Northern Light

Ensemble Correspondances, founded by organist and harpsichordist Sébastien Daucé, has risen as a world-leading specialist in 17th-century French Baroque music. In this performance, the group, who is known for their expressive vitality and historical craftsmanship, explores the sublime treasures of the Düben Collection: a vast archive of German, Latin, Italian and Swedish musical works curated in the 17th century by the court’s Kapellmeister, Gustav Düben.  

This unique collection reflects how Düben transformed the Swedish court under Gustav XI into a cosmopolitan hub, where influences from Dresden, Hamburg, Rome and Venice converged, giving rise to new musical idioms. With her dark, rich timbre and strikingly expressive delivery, alto Lucille Richardot imbues this rainbow of styles with a singular intensity and focus.

7 p.m. / Early Music lecture (Dutch spoken) by Saskia Törnqvist
The Athens of the North
The year is 1968, in Uppsala. While concert presenter Saskia Törnqvist was being wheeled through the city park in her pram as a one-year-old, she was oblivious to the fact that just a few hundred metres away, a monumental task was underway. Inside the university library, a collection of some 2,300 17th-century musical works was being catalogued. Known as the ‘Düben Collection’, named after the family of Kapellmeisters at the Swedish court, it serves as a definitive cross-section of the European musical styles prevalent in the 17th century. A central figure of the Swedish court was the eccentric Christina of Sweden, who aimed to transform Stockholm into the ‘Athens of the North’ and, to that end, held science, philosophy, art, and music in the highest regard. This lecture shines a spotlight on her remarkable life, interlacing her story with music – sourced, naturally, from the Düben Collection.