The ensemble Sospiri Ardenti specializes in the music of the late renaissance and early baroque

The ensemble Sospiri Ardenti specializes in the music of the late renaissance and early baroque -- a period of turbulent discussion over the directions which music should take, and of a passionate interest in the way in which musical texts could and should be emphasized in music and in performance. The name Sospiri Ardenti (passionate sighs) is taken from a song title out of Giullio Caccini's 1602 treatise, "Le Nuove Musiche." The humanistic renaissance search for the importance of the text and the early baroque passion for declaiming this text in an intelligible way were inspiring factors for the forming of the ensemble.

The ensemble has been widely acclaimed for its combination of musical and scenic, historical and new elements in thematic programmes. For that purpose the Berlin conductor Gabi Bartels has been co-opted.

Examples of such productions are “Love and Magic in Shakespeare”, “Metamorphoses” with 17th-century French music and new compositions by Janpieter Biesemans, and the operatic fairy tale “The Nightingale” with work by G.P. Telemann. The Shakespeare programme is available on CDThe members of Sospiri Ardenti have specialized themselves in historical performance practices, and have performed with such renowned ensembles as the Flanders Recorder Quartet, American Bach Soloists, Artek, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Mark Morris Dance Group and others. Sospiri Ardenti has been prominent on the concert circuit in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the U.S.