Concert of the Ancient Music Ensemble LUDUS and singer Dārta Paldiņa at Bauska Castle

On Saturday, April 15 at 17:00, the Ancient Music Ensemble LUDUS and singer Dārta Paldiņa invite you to the concert 'O dolce vita mia' (Oh, my sweet life). Renaissance compositions by known and anonymous authors will be performed.

The repertoire of the Ancient Music Ensemble LUDUS consists of late Renaissance and early Baroque compositions, which the musicians perform on authentic instrument replicas, in a manner and attire appropriate to the era. The instruments include various sizes of recorders, viols, lute, Baroque guitar, archlute, fiddle, violin, and percussion instruments. The ensemble was founded in November 1988 and consists of five musicians: leader and violinist Māra Birziņa, recorder player Dagnija Tuča, lutenist Sergejs Sjomins, and viola da gamba players Lauma Liepiņa and Romāns Trautmanis. Over the course of 30 years, LUDUS has performed in international early music festivals in Bauska, Rundāle, Germany, Denmark, Russia, Poland, and Lithuania.

Dārta Paldiņa has studied ancient music singing at music schools in Latvia and France, furthering her education with master classes on medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music by specialists from the Czech Republic, Germany, France, and Latvia. She has created concert programs of Renaissance music such as 'King Henry VIII's Songs' (2018), 'A Story of English Renaissance Songs' (2019), and an art performance inspired by medieval culture, 'Crazy for You, Hildegard!' (2020). She collaborates with ancient music ensembles Ludus, Mediatore, Schola Cantorum Vox Iubilantis, as well as the Musica Humana Association.

The concert program 'O dolce vita mia' will feature music created during the Renaissance era, which separates us by almost half a millennium. The Renaissance era introduced a new concept - compositor, a composer who began to fix the names of music creators. Therefore, there are many well-known composers from the Renaissance era, although there are also numerous anonymous compositions. Renaissance instrumental music has a unique sound due to the instruments themselves, such as plucked string instruments - lutes; wind instruments - ancient trumpets, shawms; string instruments - various types of viols, as well as bagpipes, drums, dulcimers, and organs of various sizes. Renaissance music could be heard in marketplaces, celebrations, churches, castles, dances, and performances.

In the April 15 concert, you will hear compositions by English composer and virtuoso lutenist John Dowland (~1562-1626); Flemish composer, instrumentalist, and music publisher Tilman Susato (~1500 - ~1562); Italian composer Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi (~1554-1609); Flemish composer Adrian Willaert (~1490-1562); Swiss composer Ludwig Senfl (~1486 - 1542/43), and Italian lutenist and composer Andrea Falconieri (~1586-1656).

Bauska Castle Museum ticket office and SIA 'Biļešu paradīze' ticket offices.
Ticket price: EUR 15
Concert duration: 1 hour

You can reserve tickets by calling 63922280, 20011880 or by email: bauskaspils@bauska.lv. Reserved tickets must be purchased no later than 30 minutes before the event.