Seicento: Italian and Dutch

“What Makes It Italian?” is a music listening and discussion group that meets online on the Zoom platform and is open to everyone.
Participation is free.
The group is led by Gina Crusco, who has also guided listening at Bard LLI and Riverdale Y; acted as maestro del coro for opera in Italy; instructed music at The New School; and directed Underworld Productions.
Please email ginacrusco@gmail.com to confirm your attendance and receive an invitation link.

As Europe moved toward an international Baroque style, Calvinist Holland tended toward the austere and Counter-Reformation Italy grew ever more opulent.

Italian pairing: Composer Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583 – 1643) and painter Guido Reni (1575 – 1642)

Dutch pairing: Composer Carel Hacquart (c. 1640 – 1701) and painter Carel Fabritius (1622 – 1654)

What seems indescribable in music is often easy to name in the visual arts. So each session in this series we explore four works: a pairing of an Italian painting with a musical work, and a similar pair from outside of Italy. Discovering riches from painters like Sandro Botticelli, Guido Reni, Francois Boucher, and Vanessa Bell, and composers like Girolamo Frescobaldi, Joseph Bologne, Edward Elgar and Dominick Argento, we define more clearly “What Makes it Italian.”