A Mediterranean combination of high temperatures, humid air and chirping crickets welcomed nearly three hundred baroque music aficionados to Cremona for a six-day cluster of presentations, lecture-recitals, concerts, visits and networking. Since its foundation in 1984, the Biennial International Conference on Baroque Music (BICBM) has been a chiefly British affair. Previous editions have been held in Durham (1984, 1988 and 1992), Birmingham (1986 and 1996; winner of the 2020 bid), Egham (1990), Edinburgh (1994), Exeter (1998), Dublin (2000), Manchester (2004), Leeds (2008), Belfast (2010), Southampton (2012) and Canterbury (2016), with just three sessions having taken place on the European Continent, in Spain (La Rioja, 2002), Poland (Warsaw, 2006) and Austria (Salzburg, 2014). The arrival of BICBM in Italy, that hothouse of baroque music, was more than timely, therefore, and the choice of Cremona, the birthplace of Monteverdi and the home base for the Amati, Guarneri and Stradivari families of luthiers, as well as the site of the University of Pavia's thriving musicology department, was well considered.

With attendees from thirty-one countries, BICBM 18 certainly lived up to its ‘international’ epithet and its theme, Crossing Borders: Music, Musicians and Instruments 1550–1750. A quick survey of representatives’ institutional affiliations and countries of origin yields a fairly accurate reflection of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (the so-called Shanghai Ranking). The USA and UK led the board, with 47 and 37 delegates respectively, but following at their heels was the host country, Italy (34). France (20), Germany (18) and Austria (10) were also well represented, in keeping with those countries’ historical relevance as centres of music production – but also with the growing readiness of Franco- and Germanophone humanities scholars to present their work in English, the sole conference language of BICBM. Australia (11) and the Netherlands (6), too, seem to be on the rise as hubs of baroque music research, whereas southern Europe (Portugal, 4; Spain, 2; Greece, 1) and Latin America (Brazil, 1; Mexico, 1) were significantly underrepresented. Caution is warranted, however, in interpreting plain numbers, for numerous scholars from those areas are currently being employed in the North, and language remains a difficult border to cross.

It is impossible to do justice to the richness and variety of papers, subjects and methods covered at such a large conference as BICBM 18, but one should start by complimenting the programme committee and its chair, Massimiliano Guido (Università di Pavia), for striking an even balance between vocal and instrumental music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (a handful of papers ventured into earlier and later times), healthily spread over four to five parallel strands on five full days. An outstanding feature of BICBM 18 was the number of lecture-recitals (six, double that of Canterbury in 2016), testifying to the continuing emergence of practice-based research in the arts. The programme furthermore included seven themed sessions and roundtables, although most of the latter really amounted to standard panels with consentient speakers representing a single institution or project, rather than heated debates with clashing perspectives on a sharply defined, actively moderated topic. BICBM 18 was a serene conference in general, and I sometimes missed the heated debates of earlier editions. Did the warm climate have something to do with this tranquillity?

To narrow our scope to talks on eighteenth-century music, strikingly few panels paid tribute to the conference's overarching theme, the ‘crossing of borders’. Memorable exceptions were those exploring the operatic pasticcio, italianità in European sacred music, organology and music theory, together with a select number of individual papers, such as the revelatory analysis by Graham Sadler (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) of Vivaldian allusions in Rameau's Anacréon. Furthermore, despite the theme, most papers had been grouped along national (or regional) lines, after the model of earlier editions of this conference, but such an approach engendered a number of frustrating conflicts of interest, such as simultaneous sessions devoted to Italian and French opera, Italian and Czech sacred music, Handelian and Italian opera, and Bach's instrumental works and musical instruments in Germany.

An additional shortcoming of the BICBM format lies in its emphasis on J. S. Bach and Handel, who were respectively represented in Cremona by a staggering eight and six sessions; Vivaldi, on the other hand, was a conspicuous absentee this year. Regardless of whether or not the (romantic) celebration of ‘great masters’ befits a conference on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music, I believe that grouping together papers according to the composers they cover can stand in the way of generating deeper insights into these very composers’ multifaceted works. Indeed, while some Bach and Handel sessions were thematically coherent (I single out that dealing with Chopin's appropriation of the Well-Tempered Clavier, and another discussing Bach's students), most of them were miscellaneous assortments that could have been planned otherwise. What sense does it make, for instance, to place an excellent critical interpretation of pasticcio culture in London (Carlo Lanfossi, University of Pennsylvania) between a highly specialized Handelian source study (Donald Burrows, The Open University) and a Schenkerian analysis of Messiah (Fred Fehleisen, The Juilliard School), especially when there are papers on pasticcio oratorio (Jana Spáčilová, Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci) and Handel's arrangement of Leo's Catone in Utica (Berthold Over, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) isolated in thematically divergent panels? I leave it to the reader to decide whether this organizational problem promoted the constant influx and exodus of large groups of listeners in Cremona, shifting rooms after individual presentations, rather than sitting out sessions and engaging in discussion.

To return to the positive side, the theme of BICBM 18 occasioned a welcome number of strong perspectives on composers’ and performers’ careers. Danièle Lipp (Universität Wien), for instance, elucidated the transnational adventures of the singing sisters Rosa and Anna d'Ambreville using fresh material from Viennese archives, while David Vickers (Royal Northern College of Music/The Handel Institute) sketched a musical portrait of Handelian soprano (and Burney student) Giulia Frasi, and Bruce Alan Brown (University of Southern California) explored the intriguing material remains of the Italian voice teacher Bartolomeo Nucci. Although the programme fell short on papers engaging with sociology, cultural history and critical theory, a number of well-researched presentations opened attendees’ eyes to lesser-known areas, such as Telemann's strategic manipulations of seventeenth-century style (Steven Zohn, Temple University), Handelian arrangements for organ clocks (Emily Baines, Guildhall School of Music & Drama), the reception of Lully's Armide on the London stage (Michael Lee, Trinity College Dublin), and the diplomat Christoph August von Wackerbarth's documented coordination of the Dresden wedding opera Teofane (Szymon Paczkowski, Uniwersytet Warszawski), among others. And false assumptions were exploded about, for instance, rebuilt baroque violins (Geerten Verberkmoes, Universiteit Gent) and the use of the so-called ‘violoncello da spalla’ in modern HIP performances (Marc Vanscheeuwijck, University of Oregon).

But no music conference can succeed without memorable recitals. BICBM 18 truly made a mark here, boasting, among others, a concert by Giulio Prandi's Ghislieri Choir and Consort. Having been able to savour recordings of sacred works by Handel, Pergolesi and Galuppi by these rising stars of the HIP scene, I found it an exhilarating experience to witness Prandi and his fellows at work in one of their natural habitats, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta in Cremona. The acoustics of that sumptuous church provided an ideal frame for the Ghislieri group's renditions of Francesco Durante's Magnificat, Davide Perez’s Mottetto per San Michele Arcangelo and Emanuele d'Astorga's Stabat Mater, whose concertato passages required hypersensitive dynamic control and utter alertness from the choral singers and instrumentalists.

Most conference rooms did not boast the Duomo's excellent acoustic properties, however, and technical issues now and then marred the flow of sessions. BICBM 18 was, none the less, a feast when it came to its main location, the Palazzo Trecchi, whose ornate, neo-Gothic decorations reminded me of romantic opera sets, and whose lavish buffets were beyond compare. The 272-page programme book to which registrants were treated is surely one of the prettiest I have ever held in my hands, with its metal rings, generous font sizes and exquisite layout. And the convivial spirit of the conference made BICBM 18 a successful edition that will leave many lasting impressions. May more future Biennial International Conferences of Baroque Music cross borders!