Grounds for Exchange

A programme tracing musical dialogue across 17th-century Europe, where ideas travel between Italy and England and take on new forms in the process. The emerging Italian style, shaped by basso continuo, expressive melody, and bold instrumental writing, finds echoes in England, where it is absorbed into older traditions of consort music, ayres, and dance.

Shared foundations such as grounds and variation forms reveal both a common language and distinct approaches to structure, character, and expression. Moving between contrast and connection, the programme reflects a period of exchange in which styles are not simply adopted but reimagined in new cultural settings.