Ensemble 642 – The Art of Melancholy

An exploration of human emotion with compassion and humour.

About the artists

Ensemble 642 are leaders of the next generation of Antipodean musicians dedicated to early music and historically informed performance practice. Acclaimed for their spellbinding performances, they bring the emotion and spirit of the Baroque to life.

About the concert

Program

Henry Purcell O solitude, my sweetest choice

William Byrd Pavana ‘The Earl of Salisbury’

Henry Purcell Cease, anxious world, Z.362

Henry Lawes I’m sick of love (To the Sycamore)

John Banister Give me my lute

William Byrd The Bells

John Dowland In darkness let me dwell; Preludium in G minor; Sorrow, sorrow, stay

William Lawes Harp Consort No.8 in G ‘Pavan’

Nicholas Lanier The Dying Lover

Henry Purcell Oedipus, Z.583: Musick for a While

On plucked string instruments, the bond between music and musician is as intricate as that of a singer and their vocal cords. With hands touching the strings, the stakes are high to hit each note with precision, and the rewards of everything going to plan are heard in intimate detail.

The expression of melancholy has a distinctive and intoxicating voice in the music of Baroque England. Whether provoked by the pains of a love lost or welcomed in the pursuit of contemplation, it inspired some of the most intimate and affecting music from composers such as Henry Purcell, Henry Lawes, and John Dowland.

The confessional genre of English lute song provided the perfect mode to explore this emotion with compassion and humour. The interiority of this music speaks to us today as more than ever we search for space and stillness in a restless, over-stimulated world.

Internationally acclaimed, ARIA-nominated baritone David Greco joins the enchanting plucked strings of Ensemble 642 in this program exploring the unique pleasures of melancholy in English music from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.