Fiori Musicali

This is the third in a series of four concerts Pied Piper Remembered, celebrating the remarkable life & work of David Munrow – one of the great pioneers of ‘early music’. Munrow was an inspiration to thousands. His regular radio slot ‘Pied Piper’ had countless listeners enthralled, as he deftly opened up a world of lesser-known repertoire to a wider public.Like the Pied Piper of his eponymous radio show, his ability to mesmerise through music honoured the muse Euterpe, but tragically his life ended abruptly in 1976.  At first glance links between the Pied Piper’s Hamelin town and the serene Venetian Republic seem tenuous.  Both however were successful mercantile cities, with wealth built on trade.  Hamelin’s fate turned in 1284 when the burghers reneged on payment for removing the rat plague, and in retribution the Pied Piper charmed away 130 of Hamelin’s children – the city’s future suddenly gone.  Venice’s prosperity and cultural eminence – reaching a peak during the renaissance – would also fall to dust, in the case of la Serenissima through plague, hedonism, corruption and debauchery.