They groan under the dust of centuries: scores without famous signatures, forgotten in libraries, patiently slumbering in choirbooks and songbooks. Works that escape the grand canonical narrative – and perhaps are all the more valuable because of it.

Giving unknown music a place is our mission. Together with Graindelavoix, we explore the Kunstkammern of the Renaissance, the precursors to today’s museums. These were treasure rooms filled with exceptional objects – from goldsmithery to engraved ostrich eggs and red coral. What is often forgotten is that these collections also contained music manuscripts – for the ear demands beauty too!

Much music remained hidden from the public eye for a long time. That is certainly true for the secret madrigals of Luzzasco Luzzaschi, which the singers of La Néréide will reveal to us. But there is also music that was always accessible from its inception yet has rarely or never been performed. We make space for it in the acoustic exhibition that this festival embodies: from Fanny Mendelssohn’s piano cycle Das Jahr, to unknown lute music from the Renaissance, to instrumental Baroque compositions by David Pohle, preserved only in manuscript. As always in Utrecht, there will be more than enough new discoveries to be made.