The Italian soprano Roberta Invernizzi has often already teamed up with harpsichordist and conductor Fabio Bonizzoni: she was one of the fixtures in his performances and recordings of early Händel cantatas with La Risonanza. In this open master class both musicians share their mastery with young singers and harpsichordists/continuo players. Together they tackle 17th- and 18th-century Italian solo cantatas by composers such as Girolamo Frescobaldi, Claudio Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi, Alessandro Scarlatti and the young Georg Friedrich Händel. Although the singer and the accompanist play a different role in this repertoire, even so they need to tell the same story together. From their experience Invernizzi and Bonizzoni are in the best position to railroad this quest in the right direction. You are welcome to follow the whole process, getting an inside scoop of the rehearsal process.

in collaboration with Musica, impulse centre for music

Professors
Roberta Invernizzi & Fabio Bonizzoni

More information about the masterclass on www.musica.be

20 November, 2010 12:00 -- AMUZ

No better guides for Italy than two musicians from that country: Fabio Bonizzoni and Roberta Invernizzi, selected for their combined recital compositions that can be linked to the most fabulous heritage cities of Italy, from Venice over Padua and Cremona to Rome, Ferrara, Bari and Naples. While the keyboard genius Girolamo Frescobaldi and the master of the madrigal, Claudio Monteverdi, get pride of place on this programma, Giulio Cesare Netti is probably less known. Nonetheless this late 17th-century keyboard virtuoso, who died young, was organist at the court chapel of Naples and choirmaster of the Tesoro di San Gennaro in the same city. A real outsider in this company is Barbara Strozzi, baroque composer and singer. The casting of her compositions and several examples of textual playfulness around her own name suggest that she no doubt sang most of the songs herself. With Roberta Invernizzi this lady of quality has for sure found her match.

Performers
Roberta Invernizzi, soprano | Fabio Bonizzoni, harpsichord

Programme
Barbara Strozzi, Claudio Monteverdi, Giulio Cesare Netti & Girolamo Frescobaldi

 

21 November, 2010 14:00 -- AMUZ

Il Gardellino establishes itself comfortably in AMUZ by the end of November for a new recording of Bach cantatas and of lamentations by the Bohemian composer Jan Dismas Zelenka. With this splendid music at their fingertips, the ensemble lets you share these compositions of the high baroque, all of them dating back to the 1720s. While the Bach cantatas hardly need an introduction, chances are that you are very curious about Zelenka’s oeuvre. Parallel to Bach’s musical career in Leipzig, Zelenka’s professional life developed mainly in Dresden, where he was a musician at the court orchestra. Unlike Bach he did not leave behind a stunningly extensive repertoire. He did produce some unforgettable masterpieces, though: the Missa Sanctae Caeciliae, the Melodrama de Sancto Wenceslao, the six sonatas for oboes, bassoon and basso continuo, and the lamentations. A discovery for the true music aficionado!

Performers
Damien Guillon, countertenor | Marcus Ullmann, tenor | Lieven Termont, bass | Jan De Winne, traverso & artistic direction | Marcel Ponseele, oboes & artistic direction

Programme
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantate Schauet doch und sehet, ob irgend ein Schmerz sei, BWV 46 – Cantate Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben, BWV 102 | Jan Dismas Zelenka: Lamentationes pro die Mercurii sancto
 

26 November, 2010 20:00 -- AMUZ

Sicily was a veritable melting pot of cultures in the Middle Ages. Until the 9th century the island was Greek-Byzantine territory, then Arabic, and in the 11th century the Norman French took over, establishing in Palermo the centre of their Mediterranean empire. With a view to meeting the spiritual and social needs in his multicultural kingdom, Roger II built the Cappella Palatina in 1140. The chapel had a sanctuary where the Byzantine and French- Norman liturgies were celebrated and a nave with Arabic decorations that served to receive non-Christians. Graindelavoix managed for the first time to pull together all sources and the research available around this intriguing period of history and took advantage of them to design a pioneering concert programme inspired by the singing traditions of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo.

in collaboration with Moussem Festival 2010 / Nomadisch Kunstencentrum Moussem & BOZAR

28 November, 2010 14:00 -- AMUZ

Edgar Allan Poe’s oeuvre has been an inexhaustible source for filmmakers for quite some time already, not only because there is something timeless in his portraiture of disturbed minds, but – more prosaically – because his work is in the public domain and free from copyright. The HERMESensemble singled out Epstein’s poetical horror movie La Chute de la Maison Usher, a masterpiece of the expressionist silent movie from 1928, for which the Italian Ivan Fedele wrote a contemporary soundtrack in 1995. AMUZ felt it was a good idea to request HERMES on the occasion of their tenth anniversary to do a rerun of this production on its own turf. Cult movie with live music: the recipe for a promising evening brimming with wonderful sounds and images! And what’s more: for their anniversary HERMES pampers  you with the world premiere of eTz, an ensemble work by the young Flemish composer Hanne Deneire. 
in collaboration with Cinema Zuid

Performers
Mireille Capelle, soprano | Marco Angius, artistic direction

Programme
Hanne Deneire: eTz | Ivan Fedele: La Chute de la Maison Usher | Jean Epstein: La Chute de la Maison Usher (film, 1928)

03 December, 2010 20:00 -- AMUZ

In his madrigals Claudio Monteverdi engages on a quest for human feelings. Text and music seem inextricably bound up with each other in those songs: the composer dominates the interpretation of the texts by musical interventions and accents. But is this music so unambiguous after all? Director Caroline Petrick thrashed out Monteverdi’s madrigals and made a performance about desire, death and power. The result is an extravagant assemblage that was acclaimed in the press as ‘imposing’ and ‘undeniably beautiful’. In a game of watching and being watched, the excellent singers search for a balance between body and vanity. Visual interventions enhance the spatial tension, photography plays with this apparently immoveable space. Madrigals as still lifes of the soul.
A production of Muziektheater Transparant and Bijloke Muziekcentrum Ghent in collaboration with B’Rock.

Performers
Francesca Lombardi, Marivi Blasco soprano | Gunther Vandeven, countertenor | Stephan Van Dyck, Tore Denys, tenor | Toni Fajardo, bass | Caroline Petrick, concept & stage direction | Skip Sempé, musical advice | Wim Maeseele, chitarrone & artistic direction

05 December, 2010 14:00 -- AMUZ