Baroque Music Concerts at the Museo San Colombano

On Saturday 21 and 28 February and Sunday 1 March 2026, Fondazione Carisbo and Opera Laboratori, as part of the cultural project Genus Bononiae, present three concerts at the Museo San Colombano dedicated to early music, featuring great masters of the 17th-century European tradition and precious historical instruments.

The protagonists are the students of the Early Music Departments of leading Italian Conservatories, engaged in an advanced training program focused on the enhancement of historically informed performance practice.

• Saturday 21 February 2026, 4:00 pm
  Scherzando e contrapontegiando...
  The first concert revolves around the figure of Claudio Monteverdi and his time, exploring the dialogue between sacred and secular music, and the musical period marking the transition from Renaissance to Baroque. The concert Scherzando e contrapontegiando… is organized in collaboration with the Conservatorio G.F. Ghedini of Cuneo and features students from the Baroque and Renaissance Singing classes (Prof. Barbara Zanichelli), Harpsichord and Historical Keyboards (Prof. Carmen Leoni), and Organ and Organ Composition (Prof. Bartolomeo Gallizio). In addition to compositions by Monteverdi, the program includes music by Marc’Antonio Cavazzoni, Carlo Gesualdo, Giovanni Legrenzi, and Girolamo Frescobaldi. For the occasion, an organ attributed to Poncini (Parma, late 18th century) and a harpsichord built by the maker and restorer Graziano Bandini (2020), modeled after an instrument by Mattia de Gand (Rome, 1685), will be used.

• Saturday 28 February 2026, 4:00 pm

  Louis Couperin and his circle
  The second concert is dedicated to 17th-century French music, with a focus on Louis Couperin and the refined sound world surrounding his figure. Louis Couperin and his circle is organized in collaboration with the Conservatorio G.B. Martini of Bologna and involves students from the Harpsichord and Historical Keyboards classes (Prof. Maria Luisa Baldassari) and Viola da gamba (Prof. Bettina Hoffmann). The repertoire includes music by Jean-Nicolas Geoffrey and Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, as well as Couperin, and will be performed on a harpsichord by Francesco Fabbri (Rome, c. 1630–1660).

• Sunday 1 March 2026, 4:00 pm
  Ardo d’amor. Affections, passions and virtuosity between the 17th and early 18th centuries
  Concluding the concert series, Ardo d’amor. Affections, passions and virtuosity between the 17th and early 18th centuries is organized in collaboration with the Conservatorio G. Verdi of Milan. The performers are students from the Harpsichord and Historical Keyboards class (Prof. Chiara Tiboni), Renaissance and Baroque Singing (Prof. Gemma Bertagnolli), and Baroque Bassoon and Ensemble Music (Prof. Alberto Grazzi). The program Ardo d’amor spans over a century of Italian music, exploring the theme of love in its many facets: ardent desire, restlessness, abandonment, and irony. The concert will feature music by Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Paolo Cima, Giovanni Bassano, Tarquinio Merula, Barbara Strozzi, Alessandro Scarlatti, and Francesco Mancini. A musical journey that restores the emotional power and inventive freedom of early Italian Baroque, where music becomes a direct language of human passions. In this case as well, the copy of the harpsichord by Mattia de Gand, built by Graziano Bandini, will be used.