After the havoc wreaked by typhoon Haiyan, AMUZ and Picture for a Cause join forces with a view to helping the Philippine Islands. You are cordially invited to a benefit concert of top-notch baroque music, performed by the brilliant  Italian ensemble Il Giardino Armonico. The evening will be hosted by Gene Bervoets.

Small wonder that Il Giardino Armonico is the favourite ensemble of world stars such as Cecilia Bartoli and Daniele De Niese. The musicians exude an exceptional joy of playing. For many music lovers this group is simply the most outstanding baroque orchestra. Conductor Giovanni Antonini founded his ensemble in 1985, Il Giardino Armonico was the first Italian orchestra playing exclusively on period instruments. Italian music culture was not yet hospitable to the historically informed movement, but Antonini managed to win his compatriots over. In this concert he will entrance you with music by Vivaldi, Purcell, Scarlatti and von Biber.  

Picture for a Cause is a highly motivated team of young people with an international heart who want to make a difference in aid provided from a distance. Some of them have Filipino roots. This organisation is busy these days with professional portrait  photography of people who show their heart for the Filipinos. The pictures will be projected in AMUZ, and subsequently they will be collected in a traveling exhibition. You too will be given an opportunity to be photographed professionally for the good cause! No need of reservation, just bring along a € 10 banknote.

Programme
G. Ph. Telemann: Concerto in g voor blokfluit, twee violen & basso continuo | H.I.F. von Biber: Partita voor twee violen & basso continuo | A. Vivaldi: Triosonate voor twee violen & basso continuo ‘La Follia’ RV 63 | A. Scarlatti: Sonate in c voor blokfluit, twee violen & basso continuo | H. Purcell: Sonate in Bes voor twee violen & basso continuo | A. Vivaldi, Concerto voor blokfluit, twee violen & basso continuo ‘La Notte’ RV 104

In partnership with Haiyan 21-21 & Picture for a Cause

07 December, 2013 20:00 -- AMUZ

Antonio Vivaldi composed no less than 253 concertos for the violin, and a matching amount for other or multiple soloists! Also the recorder gets pride of place more than once: like in his concertos for violin, Vivaldi explores the playing techniques and the coloration of the instrument, sounding out the formal boundaries and the musical opportunities of the genre. Vivaldi managed in his concertos to combine musical inventiveness with attractiveness:
sharp musical dialogues and virtuoso fireworks galore! Some of these concertos came down to us under a nickname, La Notte, for example, characterized by slumbers, dreams and spooky things. Furthermore Il Giardino Armonico chose a sonata by Vivaldi’s fellow citizen Alessandro Scarlatti, a Partita of that other genius of the violin, Biber, and a trio sonata by Purcell – the figure-head of British baroque.

Performers
Il Giardino Armonico | Giovanni Antonini, artistic direction 

Programme
G. Ph. Telemann: Concerto in g voor blokfluit, twee violen & basso continuo | H.I.F. von Biber: Partita voor twee violen & basso continuo | A. Vivaldi: Triosonate voor twee violen & basso continuo ‘La Follia’ RV 63 | A. Scarlatti: Sonate in c voor blokfluit, twee violen & basso continuo | H. Purcell: Sonate in Bes voor twee violen & basso continuo | A. Vivaldi,Concerto voor blokfluit, twee violen & basso continuo ‘La Notte’ RV 104

08 December, 2013 14:00 -- AMUZ

Brigitte Lesne browsed through the oeuvre of polyphonist Gilles Binchois, dived into medieval manuscripts with Gregorian and many-voiced repertoire, and emerged again brilliant music. From Binchois – one of the masters of the 15th-century polyphonic song – no chansons were chosen this time but sacred works: three-part pearls that even intensify the brilliance of his musical heritage. Anonymous Christmas songs and liturgical songs in unison from the days of Binchois sketch the canvas of his life and work: late medieval England. Accompanied by the bells in various tunings that have become their trademark, the singers of Discantus strike out upon new paths in the field of Renaissance music! Specialist Jean-Yves Haymoz checked interpretation and pronunciation, approvingly …

Performers
Discantus | Brigitte Lesne, artistic direction

Programme
G. Binchois: motets | Anonimus: polyphone christmas songs; 15th-century gregorian chant

14 December, 2013 20:00 -- AMUZ

Restoring purity to music as well as serving the composer with the realization of his musical wishes: that is the mission of the Italian (forte)piano trio Voces Intimae. On the programme: a brilliant trio by Mendelssohn that made Schumann rejoice without restraint (“he is the Mozart of the 19th century!”), and a jewel from the oeuvre of Louis Théodore Gouvy.
Even for Voces Intimae Gouvy was once a great unknown. Yet what a discovery! Born in the area of the French-Prussian border, Gouvy managed to combine the best of both traditions in his music: the solidity, power and structural quality of the German repertoire merge with the cosmopolitan, inventive, curious, bubbling character of French music! Equal billing is in order for Gouvy’s superb Trio with work for piano solo by Schumann and a lively Trio by Mendelssohn – one of the most favourite works from his chamber music repertoire!

Perfomers
Luigi De Filippi, violin | Sandro Meo, cello | Riccardo Cecchetti, fortepiano

Programme
T. Gouvy: Pianotrio in a, op. 18 | R. Schumann: Fantasiestücke, op. 88 | F. Mendelssohn: Pianotrio in d, op. 49

 

15 December, 2013 14:00 -- AMUZ

As calibration of the catholic year Christmas appears to be a source of inspiration and creativity for composers of all times, anywhere in the world. And this music of hope and joy has all the more impact when it is sung with united forces. No better choice, then, for a Christmas concert than this sampling of more than ten centuries of Christmas repertoire by the Choir of New College Oxford, one of the most renowned choirs of the United Kingdom – where harmonious and glowing part-singing belongs to the national DNA, as it were. The roots of this choir reach back to the 14th century, when one William of Wykeham established a foundation at the ‘new’ college of Oxford. Ever since, the choir has been adding lustre to the services in the college chapel, while concurrently earning international fame as a concert ensemble. For the first time at AMUZ, with Christmas carols from all the corners of the world – from the Appalachians to Czechia, from Gregorian procession hymns to infectious carol, and from Byrd to Bach!

In cooperation with Organisatie Oude Muziek

Performers
Choir of New College Oxford | Edward Higginbottom, artistic direction

Programme
Traditional Christmas carols | work of T. Tallis, M. Praetorius, J.S. Bach, J.F.C. Bach, A. Carter, J.P. Sweelinck e.a.

21 December, 2013 20:00 -- AMUZ

The completion of a full recording of Claudio Monteverdi’s collections of madrigals – the titanic task set by Paul Agnew and Les Arts florissants – is further pursued with great élan. Book six is coming up now: a key work from Monteverdi’s oeuvre, and an unparalleled musical expression of human passions, pains, anxieties and desires.
When Monteverdi commenced as choir master of the Venetian San Marco basilica, he had secured one of the most prestigious positions of Europe. Shortly afterwards he published a sixth volume in his impressive series of madrigal volumes. Concurrently this was a coping stone of his period in Mantua, and an upbeat to his new life in the city of the doges. While Monteverdi still hesitates to make the move into the instrumental concertato style, even so there is already a touch of Venice audible in those works that alternate compact, chordal passages with solos and duets.

Les Arts Florissants presents the seventh book of madrigals from Monteverdi in deSingel on thursday 22 May 2014. More info on www.desingel.be.

Performers
Les Arts Florissants | Paul Agnew, artistic direction

Programme
C. Monteverdi: Il sesto libro de madrigali

12 January, 2014 14:00 -- AMUZ