Italy was in the early 17th century the place to be for young composers from northern Europe. Johann Hermann Schein’s poor health prevented him from leading a traveling existence, but even so he was together with Schütz and Scheidt a great pioneer of the vocal and instrumental innovations inspired by Monteverdi. Gli Angeli Genève perform with Schein’s volume of motets Israelis Brünnlein one of his most daring examples of expressive word painting. Schein felt conspicuously at home in this sensitive Italian style. One can even venture the thesis that after Schein protestant church music was never so steeped in pathos anymore, and that what Bach did a century later was actually rather reserved in comparison with Schein’s repertoire. A highly exciting oeuvre therefore, adequately dealt with by the talented soloists whose sound merges perfectly in Gli Angeli Genève.

Performers
Hana Blaziková, soprano | Aleksandra Lewandowska, soprano | Robert Getchell, tenor | Jan Kobow, tenor | Maude Gratton, organ | Hager Hanana, cello | Matthias Spaeter, lute | Stephan MacLeod, baritone & artistic direction

Due to unforeseen circumstances María Cristina Kiehr has aned her tour in the Benelux.

Les Buffardins is a group of musicians who are on friendly terms, having spent formative years with such pioneers of early music in the Low Countries as the Kuijken brothers, Anner Bijlsma, Gustav Leonhardt, and others. The ensemble specializes in the flute repertoire of the 18th century and has been named after Pierre Gabriel Buffardin, a famous flute virtuoso who taught Johann Joachim Quantz. It is to the latter that this concert is dedicated. Perhaps the name of Quantz does not immediately ring a bell, but his Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen (On Playing the Flute) from 1752 is considered a standard work of western music history. In addition to being a musician, author and flute builder Quantz was also a composer. You will hear two of his flute concertos. This programme will be complemented with music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Gottlieb Janitsch and Franz Benda. The artistic direction is in the hands of Frank Theuns, well-known as a brilliant soloist with Anima Eterna Brugge.

Performers
François Fernandez, violin | Maia Silberstein, violin | Frans Vos, viola | Rainer Zipperling, cello | Patxi Montero, double bass | Gigi Pinardi, theorbo | Siebe Henstra, harpsichord | Frank Theuns, traverso & artistic direction

In the 16th-17th century Claudio Monteverdi and Carlo Gesualdo managed to turn expressive texts into musically compelling madrigals: emotional sound paintings brimming with chromaticism, unusual harmonies and discordant notes. They paved the way for the baroque era. Exuberance is also the keyword in the madrigal genre of the late 20th century. Lucia Ronchetti invites you into the kitchen of quarrelling cooks and Luciano Berio pulls all the vocal stops in a hilarious work that makes eyes at the baroque affects. For the Neue Vocalsolisten from Stuttgart each programme, each composer is a challenge. Their unrelenting group dynamics energizes their continuous search for new forms of articulation and vocal techniques. The renaissance art of the madrigal had already been inviting enough for some time, and the confrontation with contemporary examples turns out to be mutually illuminating! Aided by its unique stage presence this ensemble will again send thrills traveling down your spine.

Performers
Sarah Sun, soprano | Susanne Leitz-Lorey, soprano | Truike van der Poel, mezzo soprano | Daniel Gloger, counter tenor | Martin Nagy, tenor | Guillermo Anzorena, baritone | Andreas Fischer, bass

Programme
Lucia Ronchetti: Anatra al sal 2000 | José María Sánchez-Verdú: New madrigal | Luciano Berio: A-Ronne | Claudio Monteverdi: Ecco mormorar l´onde, Rimanti in pace a la dolente e bella, Ohime se tanto amate | Carlo Gesualdo: O voi troppo felici, Se la mia morte brami, Tu m’uccidi, oh crudele, Al mio gioir il ciel si fa sereno

According to a strong legend Georg Friedrich Händel had his Water Music performed for the first time on the Thames, knowing that the English king George I had planned a boat trip on that day. We are in 1717 and Händel had been fired four years before by George. Through this stunt the composer wanted to come into favour again. Allegedly the ruse worked: the king appreciated the Water Music so much that he inflicted heavy duty on the musicians, requesting encores two times. Subsequently he summoned Händel to his boat for reconciliation purposes. In reality the story was probably more prosaic, but that does not diminish the fact that the Water Music was – and is! – a great joy to listen to. Baroque specialist Peter Van Heyghen and Les Muffatti – an ensemble in residence at AMUZ – will perform these rightly popular suites with their characteristic playfulness, balanced by their informed stylistic know-how. An absolute must!

The Dutch soprano Johannette Zomer and lute-player Fred Jacobs started their collaboration ten years ago with the acclaimed CD Splendore di Roma. Today their path leads again to the Eternal City. They engage on a quest for the kind of music that Italy had to offer when Pieter Paul Rubens sojourned there in the first decade of the 17th century. The madrigals of a composer with a touch of genius such as Sigismondo D’India no doubt reached the painter’s ears, for these songs were already sung by ‘everybody’ in Rome before 1609, according to reliable sources. In the same period Giulio Caccini’s Le Nuove Musiche was published, a collection of music that was to dramatically change the art of singing in Europe …

In early 17th-century England people were fond of ‘a good song’ and of dance music. It was an era in which music was steeped in references to exuberant court masques and to Shakespearean theatre. Many composers were for that matter affiliated with the famous theatrical company The King’s Men. John Dowland and Robert Johnson launched the century with their exquisite songs and their superb lute repertoire. Consort music was produced by Thomas Morley, Philip Rosseter and Richard Allison. They were succeeded by such composers as Henry Lawes and William Webb, first and foremost famous for their song books of outstanding quality. Eventually around 1650 we end up with John Playford, the successful editor of the handbook The Dancing Master. The ensemble Zefiro Torna celebrates its 15th anniversary this year and for this occasion rounds up the cream of the crop of the Belgian historical and traditional music scene for a delicious musical blend with the most marvellous sounds from the England of Elisabeth I and the Stuarts.