Concerto delle Dame di Ferrara

The velvet revolution
At the very end of the 16th century, the composer Luzzasco Luzzaschi wrote some curious madrigals "for the music of His Most Serene Highness Duke Alfonso d'Este" – or to be more precise, for the "Ladies of Ferrara", three singers famed for the unequalled sweetness of their voices. These pieces stand apart from other Italian madrigals of the time for their overtly soloistic writing – as if Monteverdi's revolution of the early 17th century had already taken place in Ferrara. In what has become a famous and unique example of the subtle transition between Renaissance and Baroque, Luzzaschi presented to a few specially selected guests some of the most "avant-garde" music of this time; thanks to the surviving manuscripts, this glorious privilege of the few has remained for posterity to admire.