Whispers in the Night

Nocturnalia's new programme, 'Whispers in the Night: Tartini, the Devil, and the Poetry of Dreams', combines evocative music to guide our audience through an intimate, sleepless night travel – ultimately transporting the listener into the realm of dreams and beyond.

This programme explores one of the most compelling intersections between music and dreams in early modern Europe, centred on Tartini’s extraordinary 'Devil’s Trill' Sonata. As recounted in Jérôme Lalande’s 'Voyage d’un François en Italie', Tartini dreamed of a pact with the devil, who played a sonata of such beauty that he awoke and attempted to transcribe it. The resulting work, though one of the most remarkable and influential violin sonatas from the 18th century, was in Tartini’s own view only a shadow of what he had heard in sleep. This narrative opens a space where imagination, memory, and musical invention converge.

We place this dream world alongside Tartini’s wider output, including sonatas such as Didone Abbandonata and Sonata Pastorale, which reflect the expressive, poetic, and often narrative-driven character of his writing, usually taking inspiration from poetry. These works are complemented by Galuppi’s harpsichord sonata and Vandini’s cello sonata, whose harmonic language and melodic expansiveness evoke a suspended, almost dreamlike state.

The programme also traces the afterlife of Tartini’s 'Devil’s Trill' in the 19th century, where it inspired Romantic reinterpretations and theatrical arrangements, including works by Bériot and Pugni. These adaptations reflect how Tartini’s imagined dream continued to resonate as a musical myth

Finally, we will present a contemporary dreamscape by Alex Mastichiadis, written for harpsichord with string drone textures — a UK premiere that links the past and present through shared questions about dreams, memory, illusion, and sleep.

Nocturnalia:
Mojca Jerman historical violin
Pablo Tejedor-Gutiérrez historical cello
Alex Mastichiadis harpsichord