Tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen and his Baroque ensemble A nocte temporis have selected the most beautiful arias and instrumental music from the operas of Lully and his contemporaries. The theme of the concert is the ‘haute-contre’, a rare type of high tenor voice (not to be confused with the countertenor). In 17th and 18th century France, these voices played the leading operatic roles.

One such singer was Louis Gaulard Dumesny, who had been working as a cook until the composer Jean-Baptiste Lully heard him singing and was deeply impressed by his voice. He first took to the stage in 1677, and went on to play the leading role in all of Lully’s operas. He was an excellent actor with a powerful voice, but most astonishing of all is the fact that he never learned to read music and had to learn all his parts entirely by ear.

Reinoud Van Mechelen is also a man of extraordinary talents. “His clear, high, but never shrill tenor has quickly led to a glittering career in the world of Baroque music”, according to De Standaard (2017). We expect to be hearing a lot more from him in the future!

12 October, 2018 20:00 -- amuz

What did German cantatas sound like before Johann Sebastian Bach? The Swiss Baroque ensemble Gli Angeli Genève has been investigating Bach’s sources of inspiration. They have come across several brilliant cantatas for the unusual setting of two bass soloists, strings and continuo, by composers such as Heinrich Schütz, who pioneered the innovations of the Italian Baroque in Germany. Franz Tunder, conversely, is the branch on which the North German organ school bloomed. A group of violin virtuosos – Biber, Schmelzer and Becker – bring colour to this exquisite collection of enchantingly beautiful and finely wrought miniature musical dramas. The voices of leading soloists Stephan MacLeod and Benoît Arnould will leave no one unmoved.

25 October, 2018 21:00 -- amuz

A unique combination of traditional and classical styles is what makes 18th century Scottish music so compelling. Italian composers, specifically Arcangelo Corelli, had a great influence on composers such as William McGibbon, James Oswald, Robert McIntosh and many others. But all of them, without exception, remained true to the traditional Scottish themes, adapting them to the forms and harmonies of the Baroque style. “With superlative virtuosity, François Lazarevitch and his musicians whirl the listeners away, leaving them with their heads in the stars”, Classica wrote. Combining Scottish dance music, songs and airs with variations, Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien present an exceptional programme in which the poetry of early instruments is combined with the energy of traditional music.

26 October, 2018 21:00 -- amuz

Hana Blažíková, the Amsterdam Corelli Collective (the string orchestra that went down a storm at IYAP 2016) and Peter Van Heyghen join forces to present cantatas and motets by Georg Friedrich Handel for soprano and strings, including Salve Regina, HWV 241. They date from the period when Handel was working in Italy and adopting the Italian style as his own. The programme combines Handel with concerti grossi by Arcangelo Corelli and Pieter Hellendaal, one of Corelli’s followers in the Low Countries. Hellendaal’s modest oeuvre of Late Barque music is of surprisingly high quality. He wrote one of the most beautiful series of concerti grossi published in England in the 18th century, but today it is undeservedly one of the most neglected. Expect lashings of young talent on stage and music that has lost none of its freshness and spontaneity: an excellent combination!

28 October, 2018 15:00 -- amuz

Marc Vanscheeuwijck, a Flemish professor at the University of Oregon, tells the story of the cello: its history, repertoire and evolution from the late Renaissance to the late Baroque. Les Basses Réunies led by Bruno Cocset illustrate the story with music, presenting no less than ten different instruments on stage, both viols and cellos. Expect a varied and colourful voyage of discovery through different material, sounds, countries and composers, including Diego Ortiz, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Henry Purcell and Arcangelo Corelli. An unmissable lecture performance in words and music, along the same lines as the very popular afternoon with Tom Beghin about Beethoven and his pianos last season.

04 November, 2018 15:00 -- amuz

Joseph-Hector Fiocco composed his Lamentations in 1733. These magnificent hymns about pain, suffering and self-reproach, but also compassion, forgiveness, conversion and faith, were given a fixed place in the western liturgy, in Holy Week. Fiocco, born into an Italian family that had migrated to Brussels, was Kapellmeister at the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp and later at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels. He merges the French and Italian aesthetic with astonishing coherence, in terms of both harmony and melody. His moving, inventive melodies are infused with vitality: the result is both impressive and poignant.

08 November, 2018 21:00 -- amuz