Violinist Guido de Neve has already been applying himself for quite some time to the research on the technique of violin playing in the 19th century. While searching for first editions of César Franck’s famous violin sonata he found a score announcing “C.Franck, 2nd sonata for piano and violin, adapted from the Symphony in D minor.” Guido de Neve managed to exhume this unknown sonata, and will reveal the work to you.

Ever since 2004 de Neve has been performing both on modern and on period violins. Together with Jan Michiels at the fortepiano he already executed Ludwig van Beethoven’s complete sonatas on period instruments. The Belgian top duo will now direct its attention to the oeuvre of César Franck, born in Liège. Michiels will for this purpose use a Steinway pianoforte from 1875.

Performers
Guido de Neve, violin | Jan Michiels, piano

02 December, 2012 14:00 -- AMUZ

The exceptionally fresh and straightforward Messiah of the Scottish Consort, executed by a reduced choir and a handful of powerful soloists, was awarded several prizes and was highly acclaimed with four stars in The Times, The Guardian and BBC Music Magazine.

Messiah was already a hit in Händel’s days. The first performances of this oratorio drew such full houses that the ladies were requested to refrain from wearing hoop skirts. The work’s success and the many performances of the music resulted in the circulation of a great many versions of the work. There is no single definitive version, for Händel regularly adapted the score for specific productions. Dunedin brings Händel’s Messiah in the socalled ‘Dublin version’. This is the version of the work’s first public performance (Dublin, 1742). Dunedin Consort does not deploy mighty choirs nor does it indulge in solos steeped in pathos, but exactly that purity makes their interpretation so beautiful!

Performers
Julia Doyle, soprano | Annie Gill, alto | Clare Wilkinson, alto| Nicholas Mulroy, tenor | Matthew Brook, bass | John Butt, artistic direction

 

06 December, 2012 20:00 -- AMUZ

On four Fridays throughout the season you are welcome to join us for dinner in the AMUZ foyer before the evening concert. Four Fridays, four concerts, four national cuisines which can be connected to the artists or the music of that evening … Dinner will be served on the following days at 6.00 p.m. Afterwards you can attend the evening concert.

On the occasion of the concert by La Verginella performing Italian madrigals, Gardeville offers you an Italian menu.

First course: Italian salad with mozzarella
Main course: pasta carbonara OF lasagne verde with spinach and emmentaler

Here you find an overview of all brunch and dinner concerts.

 

 

07 December, 2012 17:00 -- AMUZ

French soprano Claire Lefilliâtre is the signature voice of Le Poème Harmonique, but few people are aware of the energy and love with which she shapes her own projects. This is one of those self-styled concerts. Accompanied by four gambas and a harp, the singer brings madrigals by Marenzio, Lassus, Ferrabosco and Vecchi.

Madrigals from Italy were trendsetting in late 16th-century English music. There the genre was discovered through the very popular Musica Transalpina volumes with English translations of the songs. La Verginella combines these translated madrigals with English consort music from the same period.

I.c.w. Organisatie Oude Muziek

Performers
Claire Lefilliâtre, voice | Kaori Uemura,  viol | Sylvia Abramowicz, viol | Christine Plubeau, viol | Françoise Enock, viol | Eugène Ferré, lute

07 December, 2012 20:00 -- AMUZ

Philippe Pierlot, who hails from Liège, studied guitar and lute before applying himself to the viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken. At the moment when he graduated, he had already earned fame in the world of baroque music. Thus started a long, brilliant career on the international stages. AMUZ requested Pierlot to assemble a viol recital with music that leads us from the Low Countries to Paris.

Sweelinck, Couperin and Marais are the most famous names in the list of composers, but you will also hear works by Daniel Norcombe, viol player at the court of Albrecht and Isabella, and Nicolas Hotman, a Fleming who relocated to Paris, becoming a celebrity there. Even though only few of Pieter Cornet’s compositions have been preserved, his spunky fantasias bear witness to an exceptional talent.

I.s.m. Rubenshuis

Performers
Philippe Pierlot, viol | Julien Wolfs, harpsichord

Programme
Work by Daniel Norcombe, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Louis Couperin, Marin Marais e.a.

13 December, 2012 18:00 -- Rubenshuis

The young Hungarian pianist Petra Somlai is a rising star. Ever since her brilliant victory at the competition of the MAfestival in Bruges in 2010 this keyboard virtuoso has been uninterruptedly enjoying splendid bookings and high acclaim. AMUZ lets this remarkable talent prove her mettle with fantasia pieces by C.P.E. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Moscheles, Mendelssohn and Hummel. 

In baroque and classical music freely composed fantasias were popular works for keyboard. With the principal theme as a solid foundation there were lots of opportunities for exuberant variations in various colours, styles and characters! Somlai brings these improvisational scores – all by composers who lived in Vienna at some point – on two historical fortepianos: a classical model with five octaves and a later type with six and a half.

Performer
Petra Somlai, fortepiano

Programme
Work by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Ignaz Moscheles

16 December, 2012 14:00 -- AMUZ