Mordenti and acciature in keyboard basso continuo: sources and performance practice | Concert & Public Defense PhD María Gonzalez

How did basso continuo sound in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italy? This research explores suonar pieno, a rich style of playing in which expressive dissonances - mordenti and acciaccature - played a distinctive role. Drawing on historical sources, María Gonzalez examines their forms, functions and performance practice. The concert brings these findings to life through Italian vocal and instrumental music by Cesti, Corelli, Albinoni, and Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, among others. Two works by Cesti and Caprioli receive their first modern performances, reconstructed especially for the occasion from historical manuscripts.

Supervisors: Kristin Van den Buys & Mattias Lundberg

Born in 1983, María González is a harpsichordist and basso continuo player of a new generation of early music performers. She studied at ESMUC and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and trained as an opera répétiteur in Milan. She has collaborated with leading conductors and ensembles across Europe and beyond, including Masaaki Suzuki, Rachel Podger, Il Gardellino and Camerata Bern. Co-founder of Ensemble Daimonion, she won the Premio Bonporti in 2011. González has taught at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Sevilla and the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, where she has taught basso continuo since 2017. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.