Recorded in 2015, this collection celebrates the chaconne, which like the passacaglia, is a procedure evolving from a single, repeated harmonic sequence perpetual in the bass line, under a series of variants in the upper voices. The most famous examples come from J.S. Bach, in his 1720 setting for solo violin in the Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004, and the last movement of the Brahms Fourth Symphony in E Minor, Op. 98. Conductor and arranger Matthias Maute sees in the procedure an existential progression from physical immediacy to a vision of eternity. The texts for both Monteverdi’s Chi voi che m’innamori (1640) and the anonymous Ciaconne Di Paradisio e Dell’Inferno (1650) address the worlds of Heaven and Hell. In a contrary mode, the various Folias address madness and irrationality, in the spirit of Erasmus’ In Praise of Folly. The Czech folksongs and the Passacaglia della vita confirm our brief life as a melancholy dream worth pursuing. Vivaldi and his compatriot Falconieri apply invention, harmonic daring, and wit to the occasion; and Maute, utilizing selected verses from the 17th Century mystic Silesius, emphasizes the tenuous relations between art, life, and death.