The Portuguese success formula Concertos para Bebés enables babies, tiny tots and toddlers to familiarize themselves with classical music. The first time ensemble Musicalmente moored in Antwerp in the summer of 2011 was a great hit. This time the Belgian ensemble Encantar will contribute to this interactive performance for the littlest ones. Booking fast is in order!

The Concertos para Bebés happen on a play area in the middle of the hall. The musicians are surrounded by cushions for the young audience and their parents. Most children stay comfortably on the lap of mom or dad, but adventurous tots also venture among the musicians. Perfectly OK! Just like singing along, clapping hands, and last but not least: discovering actively! In keeping with the festival theme of Laus Polyphoniae 2012 the musicians bring classical music from the Adriatic Sea area.

I.c.w. Musica, Impulscentrum voor muziek

Performers
Musicalmente | Encantar | Paulo Lameiro, artistic direction
 

02 September, 2012 14:00 -- Theaterzaal Tutti Fratelli

Faithful to custom AMUZ offers you a well-assorted festival menu. Evidently Laus Polyphoniae will enable you this time to sample Adriatic cuisine! Every evening the focus will be on a different region or city, among others the Napolian cuisine.

First course: Rotolo alla ricotta (pasta dish with ricotta and aubergines)
Main course: choice of spaghetti alle vongole OR melanzane (oven dish of aubergine in mozzarella and fresh basilicum).

The festival menu will be served in the AMUZ foyer at 6.00 p.m.. Ideal to combine with the Napolitan concert program of the evening, performed by the artist in residence Daedalus.

Concert tickets are not included. You are advised to make a reservation.

02 September, 2012 16:00 -- AMUZ

The final concert of Laus Polyphoniae is a musical tournament between venomous lovers. Pomponio Nenna and Carlo Gesualdo were both scions of prominent, noble families and were worthy opponents. Despite their mutual respect, their rivalry soon got them on edge, resulting in accusations of plagiarism. Daedalus lets both composers duel on the festival stage!

Was it Nenna who inspired Gesualdo, or the other way around? Recent research favours the latter option. However, the whole truth will never become totally clear, Nenna’s second and third book with madrigals in five parts having been lost. Or did Gesualdo successfully manage to interfere with their publication? Despite the allegations of plagiarism, Nenna did succed in building a fine career in Rome after having escaped from Naples and the influential Gesualdo.

Performers
Monika Mauch, soprano | Ulrike Hofbauer, soprano | Pascal Bertin, alto | Josep Benet, tenor | Jan Van Elsacker, tenor | Josep Cabré, baritone | Philippe Roche, bass | Sylvia Abramowicz, viol | Tore Eketorp, viol | Roberto Festa, viol | Brigitte Gasser, viol | Markus Tapio, viol | Sylvia Tecardi, viol

Programme
Work by Pomponio Nenna and Carlo Gesualdo

02 September, 2012 18:00 -- AMUZ

Pelléas et Mélisande Maurice Maeterlinck wrote a play that immediately became the talk of the town. The fairy-tale story of the later Nobel Prize winner for literature relates how the mysterious Mélisande is found in a forest by prince Golaud. Her arrival causes a fatal triangular relationship. The intriguing story inspired Claude Debussy to his only (completed) opera.

Music theatre company Transparant brings an intimistic chamber music version that does justice to the poetic power of the piece. In a plain video décor the singers represent the characters. Flanked by the instrumentalists of Oxalys they carry the audience away on an interior journey steeped in dark images. A story about a girl who gets out of touch with her origins and seems to attract death in her quest for love.

Production: Muziektheater Transparant & Oxalys. Coproduction: Concergebrouw Brugge & Maeterlinck Jaar Gent 2012 & Bergen International Opera. With the support of La Monnaie – De Munt Vlaamse Opera

Performers
Annelies Van Parys arrangement | Vivian Cruz movie | Wouter Van Looy direction | Marit Strindlund musical direction | Mijke Sekhuis Mélisande | Florian Just Pelléas | Andreas Jankowitsch Golaud | Marie-Noële Vidal Geneviève | Knut Stiklestad Arkel | Matthis Perreaux Yniold

29 September, 2012 19:00 -- AMUZ

The Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey recorded Bach’s Cello Suites already twice, in 1991 and 1998. Particularly the second recording is still regarded as the reference par excellence by many connoisseurs, but even so Wispelwey’s exclusive Belgian release concert will offer you the privilege of discovering his third recording, made in June for the Belgian label Evil Penguin Classic.
Although Wispelwey was already exceptionally steeped in the Suites, nevertheless for this anniversary recording – on 25 September he turns 50 – he requested the assistance of two eminent Bach experts, John Butt (Glasgow) and Lawrence Dreyfus (Oxford). Together with him they tried to solve the numerous mysteries that still surround the Suites, taking advantage of the unique historical ambiance of the University of Oxford. At 7:30 p.m. you will be shown the TV documentary that resulted from this adventure. At 9:00 p.m. Pieter will play three Suites live on his Rombouts cello from 1710. The tickets will sell like hot cakes!

Programme
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello Suite No.1 in G, BWV 1007 | Cello Suite No.4 in Eb, BWV 1010 | Cello Suite No.3 in C, BWV 1009

05 October, 2012 19:00 -- AMUZ

Inspired and inspiring, from the first second. The German pianist Tobias Koch plays Schumann as he ought to be played to do justice to the composer: in a revolutonary, romantic, virtuoso and emotional way, but without kitsch or presumption. In this recital Koch offers some works from Schumann’s late career. 

The year 1848, marked by the European revolutions, was one of the most productive for Schumann. That year he composed his nine pieces for piano solo, entitled Waldscenen and the Album für die Jugend with music for young piano students. At that moment the composer lived in Dresden, but he did not feel at ease with the conservative public of that city. In 1850 he relocated to Düsseldorf, having been appointed as municipal director of music there. In this period he composed the other works on the programme, one of them dedicated to Schumann’s wife Clara, a highly talented concert pianist herself.

Performer
Tobias Koch, piano

Programme
Robert Schumann: Drei Fantasiestücke, opus 111 – Selectie from Album für die Jugend, opus 68 – Thema mit Variationen für das Pianoforte – Waldscenen, opus 82

 

07 October, 2012 13:00 -- AMUZ