The Marian Consort makes its debut in Italy at the Ravenna Festival.

Vicente Lusitano (his surname being a descriptor, simply meaning ‘Portuguese’) remains a largely unknown figure to modern audiences, despite the obvious quality of his music, his contemporary fame and importance as a music theorist and composer, and his intriguing status as very likely the first published composer of African descent.

We present a recital of Lusitano’s works, with music from his sole surviving printed collection heard alongside an extraordinary work taken from his theoretical writings and a motet written for the Protestant Württemburg court. These are interspersed with music by Lusitano’s Portuguese contemporary Pedro de Cristo, a Mass and Marian antiphons by another notable Iberian musician active in sixteenth-century Rome, Tomas Luis de Victoria, and a celebratory motet by Ghiselin Danckerts, who played a crucial role in Lusitano’s famous Roman debate of 1551.

Programme

Vicente Lusitano Heu me, Domine

Ghiselin Danckerts Laetamini in Domino

Vicente Lusitano Regina caeli

Nicola Vicentino Heu mihi Domine

Dom Pedro de Cristo Miserere mihi Domine

Vicente Lusitano Sancta mater          

Vicente Lusitano Aspice Domine

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Regina caeli a8

Vicente Lusitano Sancta Maria

Tomas Luis de Victoria Ave Maria a8

Vicente Lusitano Inviolata a8

Basilica di San Vitale, Ravenna