Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger

Kapsperger was a highly individual composer and leading virtuoso of the lute family who pioneered the development of the chitarrone (a large lute with long bass strings). Born in Venice around 1580, of noble German descent, he spent most of his life in Rome, enjoying patronage at the highest level and performing only in the most exclusive circles. Between 1604 and 1640, he published four volumes of music for the chitarrone, two for lute, and pioneering books of chamber music. He is less well known for his vocal music, which includes motets and masses performed in the Sistine Chapel, and numerous volumes of serious and popular secular works. By his death in 1651, his music had spanned the limits of popular simplicity and Baroque opulence. His famous Arpeggiata (Book 1, 1604) shows his fondness for arpeggiation, with continuous broken figuration decorating a simple underlying harmonic sequence to virtuoso effect. In their free mixture of styles, the chitarrone toccatas reflect his instinctive performing technique, paralleling the keyboard works of Frescobaldi.Nicola Matteis was an Italian violinist and composer who spearheaded the development of violin playing in England. There is little reliable information about his life, but he probably lived between about 1650 and 1700, and was born in Naples, toured Europe as a violinist and guitarist, and settled in London around 1670. Contemporary writers Roger North and John Evelyn testify to his exceptional technique and fierce ego—apparently no one was allowed even to whisper when Matteis played. He only performed his own works, which appeared in four books of Ayres for the Violin (1676 and 1685). The pieces are grouped by key, allowing players to assemble their own suites and sonatas. Matteis exploited a wide range of forms—dances, variations, ground basses, fugues—and made use of imaginative Italian titles and translations, such as “Allemanda in imitation of a stutterer”. Virtuoso challenges include fast articulation and optional double stopping (playing two strings at once), with little use of the violin’s highest register.