The Early Music Show - Lassus and Wine - Part 2

Orlando Lassus wrote a staggering number of pieces about wine, covering all genres from sacred to secular and everything in between. They tell us much about life, trade, and feasting in Munich in the second half of the 16th century, but also show that Lassus was quite the wine connoisseur: not only in drinking the best wines across Europe, but even his knowledge of wine production.

For this second of two programmes, Hannah French is joined down the line from New York by wine historian and musicologist Ron Merlino to explore the music of Lassus while tasting some of the types of wine he encountered at the Court of Duke Albrecht V in Munich.

In this programme, Ron has chosen four types of wine thought to have been known to Lassus - 2 red wines and 2 sweet wines:

a Cabernet Franc from Anjou in the Loire Valley, France

a Falernian (made from Aglianico grapes) from Campania, Italy

a sweet Malvasia from Sicily

and

a sweet Rust wine from Austria

Published on Sunday, 3rd January 2021.

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