It was in Germany in the 18th century that the building of clavichords reached for the first time high points of craftmanship and refinement, comparable to the harpsichord and other keyboard instruments. Until that period the builders – generally furniture makers, organists or monks – had remained anonymous. Now specialists appeared on the boards, genuine masters of the craft with well-equipped workshops and superior construction techniques. Small wonder that Germany produced a host of excellent keyboard composers, e.g. Kirnberger, a pupil of Johann Sebastian Bach, an artistically inspired and devoted musician, and one of the most important theoreticians of his era to boot. Goldberg was on friendly terms both with father Johann Sebastian as with son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Whether Bach’s Goldberg variations were truly composed for the young virtuoso is today considered questionable, but at any rate his talent as a performer must have been staggering. Menno Van Delft brings the three gentlemen together again, in the company of their musical ancestor Buxtehude.

Performers
Menno Van Delft, clavichord

11 March, 2012 10:00 -- AMUZ

For the festive conclusion of KLAVECHORDinPRIMETIME AMUZ would call on a legend: Gustav Leonhardt. Sadly the Dutch great master passed away on January 16th in his house by the canals in Amsterdam. Menno Van Delft, Miklós Spányi and Kris Verhelst now bring a tribute concert and have selected a musical programma closely linked to Leonhardt. You will also hear the premiere of a new piece written entirely in the old style, the only style that Leonhardt liked to hear.

11 March, 2012 14:00 -- AMUZ

“Qui de sentiment ne fait, son dit et son chant contrefait.” Guillaume de Machaut, maybe the most important composer and poet of 14th-century Europe, did not mean anything else than what the ancient Greeks already knew, namely that a text can only have a certain impact if it is rendered efficiently. Declamation goes back to precedents in the rhetoric of the ancient world and in a long extant singing tradition of medieval Europe. In the Muslim lands, too, the heritage of the ancient world had an enormous influence in the field of music as well. Capilla Flamenca invited a number of musicians from Iran with a view to confronting the ars nova and ars subtilior of composers such as Philippe de Vitry, Guillaume de Machaut and Johannes Ciconia with classical Persian music. The latter repertoire will be taken care of by Taghi Akhbari and his musicians. Ensemble Delgocha arose as a meeting of people with a passion for Iranian musical tradition. Their subtle, artistic and tasteful music is based on oral tradition. In short, the best of two worlds will converge in this extraordinary and border-crossing concert!

I.s.m. Moussem Nomadic Arts Centre

Performers
Taghi Akhbari, singer

On the UNESCO website, you can read more about Iranian music as a UNESCO History Project.

This concert was originally planned with Madjid Khaladj Ensemble. Since they are unable to attend, Capilla Flamenca decided to cooperate with Ensemble Delgocha. See here for more information about Taghi Akhbari, leader of Ensemble Delgocha.

 

17 March, 2012 20:00 -- AMUZ

Frankenstein!! is a sparkling show for the whole family, with pleasantly unsettling music by the Viennese composer H.K.Gruber. The story is made up of mocking children’s rhymes full of monsters, cannibals, rats and superheroes. Not only Frankenstein himself, but also figures such as Dracula, Superman, Batman and Robin appear on stage. Actor/singer Pieter Embrechts takes care of the role of the chansonnier and the Spectra Ensemble, consisting of 14 musicians, conjure up both refined and ridiculous sounds from their instruments. The whole is visually spiced with drawings by Sebastiaan Van Doninck, whose images are hand in glove with these absurd and funny sounds. Van Doninck also made the illustrations in the children’s book Welterusten iedereen (Goodnight, everybody) by Edward van de Vendel, serving as the basis for the second part of the show. Composer Joris Blanckaert made a soundtrack steeped in an atmosphere evoking the nocturnal dreams from the story. A refreshing show for ear and eye, for young and old!

Performers
Pieter Embrechts, voice | Jan Vercruysse, flute | Kris Deprey, (bass) clarinet | Pieter Jansen, violin | Veerle Van Gorp, violin | Bram Bossier, viola | Lieven Baert, cello | Luc Van Loo, piano | Frank Van Eycken, percussion | Wim Van Volsem, bassoon | Rik Vercruysse, horn | Serge Rigaumont, trumpet | Kristof Roseeuw, double bass | Filip Rathé, artistic direction

Programme
H.K. Gruber: Frankenstein!! | Joris Blanckaert: Droom-Zappen

18 March, 2012 14:00 -- AMUZ

In 1904 Claude Debussy was commissioned by the Paris instrument builder Pleyel to compose music for a new test model of a chromatic harp. Debussy obliged with his Danse sacrée and Danse profane. The manufacture of this chromatic type of harp was discontinued soon afterwards because it was too cumbersome and too energy-consuming to tune, but Debussy’s Danses nonetheless turned out to become the best known and most often performed music for harp in the concert repertoire. The string section of Anima Eterna combine the Danses with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The latter composer’s Tallis Fantasia is still frequently used in TV programmes and films. Vaughan Williams wrote the fantasy especially for the Norman architecture of Gloucester Cathedral, but also at AMUZ this grand music will sound perfectly.

Performers
Marjan de Haer, harp | Jos van Immerseel, artistic direction

Programme
Pjotr Iljitsj Tchaikovsky: Serenade, op. 48 | Edward Elgar: Serenade, op. 20 – Sospiri, op. 70 | Claude Debussy: Danses pour harpe et orchestre à cordes | Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis for double string orchestra

22 March, 2012 20:00 -- AMUZ

The famous libretto by Barthold Heinrich Brockes entitled Der für die Sünde der Welt gemarterte und sterbende Jesus was used for settings by such composers as Telemann, Händel, Mattheson, Stölzel and Fasch. However, the first one to set his text to music was Reinhard Keiser, one of the most famous German composers of his days. His marvellous, opera-like music dates back to the same year as the libretto, 1712. In an early stage it was performed at the home of Brockes. Peter Van Heyghen, a specialist in the rediscovery of forgotten masterpieces, proudly presents the Belgian premiere of Keiser’s passion at AMUZ. Exactly three hundred years after the work’s genesis, this is one of the very first performances in modern times! A formidable challenge which the baroque orchestra Les Muffatti eagerly accepts together with Vox Luminis, a young vocal ensemble that has been rapidly building up a solid reputation in the field of early music.

Performers
Peter Van Heyghen, artistic direction

25 March, 2012 13:00 -- AMUZ