi, who were all active in Italy in the seventeenth century, and who enjoyed varying degrees of success during their lifetimes.
CHE Deputy Director and head of the Performance Program, Jane Davidson, together with Research Fellow Amanda Krause, will be conducting audience research at the performance to explore whether the reception of women artists has altered over time. The research project aims to investigate if audiences respond differently to music if they know it was composed by a woman, situating contemporary findings within the longer history of emotional engagement with the music of women composers in the Western tradition.
The Voices of Women program:
Isabella Leonarda (1620–1704)
Sonata Quinta for 2 vlns, violone and bc 8’
Francesca Caccini (1587–1641)
Se muove giurar 3’
Maria, dolce Maria 3’
Himno ‘Jesu corona Virginum’ 6’
Isabella Leonarda
Sonata duodecima for 1 vln and bc 10’
Barbara Strozzi (1619–1677)
Pensaci ben mio core 6’
L’eraclito amoroso (Udite amanti) 8’
La mia donna (La sol fa mi re do) 5’
Image: Gamba Player by Bernardo Strozzi, c.1635, believed to be of musician and composer Barbara Strozzi. Source: Wikimedia Commons