In Santiago de Compostela (Spain), the instruments tell the story of the Baroque

Violin, triple harp, colascione, hurdy-gurdy, harpsichord or viol: this year, the Festival Ateneo Barroco in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, puts the instruments centre stage.

From 6 to 20 October, its eighth edition continues, under the title Instrumental #2, an exploration begun in 2025, with six concerts in which instrumental colours and historical performance practices provide the guiding thread. Lina Tur Bonet opens the series with Bach’s sonatas and partitas; the following day, Ars Atlántica, Manuel Vilas and soprano Raquel Mendes return to the earliest days of opera, from Peri and Caccini to Monteverdi and Cavalli, centred on a spectacular Italian triple harp. Resonet then revives early seventeenth-century Naples with a rich array of instruments, while Arc & Volta evokes the galant France of hurdy-gurdies and viols.

On 16 October, Bertrand Cuiller takes the harpsichord on a journey from Byrd and the English virginalists to the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti. Finally, Fahmi Alqhai and Accademia del Piacere bring the festival to a close with In Dulci Jubilo, recreating Bach’s contrapuntal world with a quartet dominated by viols and the quinton. A very tangible reminder that the history of the Baroque is also the history of the instruments that gave it its colours.

Official website: https://festivalateneobarroco.gal/