Fairy tales, adventure novels, Hollywood movies - stories in their many guises are a part of the fabric of our cultural identity, exerting a formative influence on our thinking and our values. In this programme, made up of narrative works composed in Italy in the first half of the 17th century, we hear sacred and secular stories by Carissimi, Strozzi, Merula, d'India and others.

From very different corners of Europe, the baroque harpist Marie Bournisien (France) and the two sopranos Kristine Jaunalksne (Latvia) and Ulrike Hofbauer (Germany) bring a highly unusual approach to this entrancing music.