Adelaide Baroque has unveiled its 2026 season, offering a wide-ranging program that spans sacred choral masterpieces, rarely heard instrumental works, intimate house concerts and an ambitious cross-cultural collaboration exploring musical traditions of the eastern Mediterranean and Persia.

Adelaide Baroque. Photo supplied

The Baroque Explorations season opens in reflective mode at North Adelaide Baptist Church with Leçons de Ténèbres: An Easter Reflection on 29 March, featuring François Couperin’s celebrated Holy Week settings performed by sopranos Emma Horwood and Kate Macfarlane with harpsichord accompaniment, highlighting the refinement of French Baroque sacred music.

Later in the year, on 11 October, again at North Adelaide Baptist Church, cellist Thomas Marlin and Stephen van der Hoek (harpsichord) explore the music of the largely forgotten Italian composer-cellist Salvatore Lanzetti. Brilliantly virtuosic, his style contributed to several developments in cello technique, and his cello sonatas are rightly revered today.

The informal and up-close House Concerts Season begins on 22 May at Northgate House with Mr Purcell and Mr Playford, a deep dive into the music of old London Town from two of...