Pieces from history, instruments of a bygone era. Sounds Greek? Nah! It is all old Italian and some English. But no excuses for missing this 16th-18th century European traditional Baroque and  Renaissance music.The unheard strains were courtesy - Sander Szaxzvarosi (cello), Piroska Zitaarius (baroque violin), Gabor Tokodi (lute) and Judith Andrejszki (vocals) of Custos Consort of Hungary. The event was organised by Dockers® San Francisco, The Bangalore School of Music and the Alliance Francaise.

Beginning with ‘When to her lute Corinna Sings’ (Sopran-lute), a composition by Thomas Campion, they looked back to ‘Allmande’, ‘Tarleton’s Jig’, ‘A Fancy’ (solo lute). ‘Mistress Mine’ (sopran-lute), ‘Fine Knacks for Ladies’.... what was missing was the Viola da Gamba which unfortunately met with an accident at the Delhi airport and was broken. So was the artist Sandar who plays it.

Judith in between her expressive vocals came out with some great lines. Sample this, ‘What is the difference between English men and Italian men? The Brit says, “if you don’t love me, I’ll die, the Italian says, if you don’t love me, you’ll die.” Not quite a baroque joke though. Sander played with ease. Piroska’s violin wept. The music played on with ‘Lasso Vita Mia’, ‘Possa Morir’ and great Hungarian festive numbers.The audience asked for an encore, Italian was certainly no Greek for them. And language was no barrier.

Deep played ‘Robinson’s May’ on solo lute by Tokodi. “The lute has 15 strings unlike the guitar,” explained Tokodi. “What about Renaissance music on the guitar?” “Why not?” he countered. Judith explained, “the songs of those times were mostly love songs and some gospels.” Bangalore audience? “Very good.” Because they gave us this,” pointing to the shawls presented to them.

The effort put by the artists on their ‘renaissance’ instruments was all too audible. Judith said, “musicians spend half their lives tuning their instruments and the other half, they are out of tune.” Amen to that.