The enabling condition for musical treasures to be hauled up is not to have pearl divers around, but rather researchers with vision and musicians with nerve! The Collegio Ghislieri, the Fondation Royaumont and the Gulbenkian Foundation go all out to carry the matins for the dead by Davide Perez, the Neapolitan music director of the Portuguese king Dom José I, from the 18th into the 21st century.

When Giulio Prandl discovered an original London edition of the Mattutino del Morti by Davide Perez in the library of Royaumont, on the spot a new music project was born.The premiere of this work, composed in Lisbon ca. 1770, happened during a pilgrimage to Nossa Senhora do Cabo. Thus it developed into a musical homage to deceased pilgrims, and later into an in memoriam for deceased musicians. The research in the source materials of this extraordinary composition resulted not only in a concert series with soloists Roberta Invernizzi and Salvo Vitale, but also in a new score edition and a CD recording! 

Performers
Roberta Invernizzi, soprano | Salvo Vitale, bass | Francesca Boncompagni, soprano | Karin Selva, soprano | Marta Fumagalli, alto | Luca Cervoni, tenor | Marco Bussi, bass | Giulio Prandi, artistic direction 

Programme
E.R.B. d’Astorga: Stabat Mater | D. Perez: Il Mattutino dei Morti

12 October, 2013 19:00 -- AMUZ

With his unequalled polyphonic lacework Antoine Brumel deserves to be recognized alongside his famous master Ockeghem and his illustrious contemporary Josquin des Prez. Capilla Flamenca selected a recently rediscovered mass and some of the best motets from Brumel’s oeuvre. In the history of polyphony Antoine Brumel is one of the pearls in the French crown: against the fearful competiton of Flemish polyphonists he had the nerve to defend the colours of his nation as one of the best composers of the Josquin generation. His most accomplished works belong to the religious repertoire, from which this concert culls an anthology. 

Performers
Marnix De Cat, altus | Rob Cuppens, altus | Tore Denys, tenor | Lieven Termont, baritone | Matthew Gouldstone, bass | Harry Vanderkamp, bass

Programma
A. Brumel: six part mass (WORLD PREMIERE), four part motets 

Please note: a different programme was announced in the seasonal brochure!

19 October, 2013 19:00 -- AMUZ

A game of recognition and surprise: that’s wat Ensemble Gilles Binchois promises in this voyage of discovery through various eras, styles and cultures, meandering between song and hymn. While searching for the soul of liturgical music of the western church, artistic director Dominique Vellard became intrigued by things in common from other oral traditions. South Indian repertoire and songs of Muslim signature offered very useful traces: kept alive
by virtue of oral transmission, this music illuminated the interpretaton and execution of age-old Christian songs with which they share their intention to carry across emotion and inspiration. Ensemble Gilles Binchois interweaves the three great musical and spiritual traditions into an intriguing interlacement that shapes a narrative about artistic and human recognition across all borders.

In cooperation with EUROPALIA.INDIA, Moussem, Nomadisch Kunstencentrum and BOZAR

Performers
Aruna Saïram, chant | Noureddine Tahiri, chant | Dominique Vellard, chant & oud | Anantha Krishnan Balaji, violin | Sai Gridhar Kuchibhotla, miridangam | Driss Berrada, oud | Baptiste Romain, fiddle | Keyvan Chemirani, zarb

25 October, 2013 19:00 -- AMUZ

In Bach’s days pipe organs were genuine music factories with orchestral proportions. Taking advantage of all stops with their gamut of sonorous and dynamic possibilities was up the alley of the Thomas cantor. Some of his contrapuntal creations are unraveled into separate parts by the saxophonists of BL!NDMAN, making the ingenious construction of the musical texture even more transparent.
Where Bach’s baroque brocade is pulled open, the separate voices of the composition can clear a path to the surface. Four saxophones follow these lines across the organ stops, including even the extremes of the sound spectrum: BL!NDMAN uses live electronics with a view to letting the deepest sounds of 32 foot organ pipes resound. From prelude to passacaglia to toccata and concerto, Bach’s organ repertoire gets infused with new life!

Performers
Koen Maas, soprano saxophone | Roeland Vanhoorne, alto saxophone | Piet Rebel, tenor saxophone | Raf Minten, baritone saxophone | Eric Schleichim, tubax, electronics & artistic direction

Programme
J.S. Bach/E. Sleichim (arr.): Passacaglia in c, BWV 582; Trio in d, BWV 583;
Prelude in g, BWV 546; Toccata in C, BWV 564; e.a. | P. Bartholomée: Ricercare

26 October, 2013 19:00 -- AMUZ

As artist in residence Andreas Staier enjoys certain privileges at AMUZ: several times a year he is entitled to present his favourite reprtoire and his most beautiful instruments at AMUZ. This time Staier tackles a monstre sacré: Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. Presenting other musical views on the same theme, the elite of romantic composers passes before the limelight!

Beethoven’s variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli is not only a compositional tour de force, it’s also a sample sheet of the expressive compass as well as offering unique insights into his brilliant piano style. This monumental 33-part series shows an adventurous Beethoven who does not refrain from exploring daring harmonies, creating a musical mirror of his complex personality through different styles and forms. Even the tiniest bits of Diabelli’s basic theme suffice as the enabling foundation for the most baffling constructions. Without trepidation Andreas Staier mounts this musical Parnassus, doctored the Introduzione of Beethoven’s masterpiece, and combined it with the penstrokes of other composers juggling the same musical material – Czerny, Schubert, Moscheles and Liszt, to name but a few.

Performer
Andreas Staier, fortepiano

Programme
L. van Beethoven: Diabelli-variaties, op. 120 | Variations on a waltz from Anton Diabelli by C. Czerny, F. Liszt, I. Moscheles, F. Schubert, J.N. Hummel, C. Kreutzer, F.X.W. Mozart a.o.

27 October, 2013 14:00 -- AMUZ

Languishing aubade, whining love lament, shimmering May song … it’s all there in the song repertoire of the Swiss polyphonist Ludwig Senfl! The juicy sounds of Swiss Middle High German rock along with Senfl’s contagious and touching earwigs.
As a child Ludwig Senfl lived in Zürich, but he built up his career in Germany, mainly at the court chapels of emperor Maximilian I and duke Wilhelm I of Munich. As a pupil and colleague of Heinrich Isaac, Senfl was perfectly grounded in the French-Flemish style, witness his monumental repertoire of masses and motets. Even more numerous are his German songs, often with autobiographical texts authored by himself. With the tenor as musical foundation, the choice of an articulate and expressive soloist is a must! With Tore Denys LA CACCIA managed to engage the perfect companion for a wonderful Schubertiade in a Renaissance vein!

Performers
Tore Denys, tenor | Patrick Denecker, recorders & artistic direction | Peter Declercq, recorders | Bernhard Stilz, recorders | Frank Liégeois, viol | Piet Stryckers, viol | Lies Wyers, viol | Floris De Rycker, lute

Programme
L. Senfl: songs and instrumental work

03 November, 2013 14:00 -- AMUZ