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Skip Sempé

Fiery virginalists | 22 - 23 Feb 2025

Skip Sempé

Fiery virginalists 
There is no denying that the school of English virginalists formed the cradle of great keyboard music between 1550 and 1650. The contrasts within compositions are downright breathtaking: from the simplest melodies to flamboyant displays, from dance music to the magic of polyphony. Skip Sempé delves, among other things, into the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, the most significant source of this musical treasure that forms the link between the Late Renaissance and Early Baroque.

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About the performer

Harpsichordist and conductor Skip Sempé blends nonchalance and virgour both in his solo appearances and those with his own ensemble Capriccio Stravagante. Paradizo, Sempé’s own CD label, has released CDs of his own ensemble, as well as several solo programmes of French, English, German and Italian harpsichord music.

Programme and Musician

Skip Sempé harpsichord, virginal

In Memoriam Colin Tilney (1933-2024)

Anonymous 16th century
My Lady Carey’s Dompe
Le forze d’Hercole

William Inglot 1554-1621
The Leaves bee Greene, FVB 251

William Byrd c1540-1623
Pavan ‘Sir William Petre’
Galliard, MB4

Anonymous Italy 16th century
Saltarello del Re

Thomas Tomkins 1572-1656
Pavan of 3 parts

William Byrd
Galliard for the Victory, MB95
Fantasia, MB62

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Claudin de Sermisy c1490-1562
Tant que vivray

Anonymous England 16th century
Galliard
(from: Thomas Mulliner (ed.), The Mulliner Book, England 1545-1570)

William Byrd
Miserere mei Deus

Orlando Gibbons 1583-1625
Fantasia, MB14

William Byrd
Wolseys Wilde

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William Byrd
Prelude, MB12

Orlando Gibbons
Pavan, MB17
The Lord of Salisbury his Pavin
Fantazia of 4 parts

Programme subject to change