Echoes of Venice – Musical Treasures from the Graz Court

Schedule, Upcoming Concerts

The imperial Mausoleum attached to the former court chapel at Graz, which has since been elevated to the status of a cathedral.

Saturday May 2, 2026 at 7.30 P. M.

The Parish Church of St. Andrew
311 North Raymond Avenue
Pasadena CA 91103

Free parking in the lot diagonally across from St. Andrew’s.

Graz was the capital of Inner Austria, which was governed by a cadet branch of the Habsburg family.  When the famously incompetent Emperor Matthias died in 1619, he was succeeded by his cousin, Archduke Ferdinand of Styria, who moved his personal retinue to Vienna upon his election as the next Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II.

 

Emperor Ferdinand II.’s father, Archduke Charles II. of Styria, had made Graz a center for Italian art & culture in his zealous efforts to implement the Counterreformation north of the Alps.  The Graz court was, therefore, the entry point which brought the baroque to Austria, and, from there, throughout rest of Europe.

 
In 2026, Musica Transalpina commemorates four centuries since the death of Giovanni Priuli, who was Emperor Ferdinand II.’s cherished chapel master.  Priuli was one of the most prominent composers to first import baroque musical influences from Venice while working at the Graz court. We are presenting impressive passages from the Graz chorbuch written for four choirs which have never been heard in modern times, and several enormous motets in up to twelve parts from Priuli’s nearly impossible to access Sacrorum Concentuum … pars altera, which was published in 1619: the same year that Emperor Ferdinand moved his court to Vienna –– a process which lasted the Graz court musicians well into 1620.