Experimental music from then and now

The Castello Consort plays Padding and Marini

'Ensemble for Renaissance and Early Baroque': this is how the Castello Consort introduces itself on its website. 'We really enjoy the search for different timbres and other ways of expression in 17th-century instrumental repertoire.' On Sunday afternoon, May 14, the consort will show what it means by this in the Orgelpark: it is particularly interested in the innovation that is taking place in the was emulated by musicians in the 16th and 17th centuries. Matthijs van der Moolen, trombonist of the consort, puts it this way: 'Composers were experimenting a lot in those days. In fact, everything that was later forbidden in music theory, they just did that then.'

In fact, the Castello Consort finds any composer who works like this fascinating. In addition to music by 17th-century artists such as Biagio Marini (1594-1663), Marco Antonio Ferro (1600-1662) and Dario Castello (1602-1631), the Orgelpark will also feature work by Martijn Padding. He wrote Stylus Phantasticus at the request of the Castello Consort, to celebrate the completion of the organ that the consort had built by Orgelmakerij Reil. The instrument was completed in 2020; Padding's new work premiered last year during the International Organ Festival in Haarlem, where the consort performed it together with Menno van Delft in the Nieuwe Kerk. It is a 'book', as the subtitle reads: 'Book of intonazioni, echoes, and fantasias'.

The Castello Consort explains the broadening of its repertoire not only by citing a love of experimentation as a common thread, but also by pointing to their own ideas about sound and sound quality: 'For every program we create, we strive to find a characteristic sound that we find most convincing in that repertoire.” This is the reason why the Reil organ will be brought to the Orgelpark on 14 May, where it will be played by Menno van Delft. This time, together with Emma Huijsser (harp), Ivan Iliev (violin) and Benny Aghassi (dulcian),  he completes the 'hard core' of the consort, which is formed by Matthijs van der Moolen, Anne-Linde Visser (baroque cello, viola da gamba) and Elise Dupont (violin).