Barefoot Chamber Concerts (“an enterprise noted for both its quality and informality” – San Francisco Classical Voice) presents really good music in the right acoustic and without the formality of most classical music events.
Barefoot's October concert celebrates the consort song – an English specialty that blends the idea of a madrigal with the viol consort. Four viols play as equals with one voice which carries the words. It is counterpoint brought to life with text, as it were.
The form spread to other countries, as the program reflects. The Age of Shakespeare and Marlowe produced astonishing verse, as we all know. The composers of this period – William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, and many others – are legendary, and were more than equal to the task of setting this poetry to music. This is an art form of great beauty and subtlety.
The program is rounded out with Italian songs (including Claudio Monteverdi's celebrated "Lamento della Ninfa") and instrumental gems from the same period from England and Italy. All of this in the lovely acoustic of St. Mary Magdalen Church in Berkeley.