Giovanni Boccaccio wrote his masterwork Decameron after the outbreak of the Plague in Florence, 1348. It is a tale in which a group of friends, sequestered from the horrors of the plague in a rural villa, share stories with each other to entertain, rouse, and move. This programme is a mosaic of musical stories from early modern Europe featuring music by Landini, de Vitry, Dunstable, Binchois, and Machaut, and threaded with medieval music from more distant times and places, just as Boccaccio weaved together stories from as far away places as India and the Middle East.

Angela Hicks soprano, Daniel Thomson tenor, Jean Kelly harp
May Robertson vielle, Daniel Scott recorders & portative organ