Dolci Affetti is made up of some of Sweden’s foremost musicians in the baroque field. The ensemble was formed by Anna Paradiso and Dan Laurin, with the main purpose of exploring the Neapolitan music in the library of the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella, the Naples Conservatory. The collection has now been catalogued and therefore become available, after a silence lasting more than 250 years. The unification of Italy, with its aim of eradicating regional differences, had as one effect that Neapolitan culture was discouraged on a political level, and music was a victim of this strategy. Dolce Affetti wishes to celebrate the cultural pluralism of Europe which once again is under threat from commercial interests and/or international politics. The ensemble has adopted the rhetorical models of the Neapolitan school and has the ambition to illustrate our culture’s eternal balancing act between Reason and Emotion.
