Giovanni Valentini (c.1582–1649) was an early Baroque composer who held one of the most prestigious posts of his day as Hofkapellmeister for Ferdinand II, the Holy Roman Emperor. He was an organist and keyboard virtuoso who is said to have mastered the clavicymbalum universale, an enharmonic keyboard with 19 keys per octave. Rivaling his contemporaries Heinrich Schutz and Claudio Monteverdi, Valentini’s compositions are full of bold harmonic shifts and rhythmic daring: unrelated keys and extreme chromaticism appear from nowhere, while obscure time signatures keep musicians and audiences on their toes. 

In this concert, Chanticleer teams up with the baroque ensemble ACRONYM to present modern-day premieres of some of Valentini’s most thrilling vocal and instrumental works. Repertoire includes six Litaniae Lauretanae, various motets, and some of Valentini’s most daring instrumental sonatas, nearly all of it unheard since the seventeenth century.