These madrigals were written by the Danish composers Hans Brachrogge (ca. 1590 – ca. 1638) and Truid Aagesen (? –1625), both of whom traveled to Venice to study with Giovanni Gabrieli. Reflecting that experience, the madrigals are in the Venetian style.

Not much is known about Brachrogge’s life before he went to Italy in 1599-1600. As a singer, he was one of the Danish musicians at the 1611 marriage in London of James I to Anne of Denmark, the sister of King Christian IV. His madrigal Queste labra is from his 1619 publication, Madrigaletti a III voci, første bind. This collection, dedicated to Christian IV, is Brachrogge’s only surviving work.

Truid Aagesen was appointed organist of the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen in 1593, and, like Brachrogge (whom he probably knew), he studied in Venice with Gabrieli from 1599 to 1600. In 1613, King Christian IV published a notice ordering that all Catholic men were to leave Denmark. Aagesen had been suspected of being on the Pope's payroll as early as 1604, and because of his alleged Catholic sympathies he was sacked from his organist position. In 1608 he published Cantiones trium vocum under the name Theodorico Sistino; this collection of madrigals in Italian is his only surviving published work. We are performing two of them in this program, Ite caldi and Lucretia mia.

Performed by Mary Larew, Katie Eakright and Jonathan Posthuma