Spread out all over downtown Antwerp many cultural centres, pubs with a stage, theatrecompanies and ensembles will entertain you for twenty-four hours with activities and happenings. Throughout that day and night you will be offered glimpses from backstage,surprising acts and the unrestricted enjoyment of music, theatre, dance and performance. AMUZ too will offer its contribution to the art-loving crowd. With one single wristband you will be admitted to all participating venues, for twentyfourhours. Further information will be provided in due time on www.amuz.be and www.24uurvanhetpodium.be.
Percussionist Koen Plaetinck plays as a baroque timpanist with ensembles such as La PetiteBande, Il Fondamento, Anima Eterna and Concerto Palatino, but he also warmly cherishes contemporary music. AMUZ invited him to put together a programme for marimba. Percussiontrio Triatu will be with him on stage.
Koen Plaetinck and the members of Triatu studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. Plaetinck pursued further studies with the world-famous Japanese marimba player KeikoAbe. She was instrumental in advising the construction of the Yamaha marimba and was elected as the first woman worldwide to a seat in the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame. Her compositions for the instrument, such as Variations on Japanese Children’s Songs, have become standard works of the marimba repertory.
Performers Koen Plaetinck, marimba | Frank Van Eycken, percussion | Dimitri Dumon, percussion | Björn Denys, percussion
Programme Miki Minoru: Time for Marimba | Keiko Abe: Variations on Japanese Children’s songs | Keiko Abe: Wind across mountains | Maki Ishii: Thirteen drums | Guo Wenjing: Drama (xi) | Keiko Abe: Memories of the seashore – The Wave
13 January, 2013 14:00
-- AMUZ
Markus Groh
20.15 Introduction by Sofie Taes (Dutch spoken)
Markus Groh – the first German pianist to be awarded First Prize in the Queen Elisabethcompetition – knows how to enchant his public with an intriguing cocktail of exuberant enthusiasm and poetical intimacy. This characteristic style makes him an ideal interpreter of the music of Franz Liszt, whose biography reads like a novel: half gipsy, half priest.
The volume Années de pèlerinage is based on travel impressions in Switzerland, where Liszt sought refuge with his mistress. Furthermore the programme features piano arrangements of operas by Wagner and Verdi. These transcriptions were once considered as second-ratemusic, but Brahms – no fan of Liszt, though – recognized that the latter’s opera paraphrases belonged to “the genuine classicism of the piano”. And history seems to endorse Brahms’s judgement: the music has been recently rediscovered and will probably stay as long on the repertoire as the original compositions.
Performer Markus Groh, piano
Programme Franz Liszt: Années de pèlerinage. Première année: Suisse | Franz Liszt: Isoldes Liebestod aus Tristan und Isolde [Wagner] | Franz Liszt: O du mein holder Abendstern, Rezitativ und Romanze aus der Oper Tannhäuser [Wagner] | Franz Liszt: Rigoletto: paraphrase de concert [Verdi]
“Lully is praised, Corelli is highly commendable, but only Telemann is exalted above allpraises”: this quote from music theoretician and contemporary Johann Mattheson gives an idea of the high esteem that Telemann was already held in during his lifetime. La Petite Bande will treat you to an exquisite selection of recorder music by the German composer, Bart Coen taking care of the solo part.
That Telemann was one of most prominent composers of his era, also transpires from the fact that the position of cantor at the Thomas Church in Leipzig was offered in 1722 to him first, and before Johann Sebastian Bach as second choice. Telemann declined, and the rest is history. Telemann left behind an immense oeuvre. His music marks the transition from baroque to Rococo, a more capricious style characterized by sudden mood swings and by amusical canvas with sensational colours.
Performers Bart Coen, recorder | Sigiswald Kuijken, artistic direction
20 January, 2013 14:00
-- AMUZ
Amandine Beyer
20.15 Introduction by Simon Van Damme (Dutch spoken)
Amandine Beyer has over the past years been earning the highest praise for her enchanting interpretation of Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin. The extremely difficult scores belong to the most intense and sensual ones that Bach ever wrote. With her performance the passionate French virtuoso adequately honours the genius of the master.
Refined counterpoint and refreshing dances mixed with a generous sprinkling of virtuosity: the sonatas and partitas are for the artist and for the public alike a genuine challenge of their capacity to concentrate, resulting in a purifying effect. With her brilliant recordings of these pieces Beyer made the heart of quite a few reviewers beat faster: “The most terrific thing is that Beyer does not only make Bach sing, but also dance to boot. Respect.” (De Standaard).
